Op-Ed: Bring DOGE Home

Cutting spending and finding efficiency on a state and town level

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Politics aside, what the State of Rhode Island, the City of Providence, and other cities and towns need are their own Departments of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Ironically, the concept is not without historical precedent and achieved some successes under the leadership of both Presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt.

The state, and many cities and towns, are looking at potential deficits, and this would be a great opportunity to streamline government, create efficiencies, and keep taxes in line. But much more is needed. In 2023, CNBC ranked RI last in “Top States for Business,” and WalletHub ranked RI last for “Business Environment,” 40th for “Business Costs,” and 21st for “Access to Resources.”

We need businesspeople and entrepreneurs to look at all aspects of state government and local governments from a business perspective, not as politicians and bureaucrats, and identify areas to cut costs and consolidate services.

Imagine if we gave entrepreneurs like Ken Block and Karl Wadensten a chainsaw and asked them to find achievable savings in state and local government. No doubt that Wadensten would rebuild the chainsaw to make it more efficient and allow for bigger cuts and we would begin to see a more streamlined cost-effective government. And Block’s “zero tolerance” approach would be fun to watch!

There are major obvious savings that can be achieved through administrative reductions, consolidations, and cost savings in governments across the board, and this will result in savings for taxpayers which translates into more money in the economy.

As we look at both state and local governments, it’s clear that there are many areas that can be cut or consolidated. One of the easiest places to start is with all the communications people in government. There are more communications people in government than reporters! This part of the workforce (and there are numerous similar jobs) fall into the “Perpetual Penny Paradox” as The New York Times calls it since it costs over three cents to produce one penny, which means the government loses two cents on every penny produced.

It’s also a problem in local government. The part-time Providence City Council, in an effort to raise their importance and compete with the full-time Mayor, now has a staff of 16 with many of these jobs seeming to overlap with existing city positions.

There are savings that can be achieved in every city and town. To put it into perspective, Los Angeles County is four times larger than the state of RI – they have one police department, one fire department, and one school system. RI has 66 school districts, 38 local police departments and seven state law enforcement agencies, 38 fire departments, and an additional 47 volunteer and ambulance services. Rhode Island has five counties – Providence, Newport, Bristol, Kent, and Washington. As far as we can tell, the only use of the counties is for the judiciary, and, if they can make it work, there are certainly other possibilities.

RI has already proven that consolidation can work and save money as evidenced by the statewide 911 emergency management system which routes all fire, police, and rescue calls through one centralized call center.

Other key local departments that could easily be combined or regionalized to deliver great savings and better efficiency are public works, water, parks, recreation, and libraries, which could easily consolidate purchasing, engineers, equipment, facilities, management, and operations. Administrative support services like technology, human resources, and grant writing could easily be shared.

We know that there is never going to be the political will, until there is a major financial crisis, to combine some of these services on a large scale, but there should be an effort to consolidate purchasing and some administrative services and start some conversation about regionalization of some services and departments. A DOGE-type group could provide the guidance and direction to get things started.

The other part of DOGE is efficiency, and one only needs to look as far as the RI Department of Transportation, if you can get there, for a very good place to start!

 

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  • pawtucketres

    It's great to see some support here for defending the police!

    Thursday, February 6 Report this



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