Nobody likes raising taxes or cutting services. And so, when a local government tries to balance its budget, a powerful third alternative is improving efficiency. This has been a particularly hot topic over the last months, with proposed cuts in federal spending and the specter of weakening revenues. Over the years, efforts to make more efficient governments have been built into the job of performance auditors. These efforts are often supported by internal government continuous improvement initiatives and are bolstered by legislative commissions, task forces, or consultant contracts that study and suggest new approaches or renew past efficiency proposals that faded out years before.
At the state level, new efficiency efforts have been cropping up since January through both gubernatorial action and legislation in the states of Florida, Georgia, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Texas, with task forces or committees also set up in Kansas, Missouri, and North Carolina.
- Publication date: August 2025
- Authors: Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene