PUBLIC MANAGEMENT IN A TIME OF DECLINING RESOURCES.

In Minnesota, as in many states, construction, maintenance, and operating costs are increasing while highway revenues from gasoline consumption are decreasing. The result is a severe budgetary crisis that requires retrenchment of the organization. The retrenchment process at Minnesota's Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) involved several different approaches. Convincing the state's highway users and Mn/DOT's employees of the necessity for making large cutbacks was deemed essential, and numerous ways of accomplishing this were used. At the heart of retrenchment are decisions about who is to be laid off and what activities and projects are to be scaled down or terminated. The department used various methods to earmark such reductions.