On April 12, 2000, the House of Representatives passed out Senate Bill 281, an act relating to missions and measures to be applied to certain expenditures by the executive branch of state government and the University of Alaska from the state operating budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2001.

The purpose of this Act is to state the missions, when expending money appropriated by the operating budget for the fiscal year 2001, for the departments of state government and for those divisions within departments that the legislature reviewed in 2000 and, in some cases, to set out performance measures for divisions or programs within divisions. All departments of state government shall be held accountable for their actions, including compliance with the recommendations of legislative audits as directed by the legislature.

SB 281 is the culmination of six-year effort to bring "results-based budgeting" to Alaska, part of an effort to help make the budget more accessible and relevant to the public. Establishing missions and measures means all parties have agreed on what departments are supposed to do with the public's money, and on ways to determine how well they are doing it. It means we can devote more resources to the programs that work for Alaskans, and refocus or eliminate programs that don't.

Missions and measures are part of the Senate and House Majorities' affirmation to continue results-based budgeting, a cornerstone of the Majorities' Commitment for a smaller and smarter state government.

The following pages show an illustration of how missions and measures work and a historical retrospective on how the Republican-led Majority advanced the yardstick for bringing accountability to state spending.

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