The state’s fiscal crisis is bringing more and more calls for a serious look at the way government delivers services to ensure that things are done as efficiently as possible. Most people who run for-profit businesses understand that government can’t be run exactly like their businesses because government has to provide many services that no one else wants to provide. What they can’t understand, however, is why many government operations cannot utilize the same efficiency tools they use in their own operations.
There have been numerous endeavors designed to streamline governments at various levels and make them more efficient and less costly. (The General Assembly’s Commission on Enhancing Agency Outcomes preliminary list of recommendations can be found here). While those efforts may have provided some positive results, most would agree that government bureaucracies have a long way to go in reducing waste and inefficiencies from their operations.
Business Week has an interesting article on President Obama’s move to make the federal government more efficient. Time will tell whether it works or not, but compared to the federal bureaucracy, Connecticut state government should seem almost easy to fix. The key, as it often is, is the political will to make it happen.