Sunday

A smaller, smarter Iowa government

Iowa government needs to be smaller, smarter and more service oriented.

In order to accomplish this, it needs to reform the way it does just about everything.

State government relies too much on press secretaries, communications directors, political staffs and middle managers.

If a department head cannot speak for him or her self, then he or she should not be a department head. Taxpayers should not be paying for the re-election campaigns of politicians. Let the politicians run for re-election on their own dime. Tax dollars should go to the people who work on the front lines like troopers, prison guards, and teachers; the people who do the actual work.

Every state worker should be cross trained. A general knowledge of the services offered by other state agencies would make each worker more productive. Workers would become citizen ambassadors; helping Iowans find their way through the state government maze. Cross training is used in business to create better customer service and greater efficiency. There is no reason it cannot work in state government.

Finally, Iowa needs a Sunset Law. Under such a law, an expiration date is placed on all new state programs. When the expiration date is reached a bipartisan citizens group meets to review whether the program is still needed. If the answer is no, the program is abolished. Twenty states have enacted similar laws.

A smaller, smarter and more service oriented government will markedly improve Iowa’s business climate and help create good jobs.

11 comments:

  1. Prof Steffen Schmidt3:45 AM

    Your constituent is a student in my American Govt class and referred me to your blog.

    May I say "amen" to your comments above. In the state university system we now have something lke 20 staf for every professor. When I came to ISu as an instructor back in 1970 that ratio was more like 3 to 1. I love teaching and am very good at it but in the state universities research and getting funding from grants is the priority and so we have lots of truly overworked instructors becuse our numbers have been shrinking as against "staff."

    ReplyDelete
  2. David A. LaCombe11:38 AM

    Here is an idea change the way county government is run. Combine the offices of tresure,auditor and recorder into one office like Comtrollermake it appointiveposition Have the sheriff be appointed by the supervisors and the county attorneys office taken over by the statemaking it a district attorney style position only position elective is board of supervisors. Also combine counties to help get rid of duplication etc.

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