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Governing for Results: State Performance Reporting and Budgeting

Accountability In The States

National Conference of State Legislatures
Urban Institute

From 1998 to 2000, The National Conference of State Legislatures and the Urban Institute cooperated in a project to examine the state procedures that focus on results-focused practices in legislating, budgeting, planning, managing programs, and communicating results. This included an examination of any result-focused practices in strategic planning, budgeting, managing program activities, performance/incentive contracting, and employee incentives. The project also tracked state practices that encourage local governments to track performance, report it to their citizens, and involve citizens in the process.

The goal of the project was to document practices, identify lessons learned from past state experiences and, on the basis of these findings, develop recommendations for legislatures and governors.

The project examined the experiences of five states that have had several years of extensive experience with results-focused government. In addition, it examined particular efforts by other states that provide useful information in only one or two of the above practices.

This resource is one phase of the joint project of NCSL and the Urban Institute to report on state progress in governing for results. Work on this project was funded in part by the Urban Institute under a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. NCSL acknowledges its gratitude for this support, and for the advice and suggestions provided by Harry Hatry and Blaine Liner of the Urban Institute.

Many legislative fiscal staff and executive budget office staff have assisted in identifying appropriate documents and in making suggestions for increasing the usefulness of these pages. Any further suggestions from users will be greatly appreciated. The site is under construction, and additional states will be added, as well as links to sites other than state governments.

Links to state performance budgeting information, other than states' pages

• The Urban Institute published three studies based on the project:
  • State Approaches to Governing-for-Results and Accountability, Blaine Liner, Pat Dusenbury and Elisa Vinson (December 2000).
  • Citizens and Local Performance Management, Pat Dusenbury, Blaine Liner and Elisa Vinson (September 2000).
  • Making Results-Based State Government Work, Blaine Liner, Harry Hatry, Elisa Vinson, Pat Dusenbury, R. Allen, S. Bryant, Ronald Snell (April 2001).
  • State Governing-for-Results Activities (agency strategic plan development required, outcomes measurement/reporting required, efficiency measures reporting required, performance measures required, performance information used in the budget process.)
• NCSL published Governing for Results in the States: Ten Lessons for Legislators by Blaine Liner.
• The report Lessons Learned by Ron Snell is based on interviews carried out with legislators and staff in Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon and Texas in the course of 1999. Its appendix reports specific responses from legislators and staff to the question "What recommendations would you make to other states?"
• The Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability has a survey of legislative oversight entities. Ensuring the Public Trust: How Program Policy Evaluation Serves State Legislatures (July 2001) is a joint publication by the National Legislative Program Evaluation Society and the (former) NCSL Fiscal Affairs Committee.

Links to state performance budgeting pages

The information by state is organized in the following categories. If a given category does not appear on a state page, that means no documents appropriate for that category have been identified on the state's web site.

Overview provides a short statement of the existing requirements for governing for results in the state.

Studies provides links to any broad discussions of governing for results in the state, which may include academic discussions or reports intended for legislators or administrators. This section does not include manuals or instructions.

Statutory Requirements provides a link to legislation authorizing or requiring governing by results. In some states the authorization is not statutory but is embodied in session or temporary law.

Agencies and Programs includes links to executive and legislative fiscal offices, any other agencies that have supervisory or review responsibilities concerning governing for results, and programs or activities that impinge upon governing for results.

Manual/Instructions provides links to manuals dealing with the specific topic of governing by results and to executive instructions for preparing agency budget requests if those address such issues as strategic planning or performance measurement. All such material is specific to the state.

The remaining headings provide links to the specified kinds of information, again state-specific. These include performance measures, performance reports, statewide benchmarks, incentives/disincentives and reviews/audits.

Posted 3 December 2002, updated December 2003, reviewed December 2003.
Email statebudget-info@ncsl.org for more information.
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