Executive Director Brian P. Stern outlines his vision for Fiscal Fitness

The Fiscal Fitness initiative is designed to identify and eliminate government waste and redundancies, while streamlining government operations and improving the delivery of state services to Rhode Island taxpayers. In April 2003, the Governor officially kicked off the Fiscal Fitness initiative by recruiting sixty state employees from all levels of state government to carry out an intensive review of executive-branch departments. This review focused on organization, staffing, workflow, processes, management, spending and budgeting of the Executive Branch.

Taking a leadership role, Fiscal Fitness team members helped employees throughout the state to generate hundreds of ideas, most of which were based on detailed analyses of agency operations. Teams of employees also researched best practices from other states and solicited improvement ideas from the private sector. An enthusiastic public contributed their own ideas, and several Rhode Island business leaders volunteered their time in support of the initiative.

In total, Fiscal Fitness generated one hundred and forty recommendations, focusing on better and less costly government. These recommendations fell along clear lines of action: reducing costs, capturing lost revenues, leveraged purchasing, updating technology, consolidating back-office and redundant functions, streamlining agencies, combining similar divisions and reducing the levels of upper- and mid-level management. Fiscal Fitness has already begun to help the agencies implement these ideas which have resulted in efficiency and real savings. Other projects are in varying degrees of implementation, while some are on the scheduled to begin in 2006.

Fiscal Fitness proposals currently being implemented will save Rhode Island taxpayers over $140 million by June 30, 2006. Additionally, Fiscal Fitness is projecting that over $470 million will be saved by 2010. Additionally, a huge eLicensing project is underway that will give Rhode Island professionals and taxpayers the ability to renew their licenses online. However, these savings and success stories are only the beginning as many Fiscal Fitness projects have yet to be fully implemented.

Fiscal Fitness continues to perform the “Big Audit” and is discovering new areas for potential efficiency and savings on a regular basis. Through this initiative, the Governor can achieve his vision of transforming Rhode Island government into a model for the delivery of cost-effective services to satisfied citizens who have confidence that their hard earned taxpayer dollars are being spent effectively.