Create a growth cabinet
Action
The Governor can create a sub-cabinet or other subset of his or her cabinet that can bring interagency focus to the growth issues facing the state. A sub-cabinet can share information, encourage interagency collaboration, and jointly target growth-related state spending and investment. Sub-cabinet members could include the secretaries of transportation, housing, planning, natural resources, environment, economic development, education, health, administration or general services, and budget and finance. Although these agencies control the majority of capital spending in most states, they too often operate independently. As a result, state infrastructure spending is underused as a tool for achieving growth objectives. Sharing information, cross-departmental cooperation, and coordinating spending decisions across state agencies through a growth sub-cabinet is critical to supporting a balanced and equitable development pattern.
Process
The sub-cabinet could be established administratively, by executive order, or by statute and given the responsibility and authority to share information, require cross-departmental cooperation, and coordinate the budget decisions of the transportation, environment, housing, education, and state facilities agencies. The sub-cabinet should have clear goals and consistent direction (see Policy #4, Establish a set of measurable state development goals, in this section). Specific goals for each agency should be defined through a process in which agencies propose how to implement the vision and principles described in Policies #2, Articulate a vision for how the state should grow and #3, Establish a set of state development principles, in this section. The Governor should appoint someone to head the sub-cabinet and grant that person the authority to make investment decisions. The chair of the sub-cabinet should answer directly to the Governor. The chair should have authority to press individual departments to strengthen their implementation efforts. (See Policy #6, Align state programs with state development principles and goals, in this section.) The sub-cabinet must also designate senior staff from within member agencies who are responsible for follow-up actions. The sub-cabinet should meet regularly, ideally every week or two, to engage in joint decision making.
Example
- Massachusetts Office of Commonwealth Development
The Massachusetts Office of Commonwealth Development, established in 2003 under Governor Mitt Romney, was created to coordinate the capital and discretionary spending decisions of the state's transportation, housing, environment, and energy departments. This "super secretariat" coordinated these departments at different levels starting from the OCD cabinet to staff working groups. Among its accomplishments are increasing multi-family housing by three times over three years, the passing of the Smart Growth Zoning Act, the development of the Massachusetts Climate Action Plan, successful city revival projects, such as in Worcester, and the thwarting or transformation of destructive projects.
— EPA 2006 Naitonal Award for Smart Growth Achievement
— Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research 2005 Better Government Competition - Arizona's Growth Cabinet
Governor Janet Napolitano established Arizona's Growth Cabinet by Executive Order in January 2007. The Cabinet coordinates state agency activities and collaborates with cities, towns, and Tribal communities to develop and implement a smart growth and development process that integrates land and water use planning and development with the planning and development of existing and future state infrastructure. The Cabinet is made up of the directors (or their designees) of fifteen state agencies.
— Arizona Department of Commerce, Office of Smart Growth - New York's Smart Growth Cabinet
In December 2007, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer issued Executive Order 20 creating a Smart Growth Cabinet. The cabinet consists of high-level policy-makers from various state agencies that have an impact on growth and development patterns. The cabinet is chaired jointly by the Governor's Deputy Secretary for the Environment and the Deputy Secretary for Economic Development and Infrastructure.
— Executive Order 20 - Virginia's Sub-Cabinet on Community Investment
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine signed Executive Order 69 in June 2008 creating the new Sub-Cabinet on Community Investment and directed his cabinet and executive branch agencies to work with the sub-cabinet to make investment decisions. Membership includes the secretaries of Natural Resources, Administration, Commerce and Trade, Finance, and Transportation. The purpose of the sub-cabinet is "to provide advice to the Commonwealth on the use of existing state discretionary funds to ensure that investment decisions promote economically and environmentally sustainable communities."
— Executive Order 69
