ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Tennessee Adds More Evidence, Data Requirements to Budget Proposal Process

Kingsport Times News

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is required to present next year’s budget proposal before Feb. 1, and the process leading up to it now includes a complete evidence-based budget analysis, including a series of new questions for each state agency.

U.S. Treasury Releases Final Guidance for Performance Reporting on Recovery Funds

U.S. Treasury Department

The American Rescue Plan established the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to provide $340 billion to states, localities and tribal governments. This final guidance encourages evidence-based services in education, nutrition, social programs; and investments in evidence building and program evaluation.

Priority-Based Budgeting Has a Short-Term Impact

Public Budgeting & Finance Journal (David Mitchell et al)

Do results justify the significant organizational costs of changing budget and accounting practices? It does work, but authors caution that budgetary reallocation toward higher-priority departments begins to wane by the third year after priority-based budgeting is implemented, potentially limiting its long-term effectiveness.

Rooting for the Infrastructure Implementation Task Force

Government Executive (Ed DeSeve)

The new Implementation Task Force created by President Biden to implement the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act should actively work to see that state, local, tribal and territorial governments are adequately organized to receive and account for funds.

Resource of the Week:  National Center for Public Performance

Institute for Public Service, Suffolk University-Boston

NCPP sponsors conferences, training events, research, and publications supporting a network of public performance practitioners and academics in the US and across the globe. The new Center executive director is Aroon Manoharan and the new managing director is Mary Gibson.

Defense Department to Reform its Planning-Programming-Budgeting-Execution System

Federal News Network

Two new legislative provisions require studies of the Pentagon’s PPBE system. One sets up an expert commission to take the current process apart and come up with alternatives. A second orders Defense itself to create a plan to consolidate all of the IT systems it uses to plan and execute its budget.

Reflections from Collaborations on Projects Using Behavioral Science

Office of Evaluation Services, U.S. General Services Administration

The office held an event to celebration completion of 100 collaborations across government using data and technology to improve service delivery governmentwide. It reflected on lessons learned from successes and failures.

The Science of Visual Data Communication: What Works

Psychological Science in the Public Interest

This report presents research-backed guidelines for creating powerful and intuitive visualizations oriented toward communicating data to students, coworkers, and the general public. Figure 2 is an amazing summary!

Participatory Budgeting in New York City

NYC Civic Engagement Commission

There are three participatory budgeting processes in New York City – at the neighborhood level, 33 neighborhoods are participating. The City Council sponsors projects in 10 council districts. Public schools are also participating in projects. 

City of Flagstaff, AZ, Applies Priority-Based Budgeting Techniques

ResourceX

The City of Flagstaff is in its second year of using Priority Based Budgeting (PBB) to guide the creation of its annual budget around seven strategic priorities.

Little Rock, AR, Uses Open Data to Drive Resident Engagement

What Works Cities

Little Rock is one of 23 cities to achieve 20201 What Works Cities Certification. This blog post highlights two specific case examples of what the city has done to improve relations with citizens and improve neighborhood safety.

Resource of the Week: Performance and Management Guide

Health Resources & Services Administration, US Department of Health & Human Services

While this guide is 10 years old, it still covers the basics fairly well. It is missing the more recent trends re: greater use of granular, real-time administrative data, an emphasis on evidence and evaluation, an emphasis on incorporating equity into measures, and the use of social behavioral sciences in assessing the impact of measures on staff and clients. . . in some ways, it shows how the performance management movements has matured.

Does Performance Information Matter to Organizational Outcomes?

American Review of Public Administration (Xu Han and Donald Moynihan)

A study of Texas school districts, where performance management systems are mature, found that using performance information, especially for strategic planning purposes had strong positive effects  in the long termbut did not have similar effects in daily management of school systems. The authors conclude that context matters.

Federal Evaluation Officials 2021: Survey Results on Agency Evaluation Capacity to Implement the Evidence Act

Data Foundation

The survey provides exploratory and suggestive insights about the growth of evaluation practice in federal agencies, while also identifying early Evidence Act successes and challenges experienced by evaluation leaders. 

Evidence-Based Grantmaking in Social Services

Results for America

Excerpt from the broader “Invest in What Works” report (below) that describes how a 2019 Minnesota law requires systematic use of evidence to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

How States and Localities Can Use Data to Spend Federal Funds Wisely

Pew Charitable Trusts

Applying an evidence-based approach to funding new infrastructure problems can ensure communities get the biggest bang for each federal buck.

Resource of the Week: Invest in What Works: 2021 State Standard of Excellence

Results for America

Following its early December announcement of the top states using evidence in making decisions, Results for America has posted more details — 202 examples of data-driven and evidence-based practices, policies, programs, and systems in effect as of August 2021 in 36 states across the country.

December 2021 Issue of Government Finance Review

Government Finance Officers Association

Articles on how recipients of the GFOA 2021 Awards for Excellence in Government Finance broke new ground in data visualization, collaboration, culture change.  And an article on “The Accountability Trap” – why too much of a focus on results can make you worse off (and what to do about it).

State Oversight of Federal Stimulus Funds

National Conference of State Legislatures

NCSL has created a database detailing state-by-state oversight plans for accountability of federal Coronavirus Relief Funds received. 

Scotland’s National Performance Framework

Here’s an interesting website that is the Scottish version of the US “performance.gov” website (and similar websites by various US state governments). A former US governor’s chief of staff was recruited more than a decade ago to help them design their system and it is still intact!

Resource of the Week: The World Atlas of Participatory Budgeting 2020-2021

This resource site compiles data to date on the use of participatory budget in more than 1,100 places around the globe. It is based on the collaborative work of more than 70 authors.

Biden Customer Experience Initiative to Assess Performance

White House

In a new executive order, the Biden Administration “will work to identify and define critical services that meet customers’ needs and expectations, assess performance delivery and report it publicly, incorporate customer feedback during each interaction, and ultimately ensure services deliver a better experience to the public.”

ICMA Award for Performance Management

International City/County Managers’ Association

As part of ICMA’s efforts to advance the practice of professional local government management, it awards certificates each year to recognize programs that instill a culture of performance management, pursue comparative analysis and data-informed decision-making, and promote transparency. Here is the list of certificate recipients in 2021, also organized by nine leading practices in use.

Resource of the Week: Florida’s Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability

State of Florida

OPPAGA is a research arm of the Florida Legislature. It supports the legislature by providing data, evaluative research, and objective analyses that assist legislative budget and policy deliberations. Its website provides access to hundreds of past reports, organized by policy area and by agency.