February 03, 2007
Business doesn't just insist on results. It invests to get them
In last week's Star Tribune, Charlie Weaver of the Minnesota Business Partnership issued a call for "smart spending" by state government.
Many of his prescriptions — setting priorities, defining outcomes, measuring results, paying for what works and fixing what doesn’t — will sound familiar because they echo the case Growth & Justice has been building over the past year.
But Weaver has it only half right, because he says government should spend only what the state has raised and not ask taxpayers for more. He uses the classic analogy of the family that must learn to live within its means. But families do not focus only on living within their means; they also try to increase their income so they can provide a better life for their children.
Minnesota should do the same.
Even the companies in Weaver’s organization don’t work the way he suggests. They raise capital to invest more where they believe they can get a return on investment.
A balanced business perspective is presented this week by Level CEO John Foley. Unfortunately, the headline of piece, "If the state were run like a business, we'd insist on results," misses this point Foley nails:
What makes Minnesota competitive is that we have consistently invested in increasing our standard of living and quality of life.
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