Got Cost-Effective Government? Try Charter Agencies

A Legislative Column by Assemblyman Dave Townsend (R,WF-Sylvan Beach)

(Sylvan Beach, NY) “Not my department, sir.” “Next window, please.” For many New Yorkers, our experience with government agencies has left us stinging from memories we’d much rather forget. Excessive government spending in the Empire State has contributed to bureaucratic bloat and departmental waste. Mismanagement of government has also created a cultural divide that is harming our citizens’ relationship to state services by leaving in place armies of cynical, time-serving bureaucrats often unaccountable to the communities they work for. In a large, multiregional state such as ours, Albany has established layers of government simultaneously duplicative, wasteful, and credibility-eroding. At the heart of this inertia is an administrative organism, the state-level department, at odds with the needs and customs of a 21^st century population. New York needs fundamental reform to transform its state government from a system hamstrung by rules (“Fill out this form”) to one focused on results.

I believe a People’s Convention to Reform New York, a constitutional process that I am supporting, must be the venue for exploring this departmental reform. This transformation begins with charter agencies, a revolution in public-performance management which has already been pursued with sparkling results in Iowa under its former governor, Tom Vilsack. Iowa granted greater freedom to departments by allowing them to sidestep administrative red tape in exchange for a promise of documented agency performance and a mandate for cost savings. Charter agencies can work here; what will be needed is an understanding of New York’s unique public-sector shortcomings and a political class in Albany determined to deliver the results New Yorkers have demanded.

The legacy of charter agencies in Iowa has meant leaner government, improved services in the form of faster turnaround times for private requests and applications, and budget savings of millions of dollars per year. The statewide program was begun by Vilsack and a Republican legislature in 2003. By 2006 Iowa had won the Innovations in American Government Award. Iowans saved money and experienced more efficient operations. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR), one of the first to sign up as a charter in the state, is charged with issuing air-quality and wastewater-discharge permits. After becoming a charter agency, DNR cut the waiting time for these permits from 62 days to six and 28 months to four months, respectively. Vilsack and company also changed the long-maligned state Alcoholic Beverage Division to offer better service for small-business owners and liquor stores across Iowa. New Yorkers would welcome this change: the wait for liquor licenses

here is glacially slow; the newest chairman of our State Liquor Authority pledged a “top-to-bottom review” to correct this persistent error in service.

Why have charter agencies? Better budgets, bigger savings, and improved morale for state employees that will translate to faster more efficient results for our citizens. Last week, Governor Paterson seemed to amend his original budget-deficit statements and project a new gap of $3 billion or more for the fiscal year. Or less. No member of Albany’s leadership seems to know for sure how severe the economic situation is, and, thanks to a governor with the lowest job-approval rating in the nation, New Yorkers don’t trust their government to give them economic facts innocent of political calculation. The long climb out of the worst recession in the Empire State since the 1930s demands that state government do more with less. When we trade rules for results in charter agencies a leaner, more efficient state is what we get. Without this transformation incentive, state departments can take years to develop even the most picayune reforms. Consider that it was only three years ago when New York’s Department of Tax and Finance began accepting personal income tax returns electronically. The wheels of government do indeed turn slowly if left to idle. Charter agencies deserve a vetting in New York State. A sunset provision proposed at the next constitutional convention would be a good start. Public-performance management has a future here. If you want to bust bureaucracy, improve government’s responsiveness to its citizens, and save money there is no better place to start than charter agencies.

One Comment on "Got Cost-Effective Government? Try Charter Agencies"

Liquor License on Sun, 27th Sep 2009 11:39 am

The NYS ABC Law Consulting group posts the latest news about the Liquor Authority
at http://www.NYSLiquor.com

We can expedite liquor license applications

Got Cost-Effective Government? Try Charter Agencies

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