Doesn't Anybody at the Governor's Office Own a Calculator? Stupid Government Tricks, Part 3

Gov. Ted Strickland last week announced that tuition could rise $2,000 per student if he’s forced to balance the state budget by spending cuts. He may need to take a little closer look at how he’s spending money for higher education, and what his Board of Regents is telling him.

Gov. Strickland asked the agencies to assume they needed to make a 25% cut. According to its web site, the Ohio Board of Regents – think of it as “the Department of Colleges” – has a budget of $1.96 billion for 2008. A 25% cut would be about $500 million.

The Board of Regents told Gov. Strickland their 25% cut would result in a college tuition hike of $2,000 per student. He repeated it publicly.

Now, Ohio has about 478,000 students, who are hopefully paying more attention than I did in undergrad. At $2 grand a pop – that’s almost a billion dollars. Set that off against the budget cut and… the Board of Regents makes a half billion dollar profit.

Doesn’t anybody in the Governor’s office own a calculator?

But that’s the trouble with asking bureaucrats how to cut the budget. They can’t. State bureaucrats are not motivated by what’s best for the public – they are motivated by what’s best for the way their agency serves the public. Put another way, they are self-interested – their mission is the most important of all government missions.

Instead of letting the directors decide where those cuts happen, Gov. Strickland and his staff need to find out exactly what goes on in the vast state government, and set its priorities. What does government do, and why and how does it do it? They decide, not the bureaucrats.

It’s hard work to do it that way. It might require leaving the 30th floor of the Riffe Tower -- but some things can't be delegated. It's not smart to ask the foxes to design the henhouse security.

Recommended reading: Bureacracy, by James Q. Wilson