Efficiency in State and Local Government Expenditures

Abstract

The large and growing size of state-local spend ing makes the search for efficiency increasingly important. The biggest issues are those dealing with program elements, but operations and management also involve large amounts. The concept of efficiency in government spending presents dif ficult problems, several being noted as helping to explain apparent slowness in achieving results. Ten factors associated with the growth of state-local spending and obstacles to ef ficiency are identified. One line of progress is to improve organization as such, and much has already been done in some states and localities. Various factors continue to delay actions having much promise of good results. Central supervision of local activities can both help and hurt. To date, methods of tested success in the quest for improvement are less generally used than reason would indicate as feasible to raise the quality of accomplishment and reduce cost. The same applies to personnel policies. The large portion of total spending which goes for salaries makes personnel practices of key significance. Civil service merit systems, though extensive, are far from universal in state-local government. Fourteen specific areas for improving operating methods are listed, with the conclu sion that general adoption of means which experience has shown can yield good results would produce significant cumu lative benefit. Improvement of purchasing methods is one of the more important. Special commissions and permanent non- official groups have a record of accomplishment which argues for an expansion of their use.