WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2009

Dire budget forecast provides great opportunity for Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. -- At first glance, the warnings emanating from the Louisiana state capital conceding that a multi-year budget battle will challenge our state for the foreseeable future seem like cause for alarm.

After all, with the state’s oil and gas revenues plummeting, the national and worldwide economy in a recession, and Louisiana losing hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid matching funds previously provided by the federal government, it’s hard to see how the state will be able to avoid again slashing already decimated state agency and higher education budgets.

And with no real glimmer of hope for substantial new revenue sources in the coming years, now is the time to make an opportunity out of a monumental problem.

On Monday, the Louisiana Legislature convened its 2009 regular session. In what promises to be a highly contentious 45 days, many battles will be fought. And with more budget cuts looming and state funds at a premium, it is expected that turf wars will trump the will to act as a collective body with one vision and one goal.

But when one seeks out opportunities, opportunities often arise. Such is the case now, with the state on the brink of a fiscal catastrophe. Revenues are drying up. Expenses are soaring. People are suffering. And Louisiana is not in line for a federal government bailout.

No, if there are to be any real answers, any real solutions, they are going to have to come from within.

In its 2009 state and federal Legislative agenda, the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps called for many initiatives that would help streamline government to ensure the state’s fiscal future in order to reduce waste and overlaps and help develop a structurally sound system that works for Louisiana’s citizens.

There certainly are no easy fixes. However, these fundamental challenges will need fundamental solutions.

One such fundamental solution is an alignment of state agencies and resources. By attempting to follow the federal allocation of recovery-related funds to the state since 2005, it is clear how the misalignment of state agencies has drastically affected the amount of recovery-related dollars that have actually been received by the people for whom they were intended.

Historically, most recovery and FEMA individual assistance funds provided by the federal government have gone to state agencies to utilize or distribute. However, the lack of coordination among the agencies causes a duplication of efforts, waste, and gaps in services to various populations within the state.

Every wasted dollar has a detrimental impact on our citizens. These misaligned systems and the people’s inability to access all of the recovery-related funds intended for them have created additional needs for some of the state’s vulnerable populations. These citizens will need additional services at a time when agency budgets are being cut and programs are being eliminated.

Yes, there have long been gaps in services and an inability for some to access needed state resources and programs. However, with the inefficiencies associated with receiving and disseminating the recovery funds, gaps have the potential of growing into gaping holes which the state will be expected to find a way to cover.

That inefficiency cannot continue, especially at a time when resources are so limited. Louisiana must make due with what it has, and it cannot face these challenges with a system that continues to feed on wasted dollars and costly duplicated efforts.

Yes, this call for governmental alignment is viewed through the prism of human recovery. However, it is nothing more than a good government approach. Take off the recovery glasses and one can easily see how a similar approach could work for all of state government in an effort to align its agencies and eliminate waste and duplication.

In doing that alone, the state will likely save tens of millions of dollars, perhaps even hundreds of millions of dollars. Given the current climate of political rhetoric that champions accountability and transparency, aligning the governmental agencies around a central state vision so those agencies work effectively and provide services in unison rather than as separate bodies that rarely interact with one another and even less frequently coordinate their outreach and service provisions would seem to be a political grand slam.

But it’s not that easy. Something this radical would cause unprecedented cooperation, unprecedented sharing of information, and unprecedented foresight. These are not typical terms associated with government.

But these unprecedented times call for unprecedented approaches.

These are not new ideas, nor are they difficult to grasp. But political and social will are required. And once such policies are put in place, they will allow for additional good government reforms.

Take two other Recovery Corps legislative initiatives, for example. The Recovery Corps is calling for a system to be put in place whereby the state of Louisiana can account for all of the individual assistance and human service dollars related to recovery that have come into the state. These funds should be identified and tracked with all of the associated outcomes those funds had on Louisiana’s citizens made known.

The request seems reasonable and sensible. But the current practicality of digging through the multiple state agencies and cutting through the various layers of bureaucracy is daunting. However, such a system would certainly be easier to establish and manage if all of the state’s agencies that receive individual assistance funds are aligned, with all recovery-related programs and services emanating from a central pool of resources.

Second, the Recovery Corps is calling for the development of a long-term human recovery plan that would include all of the state’s recovery-related strategies and procedures in the wake of catastrophic disasters post-evacuation and sheltering. This plan must be coordinated among the respective state agencies, as each agency will have some type of role to play to help Louisiana’s people recover following a catastrophic event. If the state’s agencies were already aligned, Memorandums of Understanding and other inter-agency documents and workflows associated with such a plan would be much easier to design and implement.

But again, take the recovery lens off of these issues. It should be obvious that these simple reforms are nothing more than government efficiency. If the state agencies themselves, following the direction of the governor, are not going to take the reigns and begin to make these modifications, it is imperative that the Legislature step in and demand these changes be made.

Like Louisiana, every state in the Union is facing budgetary turmoil, as is the country itself. Louisiana is not in a position to ask for additional federal resources, especially when it has received billions of dollars in recovery-related funds and has still yet to spend many of them.

There will be no magic tree from which money grows and no new money printing machine that shows up on the steps of the state capital. Again, Louisiana must make due with what it has, and a big component of that is avoiding waste and duplication in order to stretch every resource that is available.

In essence, the ability to utilize all of the resources Louisiana already has instead of having a portion of them wasted while falling through the cracks in the system will essentially have the effect of offering the state new resources with which to work.

Louisiana’s citizens who are still recovering from the hurricanes have learned many hard lessons throughout the recovery process. Now is the time for the state to learn how to do more with less. It’s time to tighten the state’s belt and batten down the state’s hatches.

The economic storm clouds are swirling and threatening to unleash a fury on Louisiana at a time when it can least afford to absorb another blow. However, Louisiana’s citizens have proven they are a resilient people and a population that can, indeed, ride out the storm.

Now is an opportunity for Louisiana to step forward and be a leader. Now is an opportunity for the state to make meaningful changes that will bolster its capacity to serve its citizens and enhance its economic outlook. Now is an opportunity for Louisiana to be a beacon of good government and turn the rhetoric associated with accountability and transparency into reform that will usher in a bright future of opportunity and prosperity.

ABOUT THE RECOVERY CORPS
The Louisiana Family Recovery Corps is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation based in Baton Rouge, La., and formed in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The Recovery Corps’ mission is to facilitate human recovery for the State of Louisiana in the aftermath of disaster, both natural and man-made. The Recovery Corps has partnered with human service and non-profit organizations throughout the state and the country to deliver assistance as effectively and efficiently as possible, allocating more than $80 million to recovery efforts and assisting more than 30,000 households since January 2006.