The Man: State budget fix - Use a Rifle, Not a Shotgun

Dear Reader, a friend of mine sent the following letter by Troy Hebert to me. After studying it carefully, I realized that Troy is a problem solver and a man who has the courage of his convictions.
Troy’s observations and recommendations make a lot of sense and the legislators would do well take notice.
In the current legislative session concerning the budget problems, you might want to cut out the column and refer to Troy’s letter and compare it to actions taken by the governor and his administration’s proposes and actions they take to solve the budget problems.
As Dizzy Dean said: “It ain’t braggin’ if you done it.”

Use a Rifle, Not a Shotgun

Dear Senator/Representative,

As a former legislator who served on the House Appropriations Committee, I know exactly what you are going through as you try to tackle this budget crisis.
But as the former commissioner of the Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, I’m here to tell you there are choices other than raising taxes and/or cutting services.
I remember sitting in appropriations day after day, listening to the agency bureaucrats, one after the other, defending their budgets and threatening to cut the most popular programs if you ask them to reign in their spending. You cannot put enough corn in their trough.
It was not until I took over one of those agencies that I realized all of that was a bunch of B.S. The problem is that the appropriations process favors the full- time agency staff that knows the answers, but part-time legislators don’t know the right questions.
It is not complicated to do more with less; it is just hard and controversial. When I took over ATC in 2010, the agency was running a deficit. When I left early this year, ATC returned millions of dollars to the state and had actually increased the services provided. The bureaucracy and the culture of state workers fought me tooth and nail. I was sued over a dozen times, including two cases that went all the way to the Supreme Court, but I never lost a single one.
The solution is to have business minded people run these agencies and put the customers (taxpayers) first. We cut the number of ATC employees in half and reduced the budget by over 35 percent, all the while reducing the number of days to get an alcohol permit from 35 to three days and increasing fines and enforcement by 1,000 percent. (This is not a typo.)
I don’t say this to brag - I simply want you to know that there is a third solution to this budget crisis other than raising taxes and/or cutting needed services. It is called forcing agencies to run efficiently. It’s not a new concept, as it happens in the private sector every day.
Because I hate when people point out the problems and offer no solutions, I am recommending you consider the following short and long-term fixes that I learned firsthand:

Short term:

1. Use a rifle instead of a shotgun. Each member of the Appropriations/Finance Committee should pick only one or two agencies to specialize in. Trying to learn them all is simply impossible and gives an unfair advantage to the agencies.

2. Although many times secretaries are political appointments, agency heads should not be allowed to rise through the ranks. Many times they are too tainted by the system, and their internal relationships blur their ability to choose the best people over their friends. Consider appointing people who have been successful in the private sector. Agencies run by bureaucrats will always be bureaucratic.

3. Allow agencies to give up three classified civil service protected positions in exchange for one unclassified/unprotected position. Basically, you trade three unmotivated/inefficient workers costing $50,000 each for one motivated/efficient worker costing $75,000. You cut the number of employees by two-thirds and you get a better work product with fewer headaches. Plus, you save the taxpayer $75,000 each time.

4. Put GPS devices on state vehicles.

5. Require workers to use time clocks - including college professors and personnel.

6. Tie pay to performance. No more across the board pay raises. All workers are not equal.

7. Appoint agency heads who are fearless when firing/disciplining underperforming workers and allow them to hire expert attorneys to help them defend their actions because they will be sued.

8. Monitor civil service actions and settlements and demand that agencies refuse to settle cases merely because it would be cheaper in the long run. Many employees sue with the expectation that they will receive a settlement - that is often the perception that is set when playing short-ball and agreeing to settle merely to save on litigation costs. Play long-ball a few times, and those with weak cases will receive the message not to sue the state.

9. Immediately stop implementing across-the-board cuts. This practice merely punishes efficient agencies to compensate for bloated ones. All agencies are not equal and should not be treated as such. Agencies that run efficiently should not be cut to provide funding for those that refuse to improve their operations.

10. For every dollar an agency cuts to become more efficient, allow that agency to keep 50 cents to use where it feels it is best needed (technological advancements, etc.). This encourages agencies to be aggressive and also provides them with the means to experiment with new ways of improving their operations.

11. Change state supervisor-to-worker ratios from the current 4 to 1 to the private sector 10 or more to 1.

Long-term solutions:

1. Abolish the civil service system relative to new employees entering/re-entering the system (legislation that includes current employees would simply not pass). Louisiana’s current system benefits, protects and promotes underperforming employees and discourages management to take on said employees. Accordingly, very few state employees are actually ever disciplined or fired. To the contrary, underperforming (many times, highly compensated) career state employees are simply relocated, allowed to retire or resign, and even often promoted simply to get them out of the way. All of these “copouts” cost money and simply kick the can down the road.

2. Privatize anywhere you can. Government will never be able to be as efficient as the private sector.

3. Invest in technological advancements and state-of-the-art systems. Reduced time to complete assignments, ability to track performance and enhanced service to taxpayers far exceed start up cost.

4. Revamp the Request for Proposal process. It is so long and cumbersome that either the agency does not go through the headache, or the technology they are seeking to transition to is obsolete by the time they actually receive it.

If you think some of these ideas are too difficult or just too crazy, they sure beat raising taxes on people and/or cutting needed services. I would be glad to discuss these in more detail if you are interested.

Sincerely,
Former Legislator
& Commissioner
Troy Hebert

That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

Milo A. Nickel is the former President and COO of Louisiana State Newspapers.