OMB has issued budget guidance calling on agencies to provide a separate section in their fiscal 2012 budget proposals identifying “place-based" programs or initiatives they believe show promise for achieving better outcomes and giving special emphasis to those that promote economic growth.
According to the memo – M-10-21 – place-based policies can influence how rural and metropolitan areas develop, how well they function as places to live, work or operate a business, and they can leverage investments by focusing resources in targeted places and drawing on the compounding effect of cooperative effort.
OMB issued similar guidance last year. It gave as an example coordinated efforts by the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and the EPA in decisions such as how and where to lay water lines between city centers and outlying areas.
The guidance notes that doing so without regard to transit, accommodations for affordable housing or linkages to job centers can lead to higher maintenance costs, and eventually subsidy requirements.
Also due September 13 as part of agency budget submissions, agencies are to identify existing place-based programs or policies that are not cost effective and that they would propose to reduce, terminate, or significantly restructure due to inefficiencies or ineffectiveness.
