Strategic Information Management: Conceptual Frameworks for the Public Sector

Abstract

These are not easy times for government. The federal budget deficit has been a serious economic problem and political fact of life for many years. Until recently, however, states and localities have escaped chronic deficits. Most state resulted from one-time shifts in spending or revenue that could be addressed within the confines of a single budget year. By the early 1990s, however, it had become clear that something else was happening. In 1991, New York posted the nation's largest-ever state budget deficit, $6 billion-its fourth consecutive multibillion-dollar shortfall. By 1992 California set a new record for state budget deficits-$ 11 billion. According to the Center for the Study of the States, most states now have structural deficits (Gold, 1991). They are not facing occasional mismatches between spending and revenue. Instead, their tax systems now persistently fail to produce enough revenue to maintain current services. To complicate matters, public expectations for the level and quality of government services were formed in better economic times. Those expectations have grown while satisfaction with their fulfillment has steadily declined. In the past few years, it has become evident that cutting fat, eliminating waste, and preventing abuse-the management watchwords of the 1980s-are not nearly enough. Government needs to rethink its methods and restructure its approach to public services (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992). In the past, major operational reforms have rested on the infusion of new dollars and new people. Today, these solutions are no longer available. States need to learn to make more effective use of a fixed or shrinking pool of public dollars. Improvements in operations and services must occur within these resource constraints. To meet the rising tide of dissatisfaction and ever-increasing costs, government managers of the 1990s need more than admonishment to change