Treasurer, auditor seek better results for Ohio tax dollars
There is something to be said for the fresh thinking that can come with turning various public offices over to new officeholders, especially in administrative positions where they can make immediate impact.
Two former Republican state legislators who won elections in 2018 to state executive offices — Keith Faber as state auditor and Robert Sprague as state treasurer — deserve credit for their new ideas in serving statutory responsibilities.
Both have employed creative thinking to suggest ways to obtain more value for taxpayer-funded programs.
Sprague was a state representative from 2011 through 2018 and previously had served the city of Findlay as auditor and treasurer. His background in finance and education as a mechanical engineer would suggest a conventional approach to his duties as state treasurer, but Sprague brought to his new office the same passion for tackling social problems that marked his legislative service.
In particular, he is committed to changing the high failure rates of people seeking treatment for drug addiction, with just about 15% being able to stay clean and sober and the rest returning to drug use and abuse.
The state now spends $1 billion a year on behavioral-health issues, most of it driven by drug addiction, Sprague told the Dispatch editorial board, but it hasn’t been able to fix the low recovery rate.
The idea behind Sprague’s Resultsohio proposal is to change the funding model to pay for better results but not risk public funds for continued low rates of success. This could apply to challenges as varied as addiction, criminal-justice recidivism, infant mortality, water quality and workforce training.
In brief, innovators who
believe they can produce better results would find a nonprofit willing to provide capital to test-drive their concept. Meanwhile, the state puts funds in an interest-bearing account that would repay the nonprofit with an agreed-upon interest rate if the innovation proves successful.
The first test of Sprague’s social investing approach is expected to be Zeroback, a program to help inmates in five state prisons secure jobs that match their interests when they are released, increasing their likelihood of staying out of prison. If Zeroback does not hit goals negotiated in advance, all risk would be borne by a nonprofit (not yet identified) and the state would pay nothing.
The Dispatch encourages lawmakers to approve $5 million that the Senate put in the next state budget to give Zeroback a try.
Faber was a state representative from 2001 through 2006 before being appointed and subsequently elected to the Ohio Senate, where he served as president from 2013 through 2016 before being termlimited in that seat and returning to the House for another term.
In a recently completed audit of the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Faber made recommendations for saving $2 million in state funds and improving effectiveness of $15 million more by shifting distribution to areas of greater need.
Historically, state funds have been distributed to Ohio’s 51 ADAMH boards based on previous allocations, but Faber called for development of a datadriven approach to target high-need counties for more state help.
We hope both Sprague and Faber will see their efforts produce better results for tax-funded initiatives. A focus on paying for results should be baked into more state-funded programs.