PERFORMANCE AUDIT REPORT
Low-Priority Programs in Kansas: Identifying Them and the Costs Associated With Operating Them
A Report to the Legislative Post Audit Committee By the Legislative Division of Post Audit State of Kansas February 2009
09PA05 Legislative Post Audit Committee Legislative Division of Post Audit
THE LEGISLATIVE POST Audit Committee and or committees should make their requests for its audit agency, the Legislative Division of Post performance audits through the Chairman or any Audit, are the audit arm of Kansas government. other member of the Committee. Copies of all The programs and activities of State government completed performance audits are available from now cost about $13 billion a year. As legislators the Division’s offi ce. and administrators try increasingly to allocate tax dollars effectively and make government work more effi ciently, they need information to evaluate the work of governmental agencies. The audit work LEGISLATIVE POST AUDIT COMMITTEE performed by Legislative Post Audit helps provide that information. Representative Virgil Peck Jr., Chair Representative Tom Burroughs We conduct our audit work in accordance Representative John Grange with applicable government auditing standards Representative Peggy Mast set forth by the U.S. Government Accountability Representative Tom Sawyer Offi ce. These standards pertain to the auditor’s professional qualifi cations, the quality of the audit Senator Terry Bruce, Vice-Chair work, and the characteristics of professional and Senator Anthony Hensley meaningful reports. The standards also have been Senator Derek Schmidt endorsed by the American Institute of Certifi ed Senator Chris Steineger Public Accountants and adopted by the Legislative Senator Dwayne Umbarger Post Audit Committee.
The Legislative Post Audit Committee is a LEGISLATIVE DIVISION OF POST AUDIT bipartisan committee comprising fi ve senators and fi ve representatives. Of the Senate members, three 800 SW Jackson are appointed by the President of the Senate and Suite 1200 two are appointed by the Senate Minority Leader. Topeka, Kansas 66612-2212 Of the Representatives, three are appointed by the Telephone (785) 296-3792 Speaker of the House and two are appointed by the FAX (785) 296-4482 Minority Leader. E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://kslegislature.org/postaudit Audits are performed at the direction of Barbara J. Hinton, Legislative Post Auditor the Legislative Post Audit Committee. Legislators
DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA FOR IMPROVED GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY OR COST SAVINGS?
The Legislative Post Audit Committee and the Legislative Division of Post Audit have launched an initiative to identify ways to help make State government more effi cient. If you have an idea to share with us, send it to [email protected], or write to us at the address above.
You won’t receive an individual response, but all ideas will be reviewed, and Legislative Post Audit will pass along the best ones to the Legislative Post Audit Committee.
The Legislative Division of Post Audit supports full access to the services of State government for all citizens. Upon request, Legislative Post Audit can provide its audit reports in large print, audio, or other appropriate alternative format to accommodate persons with visual impairments. Persons with hearing or speech disabilities may reach us through the Kansas Relay Center at 1-800-766-3777. Our offi ce hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. LEGISLATURE OF KANSAS
LEGISLATIVE DIVISION OF POST AUDIT
800 SOUTHWEST JACKSON STREET, SUITE 1200 TOPEKA, KANSAS 66612-2212 TELEPHONE (785) 296-3792 FAX (785) 296-4482 E-MAIL: [email protected]
February 9, 2009
To: Members, Legislative Post Audit Committee
Representative Virgil Peck, Chair Senator Terry Bruce, Vice-Chair Representative Tom Burroughs Senator Anthony Hensley Representative John Grange Senator Derek Schmidt Representative Peggy Mast Senator Chris Steineger Representative Tom Sawyer Senator Dwayne Umbarger
This report contains the fi ndings and conclusions from our completed performance audit, Low-Priority Programs in Kansas: Identifying Them and Reviewing the Costs Associated with Operating Them.
The report also contains an appendix showing the instructions that the audited entities received to complete this audit.
We would be happy to discuss the fi ndings presented in this report with any legislative committees, individual legislators, or other State offi cials.
Barbara J. Hinton Legislative Post Auditor READER’S GUIDE
The Big Picture The Details Used to describe key aspects Provides an overview of the of the audited agency; Executive Summary questions we asked and the “At-a-Glance Box” generally appears in the fi rst answers we found few pages of the main report
Located at the end of the Conclusions and report sections, and Point out key issues and Recommendations referenced in the Side Headings fi ndings Executive Summary
Included as the last Charts, Tables, Visually help tell the story Agency Response Appendix in the report and Graphs of what we found
Lists all fi gures Highlight interesting List of Figures used in the report and their Narrative Text Boxes information or provide location (as shown at the end detailed examples of the Executive Summary)
This audit was conducted by Katrin Osterhaus, Nathan Ensz, Alex Gard, Brenda Heafey, Brad Hoff, Laurel Murdie, Lindsay Rousseau, and Scott Frank. Leo Hafner was the audit manager. If you need any additional information about the audit’s fi ndings, please contact Katrin Osterhaus at the Division’s offi ces.
Legislative Division of Post Audit 800 SW Jackson Street, Suite 1200 Topeka, Kansas 66612
(785) 296-3792 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.kslegislature.org/postaudit Table of Contents
Which Programs in State Government are Low-Priority Programs, and What Are the Costs Associated With Them?
This Audit Gives Legislators a Different Way of Looking at State Agency Expenditures ...... page 3
Agencies Varied in the Ways They Provided the Information Requested In Our Data Collection Document ...... page 6
Agency Programs and Subprograms in the “Buy Last or Don’t Buy” Categories Would Represent About $523 Million in Estimated State Spending for Fiscal Year 2009 ...... page 8
Separate Analyses We Conducted Showed The State Spends A Signifi cant Amount For Non-Mandated Medicaid and Special Education Services ...... page 14
Question 1 Conclusion...... page 15
Tables of State-Funded Programs Included in This Audit ...... page 16
List of Figures
Figure 1-1: State Programs and Subprograms Priortized by the Agencies Revised Estimated, Expenditures for Fiscal Year 2009 ...... page 10-11 Figure 1-2: Examples of Programs Prioritized by Agencies as “Buy Last,” Revised Estimated Expenditures for Fiscal Year 2009 ...... page 12-13 Figure 1-3: Cost Comparison of Providing Mandatory and Optional Medicaid Services to Mandatory and Optional Medicaid Populations in State Dollars, Fiscal Year 2009 ...... page 14
List of Appendices
Appendix A: Scope Statement ...... page 237 Appendix B: Instruction Sheet for the LPA Data Collection Instrument ...... page 238
Low-Priority Programs in Kansas: Identifying Them and the Costs Associated With Operating Them Governments establish and fund programs to address perceived public needs that exist at a particular point in time. Once a program is established, it tends to be funded incrementally from year to year, without questioning whether it is critical to achieving an agency’s core mission or purpose, whether the program is achieving the goals the agency established for it, and whether it has outlived its original purpose. When revenues decline during economic downturns, existing programs typically are trimmed back, but aren’t necessarily looked at for potential elimination. Legislative interest has been expressed in reviewing agencies’ State-funded programs to determine which ones are most critical to protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the public and accomplishing agency missions, and which ones may be less critical or may no longer contribute to the core missions of the agencies that operate them.
This performance audit answers the following question:
Which programs in State government are low-priority programs, and what are the costs associated with them?
To answer this question, we identifi ed agencies that each spent more than $4 million annually in State dollars—from the State General Fund or from four other State funds that can be used to fi nance general State expenditures. We developed a uniform data- collection document and asked offi cials from each selected agency to identify, describe, and provide certain expenditure and demographic information about the various State-funded programs or subprograms they operate. Also, we asked offi cials to prioritize those programs by indicating which ones they would “buy fi rst, buy next, and buy last” if State moneys available to fund those programs were limited.
Within the “buy last” category, we also asked agencies to identify any programs they would recommend not funding, even if moneys were available in the future. Finally, we conducted supplemental analyses looking at the costs the State incurs in the Medicaid Program by providing optional services to optional populations, and in the Special Education Program by providing non-mandatory services for gifted students.
A copy of the scope statement for this audit approved by the Legislative Post Audit Committee is included in Appendix A. For reporting purposes, we’ve modifi ed the question somewhat.
PERFORMANCE AUDIT REPORT 1 Legislative Division of Post Audit 09PA05 February 2009 We conducted this performance audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards, with certain exceptions. The standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain suffi cient and appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our fi ndings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. Because this was essentially an audit that asked numerous agencies to inventory, describe, and prioritize the many programs and subprograms they operate, we had to rely in large part on the self- reported information they provided. We did limited reliability testing of some of the information agencies reported. Those tests included comparing the actual 2008 and estimated 2009 aggregate State expenditures agencies reported to the numbers shown in the Governor’s Budget Report for Fiscal Year 2010, checking statutory citations for a sample of agency programs, checking the math for all the dollar fi gures agencies reported, and, at a high level, comparing program information compiled by the Legislative Research Department with the programs agencies had reported to us. We also discussed with agency offi cials anything they had submitted on their data-collection document that appeared to us to be a potential reporting problem. We didn’t test the other data agencies self-reported, such as program and subprogram-level expenditures, the amounts of federal funding listed for each program, agencies’ assertions about whether or how much federal funding would be lost if State funding for certain programs or subprograms were eliminated, or whether certain items had already been included in their reduced-resource budgets. Regarding the latter issue, the Legislature will need to obtain additional information from agency offi cials before any policy decisions are made. Although the steps we took can’t provide absolute assurance that the information agencies reported is accurate, we think they were suffi cient to provide a reasonable level of assurance that this information isn’t grossly inaccurate or incomplete, and that it provides a reasonable basis for any fi ndings and conclusions contained in this report. Still, the reader should consider the limitations of the testwork we were able to do in reviewing the information provided.
2 PERFORMANCE AUDIT REPORT Legislative Division of Post Audit 09PA05 February 2009 Question 1: Which Programs in State Government Are Low-Priority Programs, and What Are the Costs Associated With Them?
ANSWER IN BRIEF: To help identify programs that have the lowest priority in relation to State agencies’ core missions and objectives, we asked agencies to identify and prioritize their programs and subprograms that receive at least some State funding into “buy fi rst, buy next, buy last, or don’t buy” categories. Agencies were asked to put about 80% of their State program funding in the “buy fi rst” category, and about 10% each in the “buy next” and “buy last” categories. This approach was intended to give agency offi cials and legislators a different look at State spending— if State funding is reduced, could some whole programs or subprograms be eliminated, rather than reducing staffi ng or service levels but leaving those programs intact?
Agencies placed programs, subprograms, and some activities accounting for about $500 million in State spending into the “buy last” category. Those included such diverse programs and subprograms as correctional facilities or other program sites, substantial highway maintenance projects, and provider rates or grants for various services. Many agency offi cials cautioned that the programs and subprograms they put into the “buy last” category were critical to their missions or to the people of Kansas, but that they had placed them there to fulfi ll the audit instructions. Agencies reported that the costs for some of these programs and subprograms have been reduced in their fi scal year 2009 or 2010 budgets.
Several agencies also put about $23 million in State spending for programs or subprograms into the “don’t buy” category. Those included closing a juvenile correctional facility, eliminating payment ineffi ciencies from the Medicaid Program, and eliminating the funeral assistance program. Agencies reported they already had cut essentially all these costs in their fi scal year 2009 or 2010 budgets.
This Audit Gives The Legislative Post Audit Committee approved this audit on November Legislators a 18, 2008. In deciding how to answer the audit question and still have Different Way of information ready for use during the 2009 legislative session, we had Looking at two choices: conduct an in-depth review of all programs in a few State Agency State agencies, or ask a large number of agencies to compile summary Expenditures information about and prioritize their own programs and subprograms. While the fi rst approach would have allowed us to draw conclusions and make recommendations about the priority level and need for those programs, it would have provided limited usefulness during this legislative session because of its more narrow focus. As a result, with the approval of the Legislative Post Audit Committee, we chose the second approach. PERFORMANCE AUDIT REPORT 3 Legislative Division of Post Audit 09PA05 February 2009 That approach will give legislators a different way of looking at a number of State agencies’ expenditures. When faced with having to reduce spending, agency offi cials and policymakers often look at such actions as hiring freezes or across-the-board reductions in agency budgets. In recent years, however, several states have begun to look more closely at the programs and services government offers in an attempt to prioritize government spending. For example, the state of Washington started prioritizing its governmental activities in 2002 in response to revenue shortfalls that followed the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Under a results-based framework called “Priorities of Government,” executive-branch leaders and agency experts worked together to establish a process for focusing on statewide outcomes as the criteria for government spending, rather than on incremental increases of expenditures in individual agencies. In general, that process involves the following: