Governor Rendell: Latest Performance Report Shows Challenges and Successes as Commonwealth Agencies Operate in Tough Economic Climate

Report's Findings Will Help with Decisions on Future Budgets

HARRISBURG, Pa., April 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Governor Edward G. Rendell said today that the latest Report on State Performance shows taxpayers and the General Assembly how state agencies continued to serve citizens during a time of budget cuts and economic uncertainty.  

The report – the third of its kind from the Rendell administration – promotes government transparency by providing details on the goals, accomplishments and challenges of 31 state agencies in the 2008-09 fiscal year.

"This report should be considered in the context of the extremely difficult economic climate that prevailed during the 2008-09 fiscal year, and that continues to be felt in Pennsylvania and across the nation," the Governor said. "The agencies under my jurisdiction carried out their work in the shadow of severe budget constraints – including a general hiring freeze, a freeze on cabinet and non-union salaries, and spending cuts of nearly $500 million."

"At a time when resources are so scarce, the process of measuring performance and improving the service state agencies provide becomes even more important," Budget Secretary Mary Soderberg said.

"The Governor has asked commonwealth agencies to focus on ways to qualitatively measure their performance so we can improve government efficiency and increase our accountability to Pennsylvania's residents," she said. "Pennsylvanians need to be able to clearly see that their tax dollars are invested in ways that make a measurable difference in people's lives."

The Governor's Report on State Performance helps communicate the impact of government on people's lives by describing vital programs and services in education, economic development, health and human services, the environment, public safety, consumer protection and government efficiency, Soderberg said.

The report chronicles the challenges agencies face as well as their accomplishments, Soderberg noted. For example:

• Patient access to primary health care in underserved areas is increasing, but the demand continues to be greater than the funding available to support that care (pages 38-39);
• Schools without adequate funding struggle to raise student achievement   levels (page 4); and
• Even as those at work in the juvenile justice system seek to increase the number of young offenders who successfully complete supervision, state funding to support county probation officer positions has decreased (page 81).

Measurable successes are also recorded. In 2008-09 the commonwealth repaired 1,041 state bridges (page 25); provided more than 580,500 property tax or rent rebates to older adults and people with disabilities (page 29); and, through investments in public education, helped improve student performance. The percentage of students proficient or advanced in math and reading rose from 55 percent in 2002 to nearly 75 percent in 2009 (page 3).

Best of all, the Governor said, "We accomplished all this while cutting the administrative costs of running state government and producing substantial annual savings."

In terms of actual dollars, administrative spending in 2008-09 was 3.8 percent lower than it was in 2002-03, he said. In addition to cutting administrative costs, through the end of 2008-09 state agencies were able to deliver $1.75 billion in annual recurring savings across all state programs.

"The findings of this report will help with decisions on future budgets," the Governor said. "The commonwealth will continue to face daunting economic challenges for the next several years, and we need to know that the money invested in commonwealth programs is being spent wisely and well while achieving the goals set for those programs.

"The better we are able to measure our own performance, the more secure we can be in recognizing the value of those investments."

Editor's Note: The 2008-09 Governor's Report on State Performance is available at the "Performance Reports" section of the Office of the Budget Web site at www.budget.state.pa.us.

SOURCE Pennsylvania Office of the Governor