Governor Issues Midterm Performance Report

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - The midterm update for state government performance shows that agencies are making steady improvement, with nearly 40 percent of results in the top-performing category compared to about 25 percent for a comparable period in 2005. Governor Mitch Daniels issued yesterday the Indiana State Government Performance Report for July to December 2006, the fourth report of its kind.

The report provides an update on several of the governor’s initiatives while highlighting accomplishments and those areas still in need of improvement for the most recent six months.

“Performance is better in many agencies, but our challenge remains to improve performance everyday throughout state government,” said Daniels.

Targets for performance are set at green, yellow and red levels. Green represents superior performance, yellow means needs improvement and red is unsatisfactory performance. In the first six-month report of 2005, 87 percent of results were in the red and yellow categories; now 62 percent of results are in those categories.

Among specific agency improvements:

· The Department of Child Services Child Support program met or exceeded all federal performance measures for the first time in Indiana’s history, and earned a record $7 million in federal incentive dollars. The percentage of child support collected increased from 52 percent to 54 percent, which equates to over $12 million more to mothers to care for their children.

· The Indiana Department of Veteran Affairs (IDVA) is increasing the number of veterans who receive their federal benefits. That percentage increase from 8 percent in 2005 to 9.5 percent in 2006. That is a significant improvement, but the IDVA has established a long-term goal of 12 percent.

· Indiana has propelled itself to a leadership role in biofuels. The state expected to reach its production capacity goal of 1 billion gallons for announced biofuels plans by the end of 2008, but instead reached the milestone in the summer of 2006.

· The Office of Federal Grants and Procurement was created by Daniels in January 2005 through Executive Order. Since 2004, Indiana’s competitive grant activity has greatly increased, bringing in over $100 million. Indiana earned $46 million more in competitive grant funds in 2006 than in 2004.

Among other report highlights are several improvements made to reduce backlogs and wait lists to provide Hoosier taxpayers excellent customer service.

· From July to December 2006, the number of people on the Medicaid waiver wait lists for Aged & Disabled, Assisted Living, and Traumatic Brain Injury services was reduced from 2,678 to 550.

· The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has reduced the backlog of water permits over 64 percent since early 2005.

· The Public Employees Retirement Fund (PERF) reduced by months the time to process retirement benefits and distributions. For the month of December 2006, the percentage of retirees receiving their check immediately following retirement was 100 percent, compared to 5 percent in prior years.

The full report may be found on the governor’s Web page at www.in.gov/gov/pdfs/PerformanceReportJul-Dec2006.pdf. Performance measures are embedded in the narrative section of this report because most agencies now have a history of comparative metric data, and many agency and program managers utilize this information on a more regular basis to make decisions.

Source: Governor Mitch Daniels Press Release

Technorati Tags: News Governor Mitch Daniels Indiana Indiana Politics Mitch Daniels Politics