The Price of Government Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis

by Osborne, David; Hutchinson, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780465053643
• ISBN10: 0465053645
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-21
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

In a time when government leaders are searching for solutions to seemingly intractable fiscal problems, The Price of Government is a clear, step-by-step roadmap for change, offering concrete strategies drawn from the authors' combined thirty years of experience leading and advising public institutions. It offers a new way to look at government spending-and a new way to think about how government should work-including a revolutionary new approach to budgeting that has already spread to more than a dozen states, cities, counties and school districts. Book jacket.

Author Biography

David Osborne, author of Laboratories of Democracy, is a frequent contributor to the Washington Post, Governing, and other publications. He is also a consultant to state and local governments.Ted Gaebler, former city manager of Visalia, California, and Vandalia, Ohio, is president of the Gaebler Group, a division of MRC, a public-sector management-consulting firm, in San Rafael, California. Peter Hutchinson is founder and President of The Public Strategies Group. He previously served as Commissioner of Finance in Minnesota, where he introduced several innovations in state budgeting and fiscal management. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Preface	p. xii
Introduction	p. 1
Smarter Budgeting: The Five Decisions That Matter Most
Getting a Grip on the Problem	p. 23
Setting the Price of Government	p. 41
Setting the Priorities of Government: Buying Results That Citizens Value (at the Price They Are Willing to Pay)	p. 62
Smarter Sizing: It Does Matter
Strategic Reviews: Divesting to Invest	p. 97
Consolidation: Smart Mergers	p. 112
Rightsizing: The Right Work, the Right Way, with the Right Staff	p. 132
Smarter Spending: Buying Value, Squeezing Costs
Buying Services Competitively	p. 149
Rewarding Performance, Not Good Intentions	p. 163
Smarter Customer Service: Putting Customers in the Driver's Seat	p. 191
Don't Buy Mistrust-Eliminate It	p. 210
Smarter Management: Reforming How Government Works on the Inside to Improve Its Performance on the Outside
Using Flexibility to Get Accountability	p. 227
Make Administrative Systems Allies, Not Enemies	p. 245
Smarter Work Processes: Tools from Industry	p. 272
Smarter Leadership: Managing Change from the Radical Center
Leadership for a Change	p. 307
Politics: Truth, Lies, and the Campaign for Public Support	p. 326
Notes	p. 337
Index	p. 361
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