Not only that, it calculates in advance how it can reduce expenditures in priority order if revenues turn south. If there are surpluses, it's ready, too, with a prioritized list of projects that don't build up the ongoing operating budget. Debt service was set at 6 percent of state revenues. Previously, capital spending had peaks and valleys that made it more difficult to plan. There is good oversight of procurement, as well as attention to professional training and certification.
Extra freedom is delegated to agencies that develop internal expertise.
Employees can develop purchase requests, solicit bids on the Web, award contracts and process payments electronically. Officials want to improve their use of performance measures in contracts and say they need better reporting mechanisms for commodity tracking and contract usage. It's in the process of developing an operations management system that will have extensive inventory and condition data. Of course, some people in the state might be just as happy not to have all this information. It is also an obviously unattainable figure, so the state has to prioritize projects carefully.