NEWS RELEASE
STATE CONTROLLER DONNA JONES PRESENTS FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE BUDGET REQUEST TO JFAC
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee – I am honored to stand before you today as your State Controller to provide you with a fiscally responsible budget request. As a former legislator I understand and appreciate the work you do on behalf of all Idahoans. It is important that our taxpayer’s money is wisely used and this process we are going through serves the public well.
The State Controller’s Office has three major operating divisions: Statewide Payroll, Statewide Accounting, and the Computer Service Center. We also have an Administration department that supports the office.
Today I will give you a brief overview outlining each division. However, before I get into these details, Mr. Chairman, with your permission, I would like to introduce each of my Division managers.
For our Payroll operations, we have Brandon Woolf, who has led this division for over 2 years and has been in the Controller’s Office for 9 years.
In Accounting we have Steve Allison. Unfortunately, we will be losing Steve to Boise State University later this month, but I want to publicly express my thanks to him for all the work he is doing in making this a smooth transition.
The rumor is that BSU offered him season football tickets to entice him!
For our Computer Services Division I have retained the services of Dan Goicoechea, who is no stranger to many of you. I appreciate Dan’s willingness to continue on in this division. During the previous administration, following the retirement of the Computer Services Manager, Dan had taken on management of this division in addition to his other job duties…in effect wearing two hats. He now only has to wear one and it fits him well.
My new Chief of Staff is Brad Hoaglun. He formerly served Governor Risch as his Senior Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Communications. I am thrilled to have him on my team.
Finally, the fellow you may know best is Rex Reagan, my budget and facilities coordinator, a 34 year veteran of our office.
I also want to acknowledge the former State Controller, Keith Johnson, and the outstanding work that he did the past four years.
I have inherited an office with outstanding employees who do a great job for the people of Idaho. Keith’s leadership is a major reason for this…as a taxpayer, I am pleased that he will continue to serve the people of this state in his new role.
The Administrative Department provides front line office support and internal payroll and financial services. The administration area also provides support for my constitutional and statutory obligations such as the Land Board and Board of Examiners. Although the Administration function is a very small part of the office, it is essential.
The Division of Statewide Payroll is responsible for paying and maintaining personnel and payroll records for approximately 25,000 state employees. We are constantly looking for ways to process these records more efficiently…incidentally we are one of just a few states that provide W-2s online.
Approximately 30% of state employees signed up last year to receive their Forms W-2s online.
Beginning today, state employees, including you, may log on to view and print their 2006 W-2s.
Besides the added convenience to our state employees, it is a savings of $1.33 per employee. Last year that added up to over $8,700. While it may not seem like a big amount, every dollar saved is important.
Most of you are familiar with IBIS – which stands for Idaho Business Intelligence Solutions. This has provided the state with timely and accurate information on payroll and personnel data, including salary savings reports.
Your JFAC staff is well acquainted with IBIS and they can tell you how valuable it is in their work. Our staffs have worked together, along with staff members at DFM and DHR in putting together the payroll and personnel reports for the system and from all accounts I am hearing good things about IBIS.
This system uses tax dollars more efficiently by increasing responsiveness, allowing for better decision making, and providing greater transparency in government.
Last year the Legislature passed SB 1363, which dealt with employee compensation changes and HB 844, which targeted funding to agencies with specific class codes. I’m pleased to report that with the financial support you provided through a trailer appropriation last year, the vast majority of the major system updates have been completed, thus allowing for implementation of the two statutes. The final few changes will be completed after some policy directions have been established. Thank you - it would have been difficult to make those changes without the additional funding you provided.
Technology is allowing us to place more reports online, again positively impacting the bottom line. Here’s an example from our Payroll Division: in December 2003 they printed reports totaling 251,822 pages at a cost of over $7,000. In December 2006 the printing is down to 514 pages at a cost of $33. Again, this is about efficiency and more bang for the taxpayer’s buck!
The Division of Computer Services provides a variety of computer services for state agencies. I am pleased to report that the State Controller’s Office is working with the Idaho Transportation Department to provide mainframe services for their agency. Mainframes are very expensive, but critical for the operations in both business and government. The consolidation of this duplicate system into the Controller’s office should generate savings to ITD.
This will reduce the state’s expensive mainframe computing platforms from a total of 3 statewide down to 2 – with one being in my office and the other in the Department of Labor. This is a great example of agencies partnering to save taxpayers money.
As you can see from the slide we are also working with other state agencies to provide them with IT support services and we are continually working to enhance communication and customer service.
The Division of Computer Services charges the state agencies for our services. Earlier this week I met with a representative of an independent company who is reviewing the rates we charge. We must ensure that we are doing it correctly and in a manner that will not trigger federal audits.
This division also depends upon re-appropriation authority and I would ask that you continue to provide that authority as you have in the past.
The last division I will discuss is the Statewide Accounting Division, which manages the state’s central accounting systems, produces the state’s official financial statements, and assists agency fiscal personnel with their daily accounting and financial reporting processes.
It was this division that performed the Historical Society audit. We will be happy to provide a copy of that report if you are interested.
For the 11th year in a row the state’s audited financial statements, called the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, or CAFR for short, have received an unqualified audit opinion. That is a good thing! Our state’s accounting practices are of the highest level and that protects our bond and credit ratings, which in turn is good for the bottom line.
The word is out that the State Controller’s Office can be very helpful to a state agency. In fact, 20 agencies have chosen to use our new Payment Services. We want to be certain that the enhancements we make to our systems are the ones that the agencies desire. We visited agencies to see how we could better serve them. Those visits are very important in getting feedback about what works best for them – we listened.
As a result of your support we can provide services to the other agencies at the highest levels with up-to-date systems. Instead of having agencies spend large amounts of money to create their own systems my office can maintain modern systems at a greatly reduced cost.
Doesn’t it make good business sense to consolidate government services?
Customer service is a key component of all the divisions, but let me give you an example of how the accounting division took feedback from agency fiscal officers and made a system not only easier on the eyes in going from a green, difficult to read DOS screen, which I used occasionally in my previous government life, to an easier to read and more user friendly application. This is just a small example, but it illustrates the fact that customer service is at the heart of our operations.
Our request is found in the Legislative Budget Book beginning on page 6-37 with the comparative summary on page 6-39.
In this budget request we are asking for a very modest increase of 2.8% over the previous year. Our total request includes the second year of a three-year enhancement of $300,000 that provides funding for upgrades to the statewide accounting system. If you recall the earlier slide of the green screen and the next slide that showed the new system – that is just one small example of what is taking place with this funding.
I think that many of you are aware that this upgrading is very cost effective.
Other states are spending $30 to $60 million for new systems. Your three-year investment is projected to extend the life of our system for approximately 10 years.
We are being frugal without inhibiting the ability to modernize and provide optimal customer service.
This approach supports those agencies that understand the benefits of working together.
Let me conclude with a final appeal to continue the re-appropriation authority that you have granted in the past. There has been no additional funding for my office for the consolidation of mainframe computers.
We expect there to be savings overall to the state, however, at this time we are uncertain as to the impact to my office. Re-appropriation will allow me to move ahead until we can address funding in future budgets.
Mr. Chairman, members of the JFAC committee, thank you for allowing me this time today and I would be happy to stand for your questions. |