The Business of Government 
by Jeffrey W. Brown

As a quick overview each member serves on three committees; mine are Public Utilities and Telecommunications, Health and Human Services and Human Relations and Aging.  Given the breath of issues a typical state legislature addresses most of us gravitate to a degree of expertise in a few areas.  Mine have become healthcare, water and the budget.  As one example I recently chaired a sub-committee on Prescription Drugs for Low Income Seniors.  Another example is that I’m very involved in the Tri-State water compact negotiations with Georgia , Alabama and Florida .  

A recent water issue highlights how my belief in the free enterprise system can conflict with a vote.  Proponents of this particular water bill believe in a “Market Solution” to water permits, so they support allowing present permit holders who received them for free from the state to sell them.  I countered by saying that a Market Solution isn’t always best and cited Enron, predatory lending, healthcare and the fact that in my hometown of LaGrange, Georgia the citizens pay one third less from the city owned natural gas business and pay no property taxes for city services than people in Atlanta with a “Market Solution” and no property tax relief.

As legislators we approve a budget of over $16 billion.  In the early 80’s I managed a $70,000,000 budget for Milliken.  In the early 90’s I was elected to LaGrange City Council with a budget about the size of what I managed at Milliken.  However, the complexity of the City budget was about 10 times more so than the Milliken budget.  Obviously the $16 billion state budget is far more complicated.

In each 40 day session, I’ll cast over a 1000 votes covering a gamut of issues.  This has taught me better time management, increased my ability to objectively evaluate both sides of the issues, how my opponent a few minutes ago in one bill is needed on the next bill and has increased by use of evaluation based on principles.

Governor Perdue is in the process of revolutionizing state government.  For one thing he brought in a Chief Operating Officer who was formerly a Group President for Bank of America.  Until then and as other states do it all department heads report to the governor.  In Georgia that was over 40 departments with 74,000 state employees.  Also, Governor Perdue selected a Chief Financial Officer who has departments such as Revenue and Office of Planning and Budget reporting to the CFO.  Now our Governor only has 6 direct reports.

Stephen Covey’s, “Principle Centered Management” is a favorite of Governor Perdue.  He gave a copy to key people in his administration.  Covey was impressed with what the Governor is doing he came to Georgia and put on a three hour seminar for several hundred of us free of charge.

There is a lot that government can learn from business.  Correspondingly, business can learn from government.  It is stimulating for me to be in the middle of this dual learning experience.  I challenge you to consider giving some of your expertise to government and/or non-profit efforts.  You and they will benefit!