Urban honored for efforts to improve government

State Rep. Diana Urban, D-North Stonington, who has pushed the state to implement a budgeting program that requires agencies to provide data that shows their programs are successful in order to be funded, was honored last week for her work by a New Haven-based organization.

The nonpartisan Community Indicators Consortium gave Urban its Hall of Heroes Award at a summit for having significant, long-term impact on the indicators field and improvement of community conditions and well being. Community indicators are measurements that provide insight into whether a community is improving, declining or staying the same.

"We must create sustainable budgets that reward programs that produce results and a positive return on investment for taxpayers," Urban said in statement released by her office.

Urban, who is chairwoman of the House of Representatives Results Based Accountability Subcommittee, has received other awards for her work on RBA such as being named Governing Magazine's Public Official of the Year in 2010.