Monday, February 23, 2015
By The Oklahoman Editorial Board Published: February 22, 2015
WHAT does reducing or eliminating state agency “swag” expenditures have to do with filling an Oklahoma budget hole that has grown to a whopping $611.3 million?
Some might say not much. After all, the amount identified by state Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger from fiscal year 2014 — $28.5 million — wouldn’t do much to fill the hole that lawmakers face.
But to dismiss Doerflinger’s attack on swag is to endorse the status quo, and state government can’t afford to do that any longer.
The categories in the budget system that produce the $28.5 million total include promotional expenses and “Exhibitions, Shows and Special Events.” These are ways that state agencies make their services known to wider audiences. Agencies need to advertise their services — the Department of Human Services must promote the need for foster families, or DHS adoption initiatives, for example — but some expenditures aren’t as worthwhile.
As Doerflinger put it last week after the Board of Equalization confirmed the budget hole had more than doubled for next fiscal year, “When you are looking at trying to provide services to the citizens of this state, I’m not sure we need to be buying plastic cups to promote ourselves that end up in the trash can.”
Cups, pencils, pens, pins, coasters, calendars … the list of agency promotional materials goes on, and the price tag to have those items made adds up.
Agency heads also are being urged to look anew at such things as the conferences their employees attend. Do three or four people really need to go, with the agency forking over the cost of food, lodging, air fare, etc., or can one person attend instead, and then return and brief others in their division about what transpired? This happens regularly in the private sector, where reacting to market conditions is a way of life. It needs to begin happening more frequently in state government, where taxpayers foot the bill.
This is all part and parcel to agency directors, and lawmakers, embracing a change in the way the budget is written. The state has recently implemented “performance informed budgeting,” in which agencies are charged with coming up with measurable objectives and then proving that they’re meeting those objectives. In theory, this should mean an end to the days of agency heads simply telling lawmakers, “I received X amount last year, I need more this year,” and expecting that to be adequate.
House Speaker Jeff Hickman, R-Fairview, last week mentioned another change that needs to occur at the state Capitol.
“While there may be some short-term solutions for this year,” Hickman said, “we must look at addressing our budget in the long term, including reforms to expenditures and budget practices that are not sustainable. Until this is done, we will continue to face future budget shortfalls that are 100 percent avoidable.”
In the long term. What a concept! Again, this is something that’s common practice with businesses of all sizes. They look not just at next month, or next year, but at two or three or 10 years down the road. Where do we hope to be then? What sort of company should we strive to be at that time?
The most successful businesses embrace change and regularly challenge the status quo. That’s the opposite of what ordinarily occurs in government. Taxpayers should insist that mindset changes in Oklahoma. Cracking down on swag — one small piece of a giant pie — would be a start.