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Web posted Sunday, January
25, 2004
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Voices
of Carolina: Government restructuring needed to
advance state
By Chad Prosser
Special to the Carolina Morning News
The
author, Chad Prosser, is director of the South
Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and
Tourism.
Within state government there is a
tendency to view the current budget troubles with
fear and anxiety. Certainly, there has been a lot
of pain over the last several years as state
revenues have actually fallen instead of grown.
Without the panacea of economic growth to mask the
out-of-control costs of our state government, deep
budget cuts have been necessary.
Some would
argue that all we need to fix the problem is new
tax revenue so that spending could return to
pre-recession levels. I'd like to offer a
different perspective based on my experience this
last year heading the Department of Parks,
Recreation and Tourism (PRT). I believe that the
silver lining to the cloud of the budget crisis is
that we have the opportunity to make real changes
in the way state government runs.
For the
first time in an executive budget, Gov. Mark
Sanford has proposed meaningful restructuring to
reduce the cost of government and focus on
priorities that really matter to South
Carolinians, such as advancement of education.
Through his leadership in rethinking the way we do
business in South Carolina, Governor Sanford has
enabled his cabinet members to effect real change
in the agencies they oversee. Changes made in
cabinet agencies in the last year demonstrate how
much can be accomplished by focusing on reform
instead of resistance.
For instance, at
PRT, we have completed an agency-wide
reorganization making the agency a flatter, more
responsive organization. An entire layer of upper
management was eliminated, the permanent workforce
was reduced by 12 percent and temporary employees,
of which there are many in the State Park Service,
were reduced by 38 percent.
Additionally,
organizational firewalls that previously existed
between the agency's main divisions were torn down
to allow collaboration across the agency and to
tap the full potential of our employees.
The result at PRT has been that we have
not only addressed the short-term budget crisis,
but have, at the same time, aggressively advanced
the mission of our agency by redirecting our
resources to where they make the greatest impact.
Tourism is the state's largest industry
and a primary driver of economic development. In a
tough economy, it is more important than ever to
invest in growing tourism. Businesspeople will
tell you that those who invest in marketing during
a down cycle in order to grow market share are
those that reap the biggest benefit when the
economy recovers. This year, we have increased the
state's marketing budget by more than a third,
despite having 16 percent less dollars in
state-appropriated funding. In fact, South
Carolina will spend more on marketing this fiscal
year than any year in the history of the state's
tourism marketing program. Since every dollar the
state invests in marketing creates $23 in tourism
business for South Carolina, that's a good
investment.
We are also spending our
marketing dollars more effectively, and leveraging
those dollars with private partnerships. For
example:
* $435,000 will be saved on this
year's South Carolina vacation guide by combining
two books into one
* $100,000 was saved by
partnering with the South Carolina Department of
Transportation (DOT) to combine our tourist road
map with the emergency evacuation map printed by
DOT
* This year, PRT will generate more
revenue from cooperative advertising than any
other year in the history of the program
*
Our marketing match grant program increased by 12
percent over last fiscal year
Using
creative means to attain public benefits without
raising taxes is a key part of Governor Sanford's
vision. In addition to charging agencies with the
task of reducing costs and raising revenue through
innovative measures, the governor has proposed the
combination and restructuring of entire agency
groupings, such as the health care agencies, a
move that should save taxpayers nearly $26 million
in the first year.
In order to truly move
South Carolina forward, we need new ideas as much
as, if not more than, we need additional dollars.
As the economy recovers and new monies do become
available, we should invest those dollars in the
things that make our state more economically
competitive and enhance our quality of life. A
good example of this is the governor's proposal to
provide new funding this year to start the state's
Conservation Land Bank program in order to
preserve some of our most critical natural
resources.
The governor's budget, while
rooted in the reality of the state's budget
limitations, nevertheless provides a springboard
to move our state to a new level of performance
and accountability. I hope all of state government
will embrace this opportunity to advance South
Carolina and to improve services, even in a tight
budget year.
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