State Wants Results Before Funding Programs

It's the Siskel and Ebert of funding decisions. Two thumbs up, a program stays. Two thumbs down, it’s the chopping block. 

When deciding where to direct limited funds, legislators turn to a report card-type model called Results-Based Accountability, or RBA. Goals are set for programs and then lawmakers determine what stays or goes after seeing the program report cards. Connecticut is the only state where the legislature, not the executive branch, drives RBA. 

“Our ultimate goal is to RBA the entire budget,” state Sen. Bob Duff, a Democrat representing Darien and Norwalk in the 25th Senate District, said. “Legislators come and go, the idea is to infiltrate this into the state bureaucracy. Otherwise it’ll be gone the day we’re gone.”

Connecticut piloted RBA long before Gov. Dannell P. Malloy implemented General Accepted Accounting Principals, GAAP. But most don’t know RBA exists. Yet, citizens can expect it to play an increasingly important role as the state tries to restore its fiscal health. 

“There are intangible savings because it changes the culture,” Duff said. “People who rely on state funding know not to come without the RBA model.” 

Duff and state Rep. Diana Urban, a Democrat representing North Stonington and Stonington in the 43rd House District, co-chair Connecticut’s RBA Work Group.

Urban, known as the Queen of RBA in some circles, said RBA prevents state government from operating on cruise control. 

It helps lawmakers better understand a program and hence whether to fund or cut. Agencies and those seeking funding use the RBA model to make their case.

State Rep. Tom Reynolds, a Democrat representing Ledyard and Montville, supports RBA because the state has no other way to evaluate programs. 

“Right now, the state really has no data capacity at the moment,” he said. “We have no capacity to evaluate weather programs are achieving the desired results. We have no informed way other than anecdotal information from agency leaders.” 

Reynolds said there are few state programs that use RBA now.

Perhaps the most dramatic example of RBA is the Early Reading Success Program. RBA indicators showed that reading scores in priority school districts were declining, Urban said. 

“Not one was reaching mastery and very few proficiency and we were spending $20 million and we were constantly asked for more money and told that would ‘turn the curve’,” Urban said. “In a nutshell, we cut the $20 million and had a heart to heart discussion with SDE [State Department of Education].” 

Now teachers must take a test before getting certified to show they have a basic knowledge of teaching reading. And after discovering some of the money was being used for things other than reading, SDE realized the necessity of attaching "strings" to the money, Urban said. 

“Suffice it to say RBA shines a light on what is actually being accomplished or in RBA terms ‘Is anyone better off due to this program?’” Urban said. 

State Senator Edward Meyer, a Democrat who represents Madison, chairs theEnvironment Committee and said that he has used RBA in evaluating the success of recycling programs and cleaning up the Long Island Sound. 

“We try to determine the desired result and measure against the implemented legislation,” he said of how the committee evaluates funding requests for those programs. “We’re able to see if the level of appropriation in the fund are helping.” 

State Rep. Kim Fawcett, a Democrat, represents Fairfield in the 133rd House District. She works on the section of the budget that supervises the state Department of Transportation and the Department of Motor Vehicles.  In that capacity she applied RBA. 

“The cuts and efficiency we found in our work are not necessarily just for my district but would be statewide,” Fawcett said.  “We use the RBA method in every conversation we have on budgeted items within DOT or DMV so we are framing the conversation with critical questions as we talk through what we are spending money on and why.” 

For example, RBA led to the closing of DMV satellite branch offices.  

There are also seven publicly owned and operated rest areas in Connecticut. After considering the goals of rest areas, the cost, and the number of users, all seven will be closed. That will save the state more then $20 million in operating and maintenance costs, Fawcett said. 

“This is not a gotcha,” Duff said. “It will not be used politically. We’ve never once used this as a political tool. It really is a process of measuring how we can do things better.” 

However, there is certain amount of bias in the way RBA is applied, said State Rep. Gail Lavielle, a Republican representing Wilton and Norwalk in the 143rd House District.

“I don’t think you can keep the subjective element out of it,” Lavielle said. “It’s good to weed out programs that are not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. But even deciding which programs to apply RBA to is subjective.” 

Lavielle also said the model doesn’t allow for certain questions. 

“It doesn’t say ‘Did you spend too much? Did you spend just right? No where does it address how much was spent,” she said. 

However, she said hopes in time RBA is applied across the board so that it might lead legislators in the right direction when considering programs. 

“I know government is not a business and I know we’re not trying to turn a profit, but we need to do this,” Lavielle said. 

State Rep. Betsy Ritter, a Democrat who represents Waterford and Montville, said that she has seen a shift in the legislature from the focus on expenditures since RBA was introduced three years ago. 

“More of us are asking RBA questions,” she said. “We’re starting to ask how the program is changing the population it's benefiting, that's been a shift in the evaluation process.” 

Fawcett said RBA makes government more accountable to taxpayers. In 2002, the state of Washington instituted a results-based program that saved $2 billion, according to Fawcett. 

“I see RBA as critical to helping the state rein in spending and balance the budget, not just today because the economy is in bad shape but always,” Fawcett said. “RBA provides a method for critically, questioning all spending and helps assure that we are spending tax payer dollars only on programs that most impact citizens and achieve results.” 

Reynolds said RBA will help legislators make the best use of the state’s money. 

“We simply no longer have the fiscal capacity to be all things to all people, he said. “It's more important now than every before. How do we know what to cut and what to preserve? Right now we don't have anything to guide us and that’s why we fall back on across the board cuts.”