The Price of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis

by David Osborne, Peter Hutchinson

Government is broke. The 2004 federal deficit is the highest in U.S. history. The states have suffered three years of record shortfalls. Cities, counties, and school districts are laying off policemen and teachers, closing schools, and cutting services. But the fiscal pain won't go away, and the bankrupt ideologies of left and right offer little guidance. The Price of Government presents a radically different approach to budgeting -- one that focuses on buying results for citizens rather than cutting or adding to last year's spending programs. It advocates consolidation, competition, customer choice, and a relentless focus on results to save millions while improving public services.

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Jim Razinha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was assigned Chapter 2 (Setting the Price of Government) for a class and as I had this on my shelf at work, decided to read the entire book.

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front): this book won't work in today's world, probably wouldn't have worked when written, and may not have ever been able to work.

There are elements to glean from this and try, but I don't know how authors with the experience and background in their bios were so naive to think their plan could work. [Nitpick] I almost stopped reading when they said the Base Closing Commissions were a "great success: They have saved taxpayers $2 to $3 billion a year..." - that wasn't true when they wrote the paragraph and 15 years later it still isn't... BRAC costed taxpayers, and the one just a year (2005) after publication was running $35 billion six years after implementation started...those "savings" haven't manifested yet. But I kept going.

Throughout this book, the authors would float a reasonably decent idea and then occlude it with a sad misunderstanding of reality. The section titles are standard government/business/economics fare - Smarter Budgeting, Smart Sizing, Smarter Spending, Smarter Management, and Smarter Leadership - all good, and bookworthy on their own. The filler does not show an understanding of the political divide in the US since 1981 (da doo ron Ron), seemingly permanently severed in 1994 (eye of Newt), and unpredictable to them in 2004, napalmed in 2016.

Find another book. This one is dated and so far off the mark that it's not even good as an object lesson. And no, I don't know what "other" book.

[(a)lyss(a) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a straight forward book that breaks down the cost of keeping a government running efficiently.

Granted, this book is ambitious. Some of the ideas proposed either feel outdated or strictly theoretical. But the book does a good job of highlighting successes of the past, including in Washington and Oregon, and what changes states made to make those changes. It's a book that you can read without having to have a background in policy to understand potential short term ideas to impact public budgets.

[Matthew Cook · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was written 21 years ago, and I think it shows. There were a few interesting ideas, but I don’t think now looking back with hindsight it had much predictive power. There are better books with similar themes.

[Maureen Flatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic on public policy and spending by an Essex resident and Al Gore's Reinventing Government Guru. While we contemplate the struggles of states like California and Massachusetts to make ends meet and observe the often heated debate in Congress, Osborne's book reminds us that the status quo is not the only answer.

[M Christopher]

Overwritten and uses ten year old data. There appear to be some useful ideas here but I'm suspending until I finish "Dollars and Sense." A part-time citizen legislator can only be expected to spend so much time on governmental theory, after all...