Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita Comments on State Budget Situation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 6, 2009
Secretary Rokita vows to continue to reduce spending and increase government efficiency
(Indianapolis) – Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita today pledged to support Governor Daniels’ efforts to protect the financial health of the state by trimming his office’s budget and continuing to exercise fiscal responsibility and streamline government services.
Although his office’s transaction volume generally increases by approximately 2 percent per year, Secretary Rokita’s administration has managed, by wisely utilizing technology to reengineer business processes and reduce the amount space it requires by tens of thousands of square feet. The ability to innovate services has resulted in his office’s general budget being virtually the same as what was approved for the secretary of state in 1987, unadjusted for inflation.
“I’m very proud of my staff’s accomplishments to date, we have been excellent stewards of Hoosiers’ tax dollars,” said Secretary Rokita. “Even so, I whole-heartedly support finding further efficiencies. It’s a big part of our office’s culture. Fortunately, the secretary of state’s office is well positioned through innovation and efficiency to continue to deliver world-class services to Indiana’s voters, businesses, investors and taxpayers while looking for additional ways to cut costs and save taxpayers money.”
Specific achievements by the secretary of state’s staff include:
- In 2009, Secretary Rokita’s office reduced its government facilities footprint by over 30 percent, through the consolidation of office space by moving the Dealer Services Division from an off-campus site to the Indiana Government Center South, and by archiving electronic copies of documents rather than paper copies – literally reducing the physical size of government.
- Secretary Rokita’s administration reverted close to $210,000, or 8 percent, of its fiscal year ’09 general appropriation back to the state’s general fund. Since 2003, the secretary of state’s office has reverted more than $713,000 in tax payer dollars back to the state’s general fund.
- The office’s appropriation request for fiscal years ’10 and ’11 was reduced by 3 percent annually.
- The Business Services Division now receives nearly 200,000 online filings per year and has eliminated the cost for public online access to data on hundreds of thousands of Indiana businesses. Online filing services mean lower filing fees and faster processing for Indiana businesses and significantly lower personnel costs for the state.
- During the past two years Secretary Rokita’s Business Services Division has achieved significant increases in customer service levels – to the extent that transactions which used to take several days to complete are now virtually all completed within the same day. Online transactions are processed within minutes.
- In 2009, 6.5 million images of corporate documents became available online, further reducing personnel needs.
Media Contact: Jim Gavin, 317.233.8655, jgavin@sos.in.gov
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