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.
