Audio Doing more with less (story audio) Photos Gov.-elect Tim Pawlenty talked with employees and customers at a Department of Motor Vehicle Services office. Pawlenty inspects. More from MPR Pawlenty names Weaver to head transition team Pawlenty sets stage for a Capitol revolution (11/06/2002) Respond to this story Talk about this story in the MPR News Forum Submit a commentary Help us cover this story

Doing more with less
by Michael Khoo, Minnesota Public Radio
November 14, 2002

Gov.-elect Tim Pawlenty talked with employees and customers at a Department of Motor Vehicle Services office. (MPR Photo/Michael Khoo)

Gov.-elect Tim Pawlenty says state government has already demonstrated it can increase productivity without consuming more tax dollars. Pawlenty ran on a pledge not to raise taxes, and on Thursday he singled out the state Driver and Vehicle Services agency as an example for doing more with less. Pawlenty says similar improvements across state government could help balance the state's expected budget deficit without increasing revenues.

St. Paul, Minn. — In July 2001, the Driver and Vehicle Services division took 30 days -- on average -- to process a vehicle title change. Now, it takes 10 days. Driver's licenses took 26 days. That's been cut to 15. And state officials say the improvements have come without substantial increases to the department's budget. The incoming governor says that's the model he wants to introduce throughout the state bureaucracy.

"Leveraging technology, outsourcing, reorganizing so that we have better deployment of personnel, leadership that emphasizes benchmarks against measured goals and de-emphasizing things that are less important; that we will realize savings. I don't say in the near-term that's going to solve our big budget deficit, but it's going to help," he said.

Pawlenty is expected to face a deficit approaching $3 billion when he takes office early next year. And his pledge not to raise taxes, taken together with his preference for leaving education and health care funding intact, leaves him little room for trimming state government spending. He says, however, that his tour of Driver and Vehicle Services demonstrates real savings are available with proper management.

	Pawlenty inspects.

Public Safety Commissioner Charlie Weaver oversees DVS and is leaving his post to run Pawlenty's transition team. He says -- just last spring -- roughly 500,000 Minnesotans calling DVS each month were frustrated by busy signals. That number has been chopped by almost 90 percent. And Weaver says it wasn't a matter of spending more money.

"The traditional response to government, if the phones aren't getting answered, is what? It's let's hire a bunch more people, let's put in a bunch more phone lines. That's the answer. That's not the answer. It's better thinking. It's figuring out why are all these people are calling in. Get them better information earlier so they don't call in the first place. No new money. Just smarter service. Smarter performance," Weaver said.

Weaver and DVS director Brian Lamb say the answer lay in reshuffling priorities and in developing self-service Internet and telephone technology that allows Minnesotans to help themselves. Lamb says automation, computerization, and hiring private contractors have saved the division $1 million annually. And despite the improvements in service, he says the division has seen only modest, inflationary budget increases.

But even that may no longer be available if Pawlenty sticks to his no-new-taxes pledge. Lamb, however, says he thinks the agency could weather a round of budget cutting.

"Certainly, it forces us to get even more creative. But I will say in Driver and Vehicle Services, we are already at a point where I think we can realize some more savings without denigrating the service levels. It won't allow us to improve the service levels as fast -- in some areas -- as fast we want," according to Lamb.

The improvements at DVS came, of course, under the watch of current Gov. Jesse Ventura. Ventura spokesman John Wodele says the agency stands out as a success story in government efficiency. And he welcomed Pawlenty's interest in its innovations. But he says applying those lessons statewide can't be done overnight and can't be done without some level of sacrifice.

"It's going to take a lot of work. It will cause pain. It certainly won't go smoothly. Nothing does. I mean, giving away money doesn't go smoothly. But, again, the people that are coming into office certainly aren't naive, and they understand that it takes a lot of hard work to accomplish these things," he said.

Wodele and Ventura have previously questioned whether Pawlenty can truly balance the budget without a tax increase, although Wodele now says he won't second-guess the incoming administration. Pawlenty has developing a balanced, two-year budget by late January will be his top priority.

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