Jack Markell Announces A Blueprint for Fiscal Responsbility in Delaware

At 10 AM today,  Jack Markell announced and released his plan for fiscal responsibility in Delaware State government.    This very specific plan marks a definite departure from the current fiscal path and tries to plan now for the expected downturn in revenues at all levels.  What is promising is the indication is that they are thinking about successful governing in a very different financial environment now — which should mean that they’ll be ready to lead with smarter options no matter the circumstances on January 20. The actual plan is quite large and is released at the press conference today.  Jack is accompanied by current legislators and some challengers who will endorse this plan.

I haven’t reviewed this in detail yet, and when I get notice of how to get the complete plan, I’ll post it here.  Will update this with the names of the legislators and challengers who endorse this.  Take a good look and tell us what you think.

(Thanks to a Loyal Reader!)

Trim Government and Balance the Budget

Delaware, like the rest of the country, faces a serious financial challenge. We need serious and specific ideas about exactly how to manage state spending so that government lives within its means – and the Markell-Denn ticket is the only one in this campaign providing that. That’s not surprising since they are the only candidates in this race with experience delivering it.

Building off the work they have done as State Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner – helping to better manage our state’s finances and investments, modernizing the machinery of government, instituting new technology to improve efficiency, and implementing innovative solutions like promoting employee wellness to cut the costs state taxpayers are paying for health care – the Markell-Denn administration will bring new approaches to state government to save taxpayers’ dollars, eliminate wasteful spending and ensure Delaware has the resources it needs to invest in its future:

1. Institute State-of-the-Art Budgeting Processes.

• Limit Use of Unpredictable Revenue to Build Our Assets for the Future.

• Benchmark for improvement.

• Implement a comprehensive Sunset Review system

• Turn our budget into an investment blueprint that yields returns.

• Look beyond our annual budget cycle to a five-year horizon to better understand the real impact of our budget decisions.

• Analyze long-term demographic and economic trends as the foundation for our budget

• Create a state employee workforce plan to mitigate the impact of a large number of retiring workers.

2. Make Sure Delaware Receives Its Fair Share of Federal Funding.

• First of all, we should not cut state funds to effective programs that generate federal matching funds, since that will result in a further loss of federal funds.

• Maximize our receipt of federal funds to which we are entitled. We can become more aggressive about pursuing federal funds for which our state is eligible.

• Utilize federal funds instead of state monies to pay for programs.

3. Crack Down on Waste and Fraud.

• Increase efforts to prevent Medicaid fraud.

• Monitor state employee health costs.

4. Make Investments That Will Save Us Even More. Cutting just to cut can cost more in the long run. That is why we must make sound investments in programs and services that will save us even more over time.

• Crime policies that reduce recidivism

• Education policies that reduce college remediation.

• Health policies that promote healthful activities and deter harmful ones.

• Affordable housing.

5. 5. Going Green Saves Green. Buying only the most fuel efficient vehicles for the state fleet and purchasing home grown fuels whenever practical.

• Make New State Buildings Green Buildings.

• · Retro-Fit and Retro-Commission All State Buildings.

6. Institute a Total State Government Performance Review.

7. Improve State Government’s Purchase of Goods and Services.

• The strategic sourcing initiative Markell implemented as Treasurer will be expanded to include other services, state agencies and school districts.

• Invest in contract management and implement performance-based contracting.

• Work with other states.

• Invest in preventative maintenance first, before new projects are started.

• Use reverse auctions to lower cost of products purchased state.

8. Being Fair About Who Pays Taxes – Smarter Enforcement of Existing Tax Laws.

• Adopt the latest technology in tamper-proof cigarette tax stamps.

• Conduct A One-Time Tax Amnesty to Boost Collections.

• Using Technology to Detect Tax Deadbeats.

• Cost-Effective Hiring of Enforcement Staff.

• Crosscheck taxes owed the state by individuals against professional and drivers’ license renewals.

9. Leverage Technology to Reduce Costs.

• Implement e-pay secure Internet access for employees and eliminate paper remittance advices.

• Encourage broader use of combined telecommunications technology – using voice enabled e-mail, phone and PDA to expand telecommuting options for employees.

• Conduct review of state delivery, mail, and fleet policies to identify opportunities for efficiency and cost savings across agencies.

• Book all employee travel online.

• Where savings are possible, convert state government telecommunications to Voice over Internet Protocol.

• Allow residents to renew their driver’s license online.

• Consolidate information technology contracts.

• Use digital photo technology to reduce costs of investigations and documentation.

• Improve mail processing through in-house bar coding.

• Develop a single, comprehensive, electronically integrated assessment tool for juvenile offenders.