Using a Performance Budgeting System : Lessons from the Texas Experience

This chapter is a case study on the use of performance information to improve results in Texas state government from 1993 to 2002, including 10,249 pairs of observations for five bienna of performance data. It provides a number of statistical observations about the agencies that improved and those that did not, noting that most with increased performance mirrored demographic trends. Target achievement was highest among the agencies of the judiciary, but with the lowest levels of improvement, while target achievement was lowest among human service agencies, but with the highest levels of improvement. This suggests a serious mismatch between target setting and performance gains in the Texas system. Recommendations include setting targets that would improve performance