The Rising Costs of Government are Strangling the Life out of Marysville, the County and the Country!

by Phil Enright

The administrative and policing costs of the ever-increasing volume of government regulations add substantially to the cost of government, a substantial proportion of which government will seek to recover in increased to charges to business, which in turn will result in increased prices. Those costs government seeks to recover from consumers, produce increased living costs which unions seek to recover in increased wages, which in turn business seeks to recover in increased prices. So the direct and indirect cost recovery places increased pressure on prices which render the US economy, less globally competitive.

Increased costs of government not recovered in increased prices, dramatically increases the country’s debt, the impact of which is to devalue the country’s assets, including the family home as occurred in 2008.

However, those advocating an ever-increasing role for government regulation should recognise, as the largest organisation in our economy, but self-regulating, government is not substantially inhibited by the imperative to at least meet the needs of its stakeholders, let alone to meet them in a way where the cost of delivery (the resource inputs) is less than the output benefits, as is the imperative under which the entirety of corporate America operates. Any organisation which operates without the benefit of these most basic measures of accountability, will, over time, become grossly unproductive and inefficient.

So it is totally delusional to suggest it doesn’t matter if government is inefficient and that its regulations do not ultimately reduce the standard of living of every American citizen, and progressively reduce the career opportunities of our children and future generations.

Is it any wonder our faith in government has collapsed? According to a 2014 research study published by Associated Press, only 11 percent of Americans have a great deal of confidence in the Presidency and his executive, and 5 percent in Congress. The survey has measured public attitudes on these questions for 40 years, and we are now at all-time lows on all significant metrics.

So how do we restore faith? Can we restore faith?

Contrary to what appears to be the approach of most politicians and their advisors, it will not be restored by ‘spin’. That’s the strategy which placed government in this diabolic state of disrespect. It will be achieved only by our leaders and government performing like the rest of us have to; doing a whole lot more with a whole lot less – not doing a whole lot less, with a whole lot more, as is their current track record. .

So how do we force government and its departments to change and become productive? Only by quantum change will the public regain confidence.

How do we drive a culture of productivity into organisations which hitherto, have been totally insensitive to being accountable to those who provide its funds?
The first thing we need to do, is to pass a law in every legislature which prevents any area of government employing one more employee until the productivity of every manager is meaningfully measured and publicised on a newly created government productivity website; and we do the same with all subcontractors. We specify that the outcomes (productivity) of every manager and subcontractor be immediately measured – ultimately we measure and publish the productivity of every government position – federal, state, county and city.

We then link every manager’s remuneration to their productivity performance.

How is it possible to meaningfully measure the productivity of every position? Here are a few guiding principles;
• Every manager and officer is employed only to deliver services, either to the public, or to those officers who deliver services to the public.
• Every service to be delivered must be identified, counted, its value to the public independently assessed, and have a maximum turnaround time, from request, to service delivery.
• Those officers who receive services from officers to deliver service to the public, are required to nominate any barriers to their delivering services to the public efficiently, and report accordingly.
• Every officer’s manager is required to remove the barriers impeding officers from efficiently delivering their services to the other officers or the public.

In this way, a true ‘service culture’ will be created, and government will become entirely accountable and very much more productive.

Is this realistic? Is it achievable? Has it been done before? Yes! Yes! Yes!

It has been done in many organisations, and in the most competitive of industries. It is one of the strategies employed by Jan Carlson, CEO, Scandinavian Airlines, in his Strategic Plan when he took the airline from near bankruptcy, to being one of the world’s most profitable airlines. It can relatively easily be done in a comparatively small organisation like Marysville City Council.

Strategic Planning has led America’s corporations in engineering its re-structuring to successfully meet the forces outlined above.

Regional America, Marysville and Yuba Sutter, will continue to struggle until it produces and implements its own innovative Strategic Plan with these kinds of KPI’s and this level of accountability.