Missouri’s financial clock is ticking. It’s been nearly two months since Governor Kehoe announced during his State of the State address that he’d soon be establishing what he called a “Show-Me DOGE,” but we’re still waiting for that to actually happen.
While the governor’s announcement didn’t precisely outline what he had in mind for Show-Me DOGE (department of government efficiency) or the timeline for implementing it, there’s reason to believe such an endeavor would be worthwhile for Missouri. Given the numerous examples of waste found by the federal DOGE effort thus far, and the fact that Missouri’s budget has nearly doubled in the past five years, it’s likely that a closer look at our state finances would be able to uncover significant savings.
Last month, my colleague Aaron Hedlund and I published a guide for establishing a Missouri Office of Government Efficiency (MOGE). Our guide explained Missouri’s recent runaway spending growth, discussed the benefits of the executive branch leading the charge of finding inefficiencies and cost savings, and outlined key principles that would increase the likelihood of success for any DOGE-type effort.
The ideas from our guide were informed by the work of then-California Governor Ronald Reagan back in 1967 that used private funding and non-government experts to provide an unbiased outside perspective on California’s government. All told, Reagan’s effort was able to find more than 2,000 areas for reform in short order, and if all were implemented, would have saved taxpayers more than $500 million, which adjusted for inflation would amount to about $4.2 billion today. Unfortunately, only about half of Reagan’s recommendations were ultimately implemented.
Reagan’s experience makes it clear that buy-in from both the legislative and executive branches of Missouri’s government will be necessary for success. The good news is that both chambers of Missouri’s general assembly have already established their own committees on government efficiency and have begun working diligently.
It’s long past time for a serious effort in Jefferson City to rein in the state government’s excess, and it’s great news that so many of our elected officials have stated their interest in taking up the task. Missouri’s general assembly has already started its work. Now it’s the governor’s turn to follow suit and seize the opportunity to rightsize our state’s government.
