Highlights of the Artur Davis Taxpayer Protection Plan
GOING AFTER FRAUD AND ABUSE Bolster Efforts to Uncover Medicaid Fraud. Studies have found that fraud by Medicaid providers ranges from 10% to as much as 40% of all program spending. - Impose Stricter Qualifications on Vendors to Participate in Medicaid (ref. California program.)
- Require Triple Damages for false claims under Medicaid, as Florida and Georgia have done.
- Create a Medicaid Inspector General’s Office, as Texas, Kansas and Ohio all have done.
- Beef up Fraud Enforcement.
- Send all Medicaid recipients an alert of all billing activity on their account, so they can report overbilling to the State to help us catch fraudulent providers.
Savings estimated at $40 million annually. Improve Tax Enforcement. Based on experiences in other states, Alabama should be able to obtain an additional $130 million in unpaid taxes through improved collection efforts. CLEANING UP THE CONTRACTING PROCESS Eliminate No-Bid Contracts. The last two governors have vowed to eliminate no-bid contracts. Here’s what I will do to fix it: every personal service contract will be bid under an approach that evaluates bidders on qualifications, but requires that the lowest-priced qualified bidder receive the contract. The subjective world of awarding lucrative contracts based on friendships and political relationships will be over. I will appoint a contract review officer who will have the authority to review every contract award before, and not after the fact, and bids will be required unless there is a sworn certification that there is a threat to the public safety if a contract is delayed to allow time for bids. This will fix the current system, which often reviews contracts only after the fact. Prohibit state employees – including legislators – from having any financial interest in a state contract. Massachusetts, for example, excludes public employees at any income levels from having an indirect or direct financial interest in a state contract, and more or less extends the same restrictions to legislators. Roll Back Outsourcing. The fastest-growing expense in Alabama government is the more than $600 million that agencies spend on state contracts with lawyers, engineers, consultants and others. Simply rolling outside professional service contracts back to the levels of a decade ago, plus inflation, would save $190 million. REDUCING THE STATE’S HEALTH CARE BILLS
WHILE IMPROVING CARE Aggregate Prescription Drug Purchases to Reduce Costs. Based on other states’ experiences, similar drug-purchasing reform in Alabama should save about $40 million a year. Reduce the State’s Cost for Durable Medical Equipment. In the two demonstration sites of Polk County, Florida and San Antonio, Texas, the net savings for DME expenditures totaled $2.7 million. This should translate into savings of at least $14 million in Alabama. Increase Deinstitutionalization and Community Care for Children, the Sick, and the Elderly. I agree with the emerging consensus that individualized or community-based care for our most vulnerable populations is superior to institutionalized care. Moving to health care in smaller-scale settings will not only improve care in many cases but will help us make our health care system more affordable for all Alabamians. Altogether, these efforts should also save approximately $40 million per year. IMPOSE ACCOUNTABILITY ON PASS-THROUGH-PORK I will make Pass-through-Pork more transparent and accountable by requiring all such grant programs to specify the specific recipients in the state budget, where the public can learn about and object to it. - I will ban legislators from using their discretionary funds to benefit their employers or the employers of their spouses.
- I will support a constitutional amendment to create a real line-item veto for the Governor, allowing me to strike out individual items of spending regardless of when the legislature enacts a budget and even if it has already adjourned. I would also seek to limit the legislature’s ability to override such vetoes by requiring a two-thirds majority.
- As for community service grants, there is no question that many of these expenditure are worthwhile. That is why I have no doubt that they will withstand the scrutiny that the State Treasurer called for several weeks ago. There should be a 30 day public comment period before the Commission on Community Service Grants can act and the specifics of these grants should be posted on the Internet.
BETTER MANAGING STATE OPERATIONS Save Money on Energy Usage in State Buildings. I will push for all new state building construction (and all new state leased space) to meet LEED Silver standards for green buildings. I will retro-fit and retro-commission all existing state buildings to meet this goal and save the state an additional $10 million a year. Consolidate Information Technology. Alabama should be able to save $10 million a year by bringing its IT services together. Improve Management of State’s Real Estate Operations. In Alabama, it would be realistic to reap $30 million in savings. Efficient Use and Management of State-Owned Vehicles. A conservative estimate would be that Alabama could save half a million dollars a year on such an initiative. Reduce Telecommunications Costs. State governments in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Indiana have all realized significant savings in the range of 7-10% of annual communications costs. A conservative estimate would be that Alabama could save half a million dollars a year on this initiative. A SYSTEMATIC EFFORT TO FIGHT WASTE –
AND SAVE $500 MILLION As Governor, one of the first things I will do is to launch an efficiency review of the entire state government to find and eliminate waste and to improve overall governmental efficiency. I will appoint a Cabinet-level advisor, reporting directly to my Chief of Staff, to oversee the effort. Texas, a unmistakably conservative state, found that it was able to achieve 10 billion dollars worth of savings in the first decade of their annual reviews. Projected savings and efficiencies: $331 million in non-earmarked (General Fund and Ed. Trust Fund) spending and $174 million in earmarked spending, mostly Medicaid, for a total of over $500 million. GETTING ALABAMA’S FAIR SHARE: $150 MILLION The federal government provides hundreds of millions of dollars in reimbursements that states can receive or recover from "uncapped" federal funding programs such as Title IV-A (TANF), Title IV-E/Foster Care and Adoption Assistance, and Title XIX/Medicaid. All states fail to draw down all the federal formula money available to them. If the state restructures programs and is more thoughtful in their design, we can increase our share of our federal taxes returning into the state. Alabama successfully implemented a similar federal revenue maximization program roughly a decade ago in one limited area of government, and boosted federal receipts by roughly $4 million a year; it’s time to revisit and expand this effort to all areas of state government that could qualify for additional federal funding. As Governor, I will make it a priority to turn those formulas to our advantage. Based on the results elsewhere, we can reap an additional $150 million a year. |
