State Agencies Struggle to Perform Basic Functions, According to Self-Assessments

Wisconsin’s state government is struggling to achieve even its most basic goals, according to agencies’ recent budget requests.

Those requests include performance measures that the agencies get to select for themselves. Oftentimes agencies select easily achievable goals that seem to have little to do with their mission, and they yet still fall short.

The Department of Public Instruction, for example, is responsible for Wisconsin’s public schools, but none of its performance measures address academic achievement. Instead, most of them concern how many people access the department’s websites each year. Even with that contrived goal, DPI still failed.

The MacIver Institute examined the 2024 performance measures for the state’s largest agencies. Some had to be filtered out, like Transportation and Tourism, because data is not yet available for this year. That left nine agencies with budgets that exceed $100 million. Among them, there were a total of 102 performance measures, of which the agencies met the standards for 44 of them (43%).

Some of the most troubling failures occurred in the Departments of Children and Families (DCF), Military Affairs (DMA, the National Guard), Natural Resources (DNR), and Workforce Development (DWD).

DCF’s goal was to have 53% of childcare providers in the state achieve a rating of at least 3 out of 5 stars. Only 41% met that minimal goal, which means 59% of Wisconsin’s childcare providers deliver 2-star service or worse.

According to DMA’s report, the Wisconsin National Guard has failed to meet all of its strength and readiness goals for the past two years. Last year, barely half (54%) of Army National Guard units met their minimum readiness standards with the goal being 100%. That’s improved this year to about three-quarters (72%) with the goal again being 100%. Also last year, the National Guard met only half (50%) of its recruiting goal. That improved this year to 68.6%. The Wisconsin National Guard’s total strength is 8,406, which is 89% of its goal.

The most eye-catching failure in the DNR’s performance measures involves fatal recreational accidents. Its goal is to investigate all of them, but last year the DNR only managed to investigate 83% of fatal recreational accidents. Another glaring failure is the amount of time it takes the DNR to process wetlands permit applications. The standard is 30 days, but it takes the DNR nearly four times longer, with the average being 115 days.

DWD shows how an agency can meet some of its goals, but then have those goals undermined by one key failure. It exceeded its goals for providing post-secondary education and job training to people with disabilities, but then failed to meet its goals for finding them jobs.

Even when agencies do meet the goals established in their performance measures, it’s not necessarily something to celebrate. For example, the Department of Revenue (DOR) exceeded its DEI goal for the year. Wisconsin’s taxpayers must be relieved.

The Department of Corrections (DOC) met its goal of reducing recidivism rates, but over a third of criminals are still reconvicted. DOC also met its goal of reducing the number of overdose deaths in Wisconsin prisons, but there were still 146 of them this year.

The Department of Children and Families thankfully exceeded its goal of preventing children from being revictimized. Its goal was only 91%. To repeat, the Department of Children and Families set a goal of preventing only 91% of children from being revictimized, not 100%. Why was the goal not 100%?!

That wasn’t the only troubling goal that a state agency set for itself. The Department of Veterans Affairs hoped that at least 1,700 veterans would die this year and get buried in a state veterans cemetery. Fortunately, it missed that goal.

Government agencies rarely take much criticism for their lack of performance, but that possibility is baked into the budget process. After Gov. Evers delivers his budget proposal this winter, the Joint Committee on Finance will hold agency briefings. That’s when the department secretaries will make their case for more funding in the next state budget. That’s also when lawmakers have the opportunity to ask some tough questions about their performance over the previous two years.