Government Reform 101
by Michael Ferrall, Ph.D.

Following are guidelines for reforming government at all levels.

Elected government officials of state and local governments shall support and promote the adoption of the following Principles of State and Local Government Reform.

1. Identify core (essential) and non-core (non-essential) government programs and services now being provided by their government. Those identified as non-core programs and services that have limited value or impact on the general public shall be eliminated.

2. Identify local government programs and services that duplicate others provided by their government, by governments at other levels or by the private sector. Those programs and services that duplicate or are similar in nature to those provided by government or by the private sector shall be eliminated.

3. Identify and eliminate all taxes, fees and charges that fully or partially fund non-core and duplicate programs and services by their government.

4. Require a complete and accurate Cost-Benefit Analysis when considering the creation or expansion of any government program or service. The Cost-Benefit Analysis shall include an assessment of the public need and the potential broad public use of the proposed project and whether the proposed program or service is provided by other public or private-sector providers or could be provided by the private sector. It shall also include an accurate assessment of the total annual taxpayer and user per-capita cost of the program or service.

5. Identify existing public programs and services that can be contracted out to private-sector service providers. By using low-cost competitive bidding, elected officials shall seek to reduce the cost and the size of government bureaucracies while maintaining high-quality services. Virtually all government programs and services can be provided by the private sector, including administrative, operational, maintenance, public safety, recreation, legal, financial, planning, development, human resources and research.

6. Take all necessary action to protect individual property rights by using “eminent domain” only to “take” private property for an important “public use,” not for a public or private “purpose.”

7. Oppose state, regional and local mandates of “affordable welfare” housing on landowners, developers and cities that is paid for by the landowners, other homebuyers and renters or taxpayers. When government dictates the sale or rental price of private property, it violates the owners’ property rights protected by the U.S. Constitution.

8. Vigorously oppose attempts by state, regional and local bureaucrats to dictate policy mandates onto local elected boards and councils. A free representative democracy requires that law and public policy be made by officeholders elected by the voters, not by bureaucrats who are not elected by or accountable to the citizen voters.

9. Oppose all zoning changes for the purpose of building high-density housing in low-density areas that can result in increased costs associated with traffic congestion, public safety or school classroom overcrowding.

10. Promote the creation of charter schools, private schools, school vouchers or similar programs that give parents more K-12 education choices for their children.

11. Evaluate the current public employee pension systems by conducting an independent audit to determine the level of pension under-funding that currently exists and take steps to research the possibility of creating a private-sector pension fund system for new government employees.

12. Take all necessary steps to guarantee that all hired public employees are legal residents of the United States and that governments contract only with private-sector contractors that hire legal residents.

13. Prohibit the use of race, color, ethnicity, national origin or sex in public employment, student admissions or contracting with private- or public-service providers.

14. Local governments shall operate on a two-year budget cycle and shall conduct open public hearings on proposed budgets that allow extensive public input. Each budget shall clearly identify all revenues from local taxes, fees and charges and from all intergovernmental taxes, fees and charges; and shall clearly identify proposed budget expenditures by agency and function. In every other budget cycle elected officials shall reduce total budget requests by 2.5 percent below the previous budget before approving a new budget for the next budget cycle.

15. Budget reserves shall be 50 percent of the total operational budget, shall be spent only for essential government services and shall be used only for costs resulting from unexpected emergencies.

16. For every four government employees that retire, only two or three will be hired to replace them.

17. Elected officials shall contract with the private sector to identify ways in which computer and other technology can be used to increase government efficiency and effectiveness while reducing the bureaucracy and other costs relating to providing essential programs and services.

18. Elected officials shall appoint a citizen advisory board of seven to fifteen citizens to assist them in the adoption of these government reform principles and to assist and advise them on other problems and policy choices facing their government jurisdiction. The citizen advisory board shall not be compensated and should be comprised of citizens that have expertise in government and/or experience in government services, budgeting, finance or law.