Policy Research Shop Testimony: May 6, 2014

Two PRS Policy Briefs Presented to the NH Commission on State Government Innovation, Efficiency, and Transparency

On May 6, 2014 three veteran Policy Research Shop students traveled to Concord to testify before the New Hampshire Commission on State Government Innovation, Efficiency, and Transparency—a commission formed by Governor Maggie Hassan. Seniors Ellen Daily, Ayushi Narayan, and Eric Yang presented their policy brief, “Bolstering Government Transparency in New Hampshire: An Evaluation of Challenges and Best Practices in Online Fiscal Transparency across the United States,” and responded to questions from Commission members.

In December of 2013, the Commission, chaired by Eric Herr, a member of the NH Charitable Foundation Board of Directors and former CEO of Autodesk, heard testimony from Professor Ronald G. Shaiko, director of the PRS, regarding the potential roles of the PRS in assisting the Commission. As a result of the testimony, Chairman Herr contacted Shaiko and proposed two projects—one from the Transparency Subcommittee and one from the Innovation Subcommittee. The policy brief produced by Daily, Narayan, and Yang completed the project for the Transparency Subcommittee.

Also at the May 6 testimony, Professor Shaiko presented a brief synopsis of the work produced for the Innovation Subcommittee by PRS students David Eads ’14, Edgar Sandoval ’14, and Lorelei Yang ’15. Due to scheduling conflicts, none of the students was available to testify in Concord. On May 15, 2014, all three students participated in an hour-long teleconference with Commission members serving on the Innovation Subcommittee. At that time, Eads, Sandoval, and Yang presented their policy brief, “New Hampshire State Government Customer Relationships Mapping: Developing an Efficient, Innovative, Customer-Driven Approach to Connect the State and its ‘Customers,’” to the subcommittee members and responded to their questions and comments.