Illinois State Senators Find Agreement Among Parties On Some Issues

Illinois Senators Dan Kotowski (D) and Pam Althoff (R) joined with Jason Saul and Raj Sharma, co-founders of the Center for Innovation & Public Value (CIPV), to announce the findings of CIPV’s inaugural Public Value Monitor, its study to identify the outcomes that Illinois taxpayers want from government and how they want their tax dollars spent. The survey, based on a representative sample of Illinois citizens, found that Democrats and Republicans agree on the same outcomes from government and in large part agree on where taxpayer dollars should be spent.

The Public Value Monitor survey found that respondents who consider themselves Republican or Democrats generally agree on four out of the top five most important outcomes from government: increasing employment, improving school quality and performance, creating new jobs, and reducing crime. Democrats and Republicans both ranked the outcome of increased employment as the top priority for the State.

The survey asked respondents to assume the role of state budget director and allocate tax dollars according to outcomes and found that both parties want to spend more on attracting/growing business, ensuring public safety, and improving infrastructure. Respondents from both parties want to spend less on education and healthcare outcomes, and basic government support functions. 

“When it comes to government spending, we don’t have a resource problem; we have a resource allocation problem. Elected officials need to start thinking about the budget as a means for “purchasing” outcomes that citizens value. We need to change the conversation from waste, fraud, and abuse to value and results,” said Jason Saul, CIPV’s co-founder.

The CIPV study underscores the need for elected officials to embrace a new way of budgeting and with the recently implemented Budgeting for Results (BFR) law–a bipartisan piece of legislation supported by Senators Kotowski and Althoff that forces the Illinois government to fund programs that work and fix or eliminate ones that don’t – Illinois has the tool needed to push aside partisan politics and let facts drive the budgeting process.

“It’s time to stop arguing over tactics and start agreeing on what taxpayers value from government,” said Senator Althoff. “Once we can agree on the outcomes we want, we can use BFR to identify the best programs to achieve those results and then fund those programs.”

“It’s our job as elected officials to listen to what taxpayers want from government and then find the most effective way to spend their tax dollars,” said Senator Kotowski. “It’s time we hold spending to a new level of accountability so taxpayers get more than a bill from government, they get the best bang for the buck.”

CIPV supports a new way of budgeting by creating better accountability and engaging the public in the budgeting process. CIPV’s research informs elected officials about what outcomes people want from government and how much of their tax dollars they want devoted to those outcomes.

“Budget decisions in Washington, D.C. and across our country do not reflect public sentiment,” said Raj Sharma, co-founder of CIPV.  “We need to let facts, not politics, drive how we use public dollars to create value and solve our biggest problems as a nation.”

About CIPV

Founded in 2013, the Center for Innovation and Public Value (CIPV) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization focused on measuring and improving the value and results delivered by government.  Our goal is simple: to help public sector realize twice the results for our citizens, business and communities at half the cost. For more information visit www.cipvalue.org.