New Hampshire ranks last in state management

While New Hampshire may be number one in our hearts, it’s number 50 when it comes to government performance. A recent report released by the Pew Center on the States ranked New Hampshire last in terms of state management. Poor financial reporting, inefficient human resource management, aging infrastructure and ineffective information management earned New Hampshire a D+ in the 2008 “State Management Report Card.”

The Pew Center on the States hopes to help New Hampshire and other states improve by pointing out weaknesses, showcasing good practices and working with government officials to implement changes.

“Our mission is to improve service to the public by strengthening state government policy and management,” said Neal Johnson, director of the Pew Center’s Government Performance Project. “The mission of our organization is really to improve service to citizens.”

The report card gauges state performance in four key areas, assessing how well each state manages money, people, infrastructure and information. Based on the findings of a team of journalists and academics, each state is assigned a grade. Within the four management areas, New Hampshire received a C- for money, a D for people, a D+ for infrastructure and a D+ for information.

The national average this year was a B-, while top ranking states Utah, Virginia and Washington each earned an A-. Maine and Massachusetts each received a C, while Vermont earned a B-.

This is the GPP’s fourth effort to evaluate the managerial capacity of all 50 states. New Hampshire earned a C in the last report card, issued in 2005.  

“We feel very firmly that our criteria is solid, our methodology is a strong one, which has been tested over time, and we’re quite confident that the suggestions we’ll be making will be grounded in best practices,” Johnson said. 

The Pew Center’s report card provides a brief explanation of why New Hampshire ranked last. What follows is a selection of quotes pulled from the text of the report:

• There is a myth that New Hampshire’s fiscally conservative state culture creates frugal but fit government—no taxes, no frills, no problem. In truth, while New Hampshire may provide fewer services than other states, the notion that its finances are emblematic of old-fashioned New England Puritanism just isn’t true.

• New Hampshire has such weak data-sharing systems that it doesn’t know how much it spends each month—kind of like an average Joe who’s lost his checkbook.

•  The Budget Office—actually, the budget director, since there’s just one person in the office—is mired in the same Catch—22 as the rest of the state: stretched too thin today to prepare for tomorrow.

New Hampshire’s aging workforce suggests that the state will be unprepared to meet future challenges, according to the report. Johnson estimates that up to 60 percent of the employees in managerial positions in New Hampshire could retire within the next two years. “Without succession planning, that’s going to create some real gaps and recruiting challenges,” he said.

While New Hampshire isn’t the only state facing aging issues, other states are more prepared. “In the advanced states, they monitor down to the individual employee who is about to retire, what kind of succession plans there are in place and what kind of recruiting efforts the state is doing. These are the kinds of planning activities that can help a state better manage and serve its citizens,” Johnson said.

But some New Hampshire officials disagree with the report and its findings. According to Colin Manning, press secretary for Gov. John Lynch, the report is an attack on New Hampshire’s constitution.

“Quite frankly, as the governor said, it’s quite offensive that an outside entity would come in and criticize our system of government that has worked well for over 200 years,” Manning said.

Melvin Dubnick, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire, agrees that the Pew Center was probably working with limited information. But he hopes the report will help create a dialogue about the challenges New Hampshire faces.

“In one way, it’s a bum rap, but it does reflect the fact that New Hampshire does not get involved in these sorts of benchmarking. It really is a critique that the state doesn’t do this sort of self-assessment,” Dubnick said. “I don’t think this is saying the state is falling apart, there is just a lack of information.”

Right now, there is no major collaboration between UNH and the state government. Dubnick believes both the state and the university would benefit from working together to address the state’s challenges.

“We are a resource waiting to be tapped and willing to be tapped,” he said.

In other states, there is a place for local governments to go for information about best practices, but New Hampshire lacks any such focal point, he added. The Pew Center hopes to help fill the information gap.

“As we’ve indicated to the governors’ offices, we are looking forward to providing additional information, shine a spotlight on best practices other states have implemented and provide some specific recommendations in each of the management areas,” Johnson said.

According to Manning, New Hampshire is open to talking with the Pew Center.

“Look, we’re always working to improve. We’re working on fixing the retirement system, improve the roads and bridges and improve education funding,” Manning said.

But, he maintained, “We’ll keep our system of government, despite what any outside group says.”

To view the report card and learn more about how other states stack up, go to the newsroom at www.pewcenteronthestates.org.