When I became Governor nearly two years ago, one of my priorities was to make Arizona’s government one of the most efficient and effective in the nation. Faced with a billion dollar deficit, our budgets were incredibly tight and I wanted to ensure that public dollars we did utilize were spent appropriately.

Through my office’s Efficiency Review program, I challenged state employees to recommend meaningful ways to save taxpayer dollars. Reform did not require expensive consultants or audits — state employees themselves knew best where waste, inefficiency and abuse existed in government operations. They were empowered and encouraged to offer solutions.

The results have been spectacular. State employees generated 7,500 ideas to improve and modernize state government. Through common sense strategies and more effective use of technology, these employees identified permanent savings and cost avoidances that will save the state millions of dollars each year.

The Arizona Department of Health Services consolidated one evaluation procedure that will save annually more than 3 million pieces of paper, $3.3 million and 100,000 worker hours. Recently, we awarded a new office supplies contract to save agencies more than $10 million over the next five years and support more local jobs.

The Office of Tourism has saved $500,000 over the past two years by simply making more information available online. By utilizing technology, it reduced call volume, staff time and money that were previously spent on printing and postage. For example, Tourism receives more than 30,000 requests from children around the country seeking information about Arizona for school projects. In the past this information was mailed to each child. Now, the most commonly requested information is available online, on
Tourism’s KidsZone Web site.



Common sense solutions like these add up to significant savings for the state, and a better-run state government for the people of Arizona. It enables state government to make more effective use of our limited resources and invest in services that matter most to Arizonans. We have thousands of state employees to thank for that.

You can learn more about my Efficiency Review program here To submit suggestions online, please click here We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours very truly,

Janet Napolitano
Governor



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