by James A. Bacon

Virginians can argue all day long about the proper size and scope of state and local government. But we should be able to agree upon one thing: that whatever it does, government needs to do its job as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.

So, it’s good news to hear that the state Office of Transportation has generated $105 million in savings, according to Dave Ress with the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It’s not clear from the article whether the savings occurred in fiscal 2024 or the three years since Governor Glenn Youngkin set up the office. Either way, it’s not chump change, even in a General Fund that spends roughly $30 billion a year.

On the other hand, the savings cited in Ress’ article come from administrative efficiencies that seem in retrospect to be no-brainers: reversals of practices that should never had been allowed in the first place.

The biggest gains came from changes in procurement policy. For example, as described to Ress by Chief Transformation Officer Rob Ward, state agencies hire professional services, such as consulting services, without knowing (or caring) that other agencies have engaged the same consultants at lower hourly rates. Adjusting payments for all services to the lower rates netted $47 million in savings.

In other examples, agencies have terminated unused software licenses and mobile phone lines, and have altered a practice of automatically renewing or upgrading hardware. “If you need a phone,” said Ward, “do you really need an iPhone when a basic iPhone is going to do everything you need?”

Adding Ward to the state payroll appears to be a genuine “investment” that generates positive returns to taxpayers. Unlike DOGE, these administrative savings are politically safe. They don’t offend anyone. We don’t see state employees demonstrating at the state capitol calling for a restoration of their iPhone-16s. However, these procurement tweaks can hardly be called “transformational.”

To be fair, there’s only so much that Ward and his small team can accomplish on their own. Virginia should build on these successes and set more ambitious goals, even if it means — shudder — hiring more staff and consultants to be change agents.

You know what would be truly transformational?

Exploring opportunities to utilize information technology and artificial intelligence to streamline processes, eliminate unnecessary work, boost the productivity of state workers, and cut payroll.

Conducting a DOGE-like analysis of Virginia’s multibillion-dollar Medicaid program to root out redundant and fraudulent payments.

Auditing the multiplicity of state and federal workforce training programs to identify redundancy, consolidate programs, reduce administrative overhead, and monitor results to see if they meet expectations.

Scrutinizing K-12 school systems and public colleges and universities for administrative bloat.

Reviewing all state programs to see if they’re doing what they were set up to do, ascertaining whether it’s still worthwhile spending money on them, and challenging the General Assembly to update their missions or shut them down.

These should be goals that everyone shares. If the Commonwealth can save hundreds of millions of dollars, the politicians can haggle over what to do with the savings. It would be a nice argument to have.