Peter Diamandis’
book “Abundance: The Future is Better than You Think” promotes an idea that is
imperative for our time. The idea is that scarcity is contextual – it may be
true that certain resources are scarce, or it may be that they’re simply
inaccessible.
Says Diamandis, “imagine a giant orange tree packed with
fruit. If I pluck all the oranges from the lower branches, I am effectively out
of accessible fruit. From my limited perspective, oranges are now scarce. But
once someone invents a piece of technology called a ladder, I’ve suddenly got
new reach. Problem solved. Technology is a resource-liberating mechanism. It
can make the once scarce the now abundant.”
Priority Based Budgeting as a
Resource-Liberating Mechanism
People and money
are among the resources that we feel are scarce these days in local government.
We don't have enough money to maintain our services. We don't have enough
people to do the work. We seek tax increases because inherently we feel we need
more and more to do the job.
But what if we
actually had all the resources we ever needed? What if our scarcity problem was
also contextual? What if we found out we had more resources than we need to
build hugely successful communities? Is it possible that our people and our
money (human and financial resources) are literally tied up, locked into providing
services that may be of lesser priority, and/or services that other service
providers (public and private) are willing and able to provide?
Through the lens of
Priority Based Budgeting, communities are finding ways to free those resources
and re-allocate them to new and extremely important programs and initiatives. They’re
also finding the other community resources able to share in the pursuit of
achieving Results.
Douglas County, Nevada – Creating Funding
for New Transportation Infrastructure
There is no
shortage of studies documenting the significant backlog in improvements
necessary to bring the nation’s transportation infrastructure to where it needs
to be. The dramatic failure of Washington’s I-5 bridge was a devastating
reminder of the vulnerability we all face with this problem.
So how is it that a
County in one of the most severely punished economies in the U.S. (in the State
of Nevada) is able to find the resources to fund over $1 Million in new roads?
Douglas County,
Nevada has successfully identified new solutions to fund long-awaited
transportation infrastructure needs with their shift
to
Priority Based Budgeting. See Douglas County
newsletter article "Priority Budgeting Leads to
$1 Million for Roads."
“For the
past decade, the County has spent approximately $300,000 per year on
preventative road maintenance, but with the Board’s actions to shift funds from
lower priority services next fiscal year the County will now spend
approximately $1.5 million on preventative road maintenance. Another $3-4
million per year is needed to maintain County roads at their current condition.
After five years of
budget imbalances, position eliminations and reductions in services, Douglas
County has set itself on course to invest taxpayer resources in high priority
services that add value to residents.”
Douglas County, Nevada has reallocated resources to increase transportation funding my
millions of dollars – all local dollars at play!
Fort Collins,
Colorado – A Community Partner, Tackling Job Growth in the Region
Like so many other
cities in the nation, Fort Collins is determined to improve the health of their
local economy. So how is it that the City is making some of their most stunning
progress in job creation, by stepping back their need for control and ownership
of services directed toward this end, and stepping up their role as a partner
among many?
City of Fort Collins, Colorado has partnered in a start-up incubator
project to launch small businesses and super-charge the local economy. The Rocky Mountain Innosphere (RMI) started in 1998,
(as a recent
article in the Coloradoan pointed out) “connecting startup companies with
advisers.”
“RMI
provides entrepreneurial startup companies with resources such as assistance
with raising capital, access and connections with academic and government
institutions, a network of advisors and mentors including several who are in
residence, discounted professional service providers and educational and
networking opportunities for realizing business success.”
Kevin
Duggan from the Coloardoan newspaper writes, “the Innosphere works with 30
to 35 client companies a year, providing education, mentoring from business
executives and networking. It connects companies with potential investors and
the capital they need to grow.”
Most
interestingly, RMI is not a city program, although the cities of Fort Collins
and Loveland are contributors to the partnership. “The incubator is a private
nonprofit corporation. Its operations are funded through private donations and
annual contributions from the state government, Colorado State University,
local banks, Loveland and the City of Fort Collins.”
If
anything, RMI is the holy grail of the “shared service model” where local government is one of many providers, but
not the sole owner.
City of Boulder, Colorado – Investing in
Energy (with no new money to invest)
City of Boulder, Colorado has focused resource reallocation opportunities
to fund high-priority energy initiatives in the City. Applying PBB to "new
programs" - Boulder was the first to apply PBB to the consideration of
programs that didn't exist before; running them through the PBB model to see
what Quartile they might be in, if they were initiated. It's a tremendous
application. And as demonstrated in this year's budget, new investment, new
resources are allocated to high priority programs planning the City's
"energy future."
Where
did they get the money to start these new programs - "nearly 10%
reductions were applied to low-quartile, low-relevance investment areas.”
-->See
Boulder budget recommendations here.
Boulder
has also compiled a multi-year perspective on their application of PBB, to
demonstrate how they've reduced and divested themselves of lower priority
programs over the years, and reinvested in new or expanded higher priority
programs - it's outstanding!
We have
non-profits, NGO's, public and private sector resources that are tackling the
same problems and the same issues that we in local government feel we need our
own services to tackle – those other entities are brand new resources that
we've perhaps never considered. Communities implementing PBB are identifying
those resources!
Quoting Diamandis (again), “imagine a giant orange tree packed with
fruit. If I pluck all the oranges from the lower branches, I am effectively out
of accessible fruit. From my limited perspective, oranges are now scarce. But
once someone invents a piece of technology called a ladder, I’ve suddenly got
new reach. Problem solved. Technology is a resource-liberating mechanism. It
can make the once scarce the now abundant.”
Our special thanks
to Douglas County, Nevada, the City of Fort Collins, Colorado and the City of
Boulder, Colorado for inspiring this article.
To learn more about Local Government Innovation and Priority Based Budgeting from CPBB and the nation's leading local government practitioners, be sure to attend the upcoming...
Center for Priority Based Budgeting 2013 Annual Conference
"A Summit of Leading Practices"
July 9 & 10, 2013 Arlington, Virginia Hilton Crystal City Hotel
REGISTER NOW!
Brought to you by the Center for Priority Based Budgeting (CPBB) and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), in partnership with the Alliance for Innovation (AFI).
The 2013 "Summit of Leading Practices" is the ONLY conference where ICMA's Leading Practices for Local Government Management come together under one roof.
The 2013 CPBB "Summit of Leading Practices" Annual Conference is strongly supported by
Quartile 1 sponsor SAFEbuilt, Quartile 2 sponsor ClearPoint, Supporting Sponsor Beehive Industries and Exhibitors OpenGov and Revelstone Labs. Thank you sponsors!
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