Budget Modernization Overview

Background: This was the final product, after condensing down over 800 pages of federal budgetary information. I was the project manager for this publication, and I drafted the language, assembled the layout, and put it all together for the Regional Forester to distribute to over 6,000 Forest Service employees.

Method of distribution: email
Format: pdf
Created in: Adobe InDesign

Budget Modernization Overview Pacific Northwest Region 6 - Regional Office USDA Forest Service November 2020
Cover: Cogwheel Gears (photo credit: Pavlofox/Pixabay.com) This Page: Okanagon-Wenatchee National Forest (formerly Chelan NF); 1909 Next Page: Bonus Bureau; Computing Division; 1924 (photo credit: Library of Congress) All photos credited to the United States Forest Service unless otherwise specified.
Decomplexification If four members of a Forest Service field crew leave the Ranger Station in a loaded truck and trailer and head west, traveling 46 miles per hour, and another crew of three leaves from the neighboring Ranger Station heading east in a van traveling 53 miles an hour, then how much money did we just spend? While it may sound like an imaginary story problem from a school-age mathematics textbook, our budgetary reality has often been even more complex. As any Forest Service employee who’s had to balance their time with seven or eight job codes can attest, it’s not an easy question to answer. But for the supervisors who have had to manage and balance all of those budgets, it could often be exceptionally and exponentially harder. Taking the time, energy and effort from people in office after office, year after year, our systems have grown exceedingly complicated while much of our day-to-day work still remains the same. But what if there was a better way?
our budget (before) In the past our regional budget was made up of lots of little budgets, each one a slice that would grow or shrink within the ebbs and flows of congressional appropriations. With a fixed amount of total money and limits on how we can use the funds within each individual slice, this system required balancing eleven separate budgets to make the whole pie fit, with one so small in comparison that it didn’t actually register in the making of this pie chart. Keeping in mind that this just a financial representation of the work that we all do, it’s important to note that some of these slices are essential and of great importance. The largest investment and biggest slice of the pie represents our people, and the money that we provide in the form of base pay for all of your paychecks. As our number one priority our people have always been the first thing that we’ll pay for, and in this Region that now comes out to about 65% of our total budget.
In addition to making sure we had enough for base pay, we’ve also done the same for everyone’s truck and office. With fleet costs averaging about 4% and office leases and rent costing another 5%, the total percentage of our appropriated budget going to these three things, paychecks, workspaces and work vehicles, was coming out to be over 74% and rising every single year. With just 26% of the total budget left, the rest of the money could then be divided and distributed with funds being split into seven different budget categories. All together these slices represented all of our Regional costs. And to pay for it all, every year we go to Congress, who then chooses to give us a certain amount of funding in the form of appropriations. Bound and limited by law on what we can then use that money for, we’ve had to be very meticulous when it comes to our planning and documentation, and over the years we’ve dedicated a lot of time and energy trying to make all of these slices fit. But unfortunately, over the years, some of these costs have really been rising. Base pay and personnel costs have been rising about 5% per year. Fleet and fuel, utility bills and real estate pretty much everywhere across the Pacific Northwest have also increased in price, and over the years these fluctuations have really contributed to our budgetary instability. Making life much more challenging than it had to be, the uncertainty was then spread out as complexity trickled down; from the Regional level to the Forests, from the Forest to the District and from the District to each individual staff area. Growing unwieldy and unsustainable, this process required layers of redundancy and Regional oversight, and the timelines involved for most everything from project approval to the final disbursement of funds reflected that reality. At the end of the day it just wasn’t an ideal system. It was hard for the end user, who was never sure how much money was going to be left. It was hard for the budget staff, who had to track all of those pennies and it wasn’t great for the folks who wanted to give us more money - our Congressional appropriators.
our budget (after) Starting with the same total amount, the way that we’re doing our budget now is a lot like how we were doing it before, in that we’re still dividing it into smaller slices. But instead of ten or eleven slices, we’ve divided all of our costs into just four different categories. Still coming in as our number one priority, the salary and expenses of our permanent workforce makes up that same 65% as before, only now instead of making the units manage those costs we’re going to take care of paying everyone’s paychecks out of the Regional Office. Also staying the same as before are the amounts set aside for our leases, rent and fleet, but instead of being separated into two different categories we’ve combined them, and we’re going to take care of paying all of those bills at the Regional level as well. What this means is that all of our employees are still going to get paid. And instead of a spreadsheet of different job codes to balance, most everyone’s going to be charging their time to just one single job code; a code that’s been set aside for just our salary and expenses.
For folks on the Forest and people in the field, it also means that you no longer have to worry about paying any of those bills. You don’t have to worry about paying your office rent, and you’re not going to have to worry about paying for most of the trucks in your parking lot. All of those costs are going to be covered, and combined they’re still going to make up the same 74% of the budget that they did when we were doing it the old way. With the rest of the money, instead of diving it up into seven smaller slices we’re just going to split it up into two separate categories: Unit Discretionary Funds and Unit Salary and Expenses. Giving units full discretion, these funds can be used for any number of purposes, and it will now be left up to each individual unit on how they want to best spend their money. For expenses like temporary salary, overtime, travel, training and uniforms units will be able charge to their own, self managed salary & expenses fund. For almost everything else we’ve given the ability to local units to just lump all of their other discretionary spending into one, easy to manage slice. Grants and agreements, materials and supplies, contracts and other miscellaneous expenses can now all be covered by each unit’s discretionary fund, and all of the newfound freedom should provide for a lot of local latitude, wiggle room and leeway. Shovel ready projects should be easier and quicker to get off the ground. Cooperating and collaborating should be a lot easier and streamlined, at least financially, and these changes should make it a lot easier for us to be able to make a case for how we might want to spend any additional Congressional appropriations. It’s decomplexification at its core, and while it may be a little different it truly is for the greatest good, for the greatest number and for hopefully the longest time.
Managing talent: headcounts Increasing stability in both workload and turnover, the management of salary at the Regional level should also provide for a more smooth and seamless transition between employees. Looking at the current levels of both our permanent and seasonal employees, we’ve translated the numbers and positions from each unit’s organizational charts and have created a list, where we’re going to count the number of people so that we can make sure that we have enough money in our salary and expenses fund. As almost everybody is being paid out of this Regionally managed fund, what this means is that when a position under the headcount becomes vacant, the local unit can then fill it right away using a detailer or temporary promotion. The Regional Office will still pay for the salary, and if there’s any temporary duty costs they can be charged straight to the unit’s salary and expenses fund. Designed to keep the work going, this system of counting our people is how we’re going to grow our stability. We’ve always had limits on how many people we could hire and how many positions we could have on our org charts, but with salary being managed at the Regional level we can now leverage the gains and spread out the stability across the units. Knowing how big the largest slice of the pie is going to be, with the consistency in overall number of employees, is what’s going to give us the ability to create all of our local unit discretionary funds. It’s how we can keep those funds stable, year in and year out, and it’s how we can give you the ability to do your work differently, at the local level and beyond. But managing talent is more than just making sure people get paid. It involves awards and recognition, and incentives that our Region is going to be even better equipped to provide.
awards & transfer of station One of the bigger changes that possibly effects every employee is the equalization in how we’re going to start handling the issuing of monetary awards. Instead of being limited by available funds at the local or program level, all of our cash awards are now going to be funded at the Regional level, out of the same salary and expenses fund that we use for paychecks. With local units retaining the ability to issue awards and the Regional Office providing funding, we now have the opportunity to level the playing the field when it comes to rewarding our top performers. People that work hard should always be recognized, but now instead of being rewarded at different levels for the same work, we can make sure that everyone gets a shot at being rewarded equally. In all of our offices. And for all of their hard work that goes above and beyond when it comes to accomplishing our mission. Of course monetary awards aren’t the only tool in our belt, so to speak, and when it comes to rewarding and retaining our top talent we’ve also given our local units the ability to provide for non-monetary awards out of their own, self managed salary and expenses fund. In addition to our myriad of different ways of awarding and rewarding our existing Regional employees, we also want to make sure that we have the ability recruit the best and the brightest for when our vacancy announcements come up. By managing our transfer of station costs at the Regional level, we can do the same thing that we did for awards and make sure that everyone gets a chance. With the Regional Office funding and local units deciding the level of transfer of station to offer, we can work together to offer the most compelling reasons for people to want to come here. But we’ll have to do it together. Because even though we would love nothing more to be able to fill every position, to give them all transfer of station costs, and to give everybody awards, the reality is that we’re going to have to be a little strategic. We’re going to have to be good about watching our costs, but it doesn’t mean that there’s not going to be money. It just means that we’re going to have to be a smarter about it.
managing costs: fleet & leases Wrapping up our last section of thinking smarter and not harder, we’ve included and combined the management of our essential fleet and leases. Critical in our ability to be able to do work and to deliver on the mission, our jeeps and trucks and offices and garages are a cost that definitely needs to be paid. Which is why we’re going to make sure that happens, by managing and leveraging our costs out of the Regional Office. It’s no secret that vehicles cost more than they used to. And while market values fluctuate, the overall trend for rent and real estate costs have increased dramatically over past few years. And while we need these things to do our jobs, the truth and the reality is that things have changed over the past twenty five years. The way we do our work is different. The tools and the offices and shops have all changed over the course of the past few generations, and while we value our history we’re always looking ahead for the long run. And for the greater good. Keeping that in mind, most vehicles will now be funded and planned under one job code. Units will still plan and manage their fleet costs associated with Working Capital Funds (WCF), permanent appropriations and trusts (Perms and Trusts) and any Reimbursable and Advance Collection Agreements (RACA), but for the most part the Regional Office will plan and manage our fleet costs that are associated with appropriated funds. Just like the Regional Office is now going to be taking care of paying the rent. It’s two less things for each local unit to have to manage. Two less things for them to have to pay. But they’re two more bills that we’ve always had to pay for, so at the end of the day everything’s still going to kind of be the same. The only thing’s that’s really different is the way that we keep track. It’s more modern. It’s hopefully less complicated, confusing and complex. It’s well intended. And we hope that it’s also well received.
planning: for the future Moving forward, the biggest takeaway from our Regional budget modernization efforts is going to be all of the newfound freedom and discretion that local units are going to have when they now receive their budgets. With people, vehicles and offices mostly covered there’s going to be a lot more time for people at the Forest and District levels to plan how they want to spend their funds. It’s going to be a slightly different way of going about doing our work, for sure, but it’s also going to be more transparent. More stable. But most importantly, it’s going to be the way that we’re able to keep and maintain your discretion. We’re going to be figuring out a lot together over the next upcoming fiscal year. The way that we fill positions, how much space the office of the future might need and how we go about making the most of our budget; these are all topics that deserve the involvement of every one of our employees. Because it’s not THE budget. It’s OUR budget. And the American people are counting on us to spend it right.
Photo: Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest United States Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region 1220 SW 3rd Ave Portland, Oregon 97204 The USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.