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Monday, September 12, 2005

Ind. Gov't. - State Budget Agency featured

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette today has a story on the state budget agency and its head, Daniels appointee Charles Schalliol. The story details some of the ways the OMB is using to get the state budget in the black and to better control how the state spends the taxpayers' money, including:

First, his office now signs off on all state contracts, approves all new rules and regulations and looks at the spending of quasi-governmental agencies.

OMB also now contains a small office focusing solely on government efficiency and planning. It has just five people, but its whole job is to look at the big picture – how should state government be organized? What should be in our strategic plan?

And next will be a systematic review of every program in state government – not just the glaring, troublesome ones on the top. “We need to know what are our objectives are with each program and whether we are meeting them,” Schalliol said. “If not these programs will go away.”

Part of OMB’s new focus is holding agencies accountable, too. That is why Daniels – with Schalliol’s help – came up with specific goals and metrics for each agency to be deemed a success.

Even the fact that OMB exists is different.

The State Budget Agency used to direct state budgeting issues while a handful of independent offices dealing with other financial issues all existed separately. Now OMB is the umbrella agency for a host of smaller finance agencies – including the Department of Revenue, Department of Local Government Finance, the Public Employees’ Retirement Fund and several other entities.

All those agencies still have individual directors and commissioners – but they report directly to Schalliol. In all he oversees 1,560 employees and combined budgets of about $116 million.

The new structure was Schalliol’s idea when he was the first public appointment of Daniels’ new administration. “I told the governor that all the financial functions needed to be together somewhere so we could manage the fiscal affairs more closely,” he said.

Because of the restructuring, some positions have been combined and there are fewer employees overall. It also has allowed for more professional work in some cases. For instance, prior to Schalliol’s tenure a dozen or more people in various state government offices handled bonding. Now it is down to two people, and the state is getting better pricing. He also plans this fall to recruit new financial talent for state government at state universities and colleges and show them that there is room for growth and movement within the OMB’s numerous agencies.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 12, 2005 07:22 AM
Posted to Indiana Government