My second session was at the beginning of the Great Recession and a billion dollars of state revenue evaporated. Programs had to be cut. I was glad I wasn't the staffer who said, "The governor's budget office calculation is wrong. Staff recommends ten days of furlough for all non-essential personnel, not the requested three." We took to letting all our calls go to voice messaging; having the people affected by the cuts we recommended scream at us in real time got old in a hurry.
The last part of my interview for a job with the Colorado legislature's joint budget committee was to take a bunch of information and with a 45-minute time limit, write a recommendation on what the committee should do. One of the JBC rules was that staff presentations always end with a "Staff recommends..." statement. The most common reason new analysts left at the end of the first session -- or sometimes mid-first session -- was that they had to choose. Not lay out six options and stop. Lay them out and say, "Staff recommends option three because..."
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My second session was at the beginning of the Great Recession and a billion dollars of state revenue evaporated. Programs had to be cut. I was glad I wasn't the staffer who said, "The governor's budget office calculation is wrong. Staff recommends ten days of furlough for all non-essential personnel, not the requested three." We took to letting all our calls go to voice messaging; having the people affected by the cuts we recommended scream at us in real time got old in a hurry.
The last part of my interview for a job with the Colorado legislature's joint budget committee was to take a bunch of information and with a 45-minute time limit, write a recommendation on what the committee should do. One of the JBC rules was that staff presentations always end with a "Staff recommends..." statement. The most common reason new analysts left at the end of the first session -- or sometimes mid-first session -- was that they had to choose. Not lay out six options and stop. Lay them out and say, "Staff recommends option three because..."