Gov. Doug Burgum said it's likely the state budget will have to be reduced from what former Gov. Jack Dalrymple proposed in his executive budget.
Burgum said he's already told his cabinet any amendments to that budget would likely mean cuts.
"We may see greater opportunities for efficiencies, so we may want to tackle some of those over the next two years," Burgum said in an interview. He also said he will take a very close look at revenue forecasts.
"If we lower the revenue forecast, we have to lower the budget," Burgum said. "We don;t want to go into the next two years with a revenue forecast that's overly optimistic, because then you're back in the process we had before, cutting budgets between Legislative sessions. Let's get a conservative revenue forecast and grow from there."
A new state revenue forecast is due in March.
Burgum said he’s already working on his proposal to “reinvent” government. He said he’s been meeting with agency heads, spending hours on looking at what the agencies do – and how much it costs.
"You might have something like child care, and you think it's just in human services," Burgum said. "But it's also in Commerce. And it may touch other agencies. The same with mental health and addiction."
Burgum said his new chief operating officer will be identifying these initiatives that cross a number of agencies.
"How do we make sure we're coordinated in our delivery," Burgum said. "How do we make sure everyone is operating off the same metrics. It all doesn't have to be in one place -- we just have to operate off the same scorecard."
Burgum emphasized it's not all about less money - it's about doing things more efficiently.
"The technology available today in many cases allows us to actually lower the cost and improve the service," Burgum said. "People will be told that if budgets go down, services will go down -- but there are plenty of cases in the business world where prices go down and service quality goes up."
Burgum said after ten years of growth, it’s a good time to take a look at spending.
