The Price of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis Paperback – February 20, 2006

The Price of Government was written by the same pair of government officials that brougt us the original primer  Reinventing Government: How The Enrepreneurial Spirit Is Transforming The Public Sector . The authors, David Osborne and Peter Hutchinson, are both long-time state government officials that tried to place their ideas for better governing into books. This one alleges to find ways to make government more accountable and efficient in what the authors called the "age of permanent fiscal crisis." The moniker is commentary on the federal budget deficit that has limited value in the book that principally uses examples from state, municipal and city government, all of which must have balanced budgets every year. This oversight is the first of many in this book and hardly the most blatant.Osborne and Hutchinson traverse now familiar territory in five sections called "Smarter Budgeting," "Smater Sizing," Smarter Spending," "Smarter Management" and "Smarter Leadership." Each section has a few chapters focused on the authors' ideas backed up by examples some municipality, state or the federal government used. By now, many of the ideas proposed in the book -- from schools of choice to zero-based budgeting (or putting all your priorities in a list and funding them from the top down, then quitting when you run out of money) have been discussed, dissected and even tried by governments all over the place. As a 27-year state government employee in big human services state departments, I found no idea in this book that hasn't at least once been discussed or tried by government.Many of these ideas have found their way into the daily lexicon of government and have even found useful purpose. In the chapter the promoted schools of choice, the authors generally promote the concept that government should do what people want done -- and do it in ways where people can most easily understand it and even do it themselves, like registering to vote online or buying your license plates online. Their discussion in chapter six of "rightsizing" involves what they call "the right work, the right way with the right stuff." In the next chapter, "Buying service competitively," they go after another of government's foils -- no-bid contracts and contracting with only a couple private companies to do things like clearing snow in the winter from the roads, providing foster care services, or better waste water treatment service.All these ideas sound good until you go to work in government and find out why they don't succeed. The first reason is the most obvious, one the authors failed to address and overcome in their final chapter on politics: government is inherently political, and politics has constituencies, constituencies put pressure on politicians to do things, and politicians must be re-elected every two, four or six years. There is a second reason these ideas fail that is even more acute: government must serve all the people all the time, not just those that vote, provide financial support to politicians, or put pressure on politicians. A third reason is almost as telling: government budgets are always developed in line items and use last year's budget as the baseline.When the new budget comes out, putting in a new line item or -- gasp! -- eliminating a line item is almost impossible because it has a constituency. Even in the most revolutionary political (the cliche is "sea") change in political leadership, politicians must still maintain commitments to all the old constituencies. This is why Obama's programs to save America from financial ruin ran the deficit up so much -- he still had to support the huge military build-up from the Reagan, Clinton and Bush years, support the two wars the country was already in, support the huge national highway construction and repair programs we were undertaking, and support everything else that was already in place.Every time I saw something I thought new, adventurous or clever in this book, I wondered why the two authors -- both experienced state government officials -- consistently failed to understand these realities about government. The idea that someone can come new to government and totally change the direction of spending and support is preposterous. Every program in government has a constituency and every constituency needs the service. If a Democrat replaces a Republican and gets rid of tax cuts to support his or her new programs, the next time a political change takes place the Republican will reinsitute the tax cuts and reduce some of the programs put into place by the predecessor. This is simply the realities of government at all levels. But the even greater reality is that every service has a constituency, that service is there because the constituency desperately needs it, and getting rid of the service, however easy it may seem or however reasonable that may seem, is almost impossibly difficult.While The Price of Government has been read and consumed by just about every government official at every level of government in the United States, and some of its precepts and ideas have been tried out and/or put into place, the relative naivete of the authors makes the book more of a think tank manifesto than genuine guide to more efficiently redesign government. For until such day as government is no longer an elected entity in our nation, its participants -- from elected officials at the highest level to citizen advocates to lobbyists to the most bottom drawer bureaucrat -- will continue to work from the status quo and move outward as citizens support it. Yet, when they step over the line and eliminate something too dogmatically sacred, the citizens will react by voting in the other party and the proverbial pendulum will swing back the other way. These are the realities of governing in the United States.

There was a movement to learn and apply the best, most efficient practices of government and study it in a practical way in the 80s and 90s. David Osborne was among this group. A more analytical public administration in a more statistical sense has taken over in academia and done very little to practically change government. However, the insights Osborne and his compatriots make still works whenever a new politician, ignorant of the preexisting compilations of best practices, stumbles upon the same idea. Ted Gaebler is another good one, but Osborne is excellent.

Excellent book for anyone wanting to understand municipal finance.

Great ideas if anyone can find government workers or teachers who know anything or care about ...budgets.Focus on getting workers engaged in the planning process first before introducing even the word BUDGET or PRICE of Government.Also, using the terms PERMANENT and CRISIS in the same sentence does absolutely nothing except cause eyes to glaze over.

Was perfect giveaway for what we wanted. Good quality and fit the bill. Have ordered them many times. Loved the author.

I enjoyed reading this book even though it is very very repetitive. I thought the book contained some great data on the price of government. It also had good analysis and explanations on why the price of government varies between states. The analysis on why government is in the fix it is quite good. The book is weak on the solution part. Their concept has never been successfully implemented. Those with budgeting experience will understand why once they read the book. For managers on a local level the book does really appreciate the effect state and federal mandates have on government operations.The book was successful in provoking some thought about basic budgeting assumptions. The book is a worthwhile read provided you don't expect it to offer a workable process to solve budget problems.