Innovators in Action Highlights Governments Reducing Costs, Improving Performance
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Innovators in Action Highlights Governments Reducing Costs, Improving Performance

Governor of Georgia, mayor of Indianapolis, CFO of Chicago, former Premier of New South Wales, and others detail ways to reduce spending, improve results

Now more than ever, governments at all levels should be looking for ways to cut costs and improve the quality of core services delivered to taxpayers. Reason Foundation’s annual Innovators in Action highlights good-government efforts that are saving taxpayers money and improving efficiency.

Edited by Reason’s Leonard Gilroy, Innovators in Action features:

  • Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue on partnering with the private sector for less bureaucracy and better government;
  • Chicago Chief Financial Officer Gene Saffold on privatizing the city’s parking meters;
  • Bob Carr, former Premier of New South Wales, Australia, explains how the private sector built vital infrastructure the government couldn’t afford;
  • Onvia Chief Information Officer Eric Gillespie shows why Recovery.org cost less than $100,000 but the government’s own website, Recovery.gov, is costing taxpayers $18 million, and illustrates how today’s data and technology can “bring high-level scrutiny to government spending”;
  • Oliver Porter, who helped launch the start-up city of Sandy Springs, Georgia, describes how governments can, and should, outsource many non-governmental functions.

Innovators in Action also contains in-depth interviews with:

  • Indianapolis Mayor Gregory Ballard:
  • Louisiana Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis;
  • Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek;
  • And Henry Garrigo, former Director of the Florida Council on Efficient Government.

“Amidst today’s massive deficits and red ink, we need government leaders who are willing to ditch the failed status quo and seek out better ways of doing things,” said Gilroy, director of government reform at Reason Foundation. “We hope the examples and experiences offered by these innovators will inspire reform-minded officials at all levels of government to provide better, leaner and cheaper government to taxpayers.”

Full Report Online

Innovators in Action 2009 is online here.

Previous editions of Innovators in Action are here.

About Reason Foundation

Reason Foundation is a nonprofit think tank dedicated to advancing free minds and free markets. Reason Foundation produces respected public policy research on a variety of issues and publishes the critically acclaimed Reason magazine and its website, Reason.com. For more information, please visit Reason.org.

Contact

Chris Mitchell, Director of Communications, Reason Foundation, (310) 367-6109