In case you missed it, President Obama’s FY 2016 Budget of the U.S. Government recommends a scant 1.3 percent pay raise for the federal workforce next fiscal year. Well, as the old saying goes, something is better than nothing. However, when it comes to issues of fair pay, it appears that many feds are onceRead… Read more »
Money can’t buy happiness… right? A lot of us, theoretically, like the idea of a simple lifestyle. But at the same time, if we can afford it, we enjoy going out to eat with friends, buying nice clothes, and taking exotic vacations. It’s nice to have a higher budget, if just for those freedoms. ManyRead… Read more »
When I was young, I wanted to be a pop star. I lusted after fame, glamor, and attention, and could easily imagine myself up on stage in the place of all the great ‘90s female pop stars. But as I grew up, I realized that worldwide fame and stardom were probably not in the cardsRead… Read more »
Contractor provided training is a cost effective solution to provide high quality training for specific purposes and/or limited durations.
The great truism that underlies the civic technology movement of the last several years is that governments face difficulty implementing technology, and they generally manage IT assets and projects very poorly. It can be tempting to view this lack of technology acumen as a symptom of a larger disfunction. Governments are thought to be large,Read… Read more »
As you might expect, the information technology (IT) that supports one of the largest and most complex organizations in the world can be very expensive. In its fiscal year 2015 budget, the Department of Defense (DOD) requested more than $30 billion to operate, maintain, and modernize its IT systems. To put it in perspective, $30Read… Read more »
He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it. Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC) The budget season of 2010 for local government was particularly brutal. Many localities were taking deep cuts and scaling back. DepartmentsRead… Read more »
Reformers have promoted the notion of performance budgeting since it was introduced by the 1949 Hoover Commission. Major initiatives have been attempted and incremental progress has been achieved. But not enough has happened. A Government Accountability Office survey last year reports that the percentage of federal managers saying they used performance information in allocating resourcesRead… Read more »
When Obama’s budget plan for fiscal 2015 was released, the plan had its fair share of supporters and naysayers. There are obviously many sections to the plan, but there is one specific portion that addresses the challenge that a plethora of articles have been written about and many agencies are challenged with lately…leadership, and specificallyRead… Read more »
When times are tight and states have effect performance budgeting processes, they are less likely to use across-the-board cuts. Are there lessons here for the federal government? New research findings by a team led Dr. Daniel Mullins at American University examine recent state-level trends in the use of performance budgeting or “budgeting for results” approaches.Read… Read more »