Issue Position: Budget

Issue Position

To start with, we need to look at the argument a totally different way. We should begin with a zero or performance-based budgeting system. Our current commissioners and department heads have worked to operate on smaller budgets and a smaller, more efficient work force, but there is only so much they can do from the top down. The best waste-elimination programs most often come from the bottom up. I would like to see a business-like approach to eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. If we provide personal financial incentives to state employees and those who supervise them to identify unnecessary spending and recommend cost-saving measures, they will. It's the old "innovation comes from the factory floor" tradition that has helped make America great. A change in the budgeting process and a change in the waste elimination process will most certainly create the need for significant reforms in the area of dedicated funds.

No one would argue that government is different than business, but the concept of providing better service for less cost should become an integral part of spending taxpayer dollars.

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