The New Normal

In November of 2011, BTRG and Oracle hosted a luncheon for members of city, state, and local governments. JD Williams, Oracle’s vice president of public sector applications gave the opening remarks and Anne Kinney, the director of consulting and research at the Government Finance Officers Association delivered the keynote address.

During her presentation, Anne made her case for why the GFOA considers performance management to be of profound significance to its members. She described the changes evident during the great recession as representative of a ‘new normal’. In the past, market downturns were ultimately eclipsed by reliable, more stable, recoveries. Today, however, the GFOA is warning its members to expect and accept market fluctuations and economic uncertainty as the new normal.

As a result tactics such as furloughs, pension holidays and across-the-board-cut-backs, which serve as short-term measures to remedy budget shortfalls, will all be inadequate. Instead, public sector organizations should begin adopting performance management disciplines and tools as a preferred means of having to meet growing constituent needs with fewer resources.