In recent hearings before the House Budget Committee, both Peter Orszag (OMB Director) and Jeffrey Zients (OMB Chief Performance Officer) have acknowledged the need to scrutinize “tax expenditures” — i.e. special tax breaks aimed at achieving specific policy goals. Mr. Zients even went so far as to express “100% agreement” with the notion of evaluatingRead… Read more »
Cross-posted from the Intellitics blog (includes screenshot gallery): Los Angeles Budget Challenge: When Surveys Won’t Take No For An Answer Via Twitter today, I came across a new online consultation by the City of Los Angeles: Los Angeles Budget Challenge How will you balance the City’s budget? The Mayor of the City of Los AngelesRead… Read more »
Reposted from original at www.opennasa.com When reading the Augustine Committee’s summary report, there was one particular line that really stood out to me. “In fact, the Committee finds that no plan compatible with the FY 2010 budget profile permits human exploration to continue in any meaningful way.” Wow. That is a lot to take in.Read… Read more »
July Monthly Program: OMB Circular A-11 – 2009 Revisions Thursday, July 23, from 12 noon to 1pm Circular A-11 from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provides guidance to agencies on preparing and submitting their budget requests for the upcoming year and instructions on budget execution for the current fiscal year. The A-11 includesRead… Read more »
CA Controller John Chiang is giving us a dire warning. Balance the budget in this next week or July 2, California pays its bills via I.O.U. See article link: http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1973740.html Are our legislators and Gov. Schwarzenegger listening? Can we get past the political posturing and make some tough budget compromises to save our state beforeRead… Read more »
Cheap Training Trick #3: Leadership Goes to the Movies I ran across an old black & white documentary clip from the 1950’s on YouTube the other day and, after I stopped laughing, it got me thinking about using movies in schools and in adult educational programs. When I was in school, we used to cheerRead… Read more »
AABPA is pleased to announce the three winners for the 2009 Marykathryn Kubat Award for Student Research. With the Kubat Award, the AABPA hopes to encourage student research and critical thinking which will prepare students for the budget and policy issues they will encounter in their careers, especially public service. Eight finalists presented their researchRead… Read more »
What’s your Leadership Brand? I used this activity mid-way through a leadership program to give participants an opportunity to evaluate their strengths and leadership qualities. The premise is simple: each of us has a unique “brand” or style of leadership. Of course what we may “think” our style of leadership is and what others seeRead… Read more »
Yesterday, Thad Juszczak, a director with Grant Thornton LLP, cross-posted an interesting piece he wrote for the AGA blog on March 4, talking about transparency in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (The Recovery Act). He writes (paraphrasing with his permission) that accountability — someone specific being responsible for achieving performance results– is different fromRead… Read more »
As the administration and Congress take actions to address the immediate financial crisis, determining how to place the government’s response on a stronger organizational footing is a key step to reducing the likelihood that the nation will experience a similar financial crisis in the future. In his report, Stanton points out the need to addressRead… Read more »