OLYMPIA – House budget leaders spent the past week holding hearings and meeting with frontline staff at several departments and facilities in Washington to gain a better insight into what’s working, the fiscal challenges we still face, and new ways of conducting state business.
With new austerity measures in place responding to the lingering recession, government oversight in the Legislature has reached new heights, as legislators scrub every line of each agency’s spending, gather input from staff, and enact policies to consolidate and bundle services.
Representative Zack Hudgins (D – Tukwila), who chairs the House General Government Appropriations & Oversight Committee, says touring the state on fact-finding missions is a valuable way for lawmakers to spend their time between sessions. “I find it’s important to get out of Olympia and talk directly with the folks who are on the frontlines. They often have new and innovative ideas to share, but those ideas don’t always make it to ears in Olympia. So we come to them.”
“Visiting state facilities and talking to the people there is a good way to help provide the best possible services to the people of Washington in the most cost-effective manner.”
The committee’s purview includes funding and oversight of around 75 general government, natural resource, judicial, legislative and human service related agencies. Together, this accounts for about 15% of the state’s General Fund Budget.
The Department of Corrections alone accounts for more than half of the state funding under the committee’s jurisdiction. Fittingly, the week’s work began with a tour and discussion with staff at the Monroe Correctional Facility discussing security needs. The next stop was the Echo Glen Children’s Facility in Snoqualmie. Hudgins and other lawmakers met with juvenile rehabilitation staff who provide treatment and educational services to youth, including dialectical behavior therapy, cultural programming, sex offense specific and inpatient chemical dependency treatment. Legislators also toured the
The week of government oversight included a tour of the new state data center and office building in Olympia, which is hoped to save the state millions through consolidation over its 75 year lifetime. Hudgins met with staff and administrators, in their first phase of moving in to their new location. “This project – one of the biggest the state has ever seen – is very expensive and a complex change and we want to make sure it’s being implemented in the best interest of the taxpayers,” said Hudgins.
According to the Department of Information Services (DIS) in charge of the state’s information technology needs, there are at least 32 data centers located in state agencies in Thurston County. Each data center has its own IT staff, and its own power source. The new state data center will allow the state to consolidate most of these data centers into one efficient location. There are concerns that this could be done less expensively in the private sector and part of the tour was to see how far down the line DIS has progressed in implementing the consolidation. Four large data halls were built, and the plan is to start filling out two of them by the end of the year.
The passage of SB 5931 in the 2011 session combines five different state agencies, including DIS, into the new Department of Enterprise Services, saving taxpayers an estimated $18 million in the short term and potentially hundreds of millions over time.
Budget leaders concluded the week with visits to mental health providers in Pierce County, to see how tax dollars are spent in both the private and public sector in treating mental illness. The committee stopped at Western State Hospital, which has transformed from its early days of over 3000 residents to a modern facility that uses the most up-to-date treatment options.
Hudgins, who lead many of the efforts towards state government cost containment in the House, has seen how the tough budgetary times can lead to new ways of thinking and transforming state government. “Spending the week focused on government oversight and reform, scrubbing the line items in the budgets, and gathering input helps keep a spotlight on making government work better for everyone.”