Latest news with #DOGE-OK
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Stitt's Oklahoma DOGE portal sought to find savings. People used it instead to troll Republicans.
Gov. Kevin Stitt announced DOGE-OK during the State of the State Address on Feb. 3. (Photo by Kyle Phillips/For Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY — Dozens of people suggested that state government could be made more efficient without state Superintendent Ryan Walters and Gov. Kevin Stitt, according to submissions made to a statewide portal that asks the public for ideas about how to save money. In all, of the 90 submissions made to the Oklahoma Division of Government Efficiency portal around half targeted Walters, Stitt, and other Republicans leaders, including those serving in state's congressional delegation, according to Oklahoma Voice's analysis of portal submissions, which were released in response to an Open Records request. Submitters were particularly critical of Republicans' policies, including spending public money to pay for private school education, attempts to incorporate 'religion in schools and government,' and for removing options for state employees to work from home. Better known as 'DOGE-OK,' the Stitt-led initiative is modeled after President Donald Trump's federal Department of Government Efficiency. It requested submissions from the public in what a spokesperson for Stitt said is intended to be a 'jumping off point' to find savings within the state government. Stitt's office did not return a request for comment on if any submissions have been used to inform savings yet. DOGE-OK has reported finding over $51 million in savings in state government spending since its launch in February, though none of the existing savings appeared to align with the public suggestions in the portal. Stitt's DOGE effort is separate from the Oklahoma House portal launched in December. House lawmakers said submissions to that portal informed budget conversations, but also included 'spam' targeted at a statewide elected official legislators refused to name. Some submissions to Stitt's portal though appeared to be legitimate attempts at pointing out perceived inefficiencies. These included complaints about the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, too many public relations contracts at state agencies and recommendations to consolidate some of the state's law enforcement agencies. At least two individuals identified themselves as current or former state employees. They critiqued inefficiencies in the current process for purchasing orders and asked that the state revert to a previous process. One submitter suggested using artificial intelligence to gather public records for those requesting them from the state. Another recommended providing Department of Corrections officers with tablets to scan inmate IDs to 'allow for quicker, safer, and more accurate completion of counts.' Another suggested that the Oklahoma Tax Commission unnecessarily spends 'a lot of time and money going after tax balances that may not be collectable from many years ago.' But around half of the submissions targeted Walters, Stitt, or other Republican leaders, including U.S. senators James Lankford and Markwayne Mullin, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Bice and anyone who is serving on the DOGE-OK team. One person suggested Walters and Stitt not be paid a salary. At least one called for the increased deportation of undocumented immigrants though didn't include any specifics. Some submissions contained expletives or were left blank. Another commenter questioned the need for an 'entire new agency' to tell existing ones to be more efficient and criticized the creation of DOGE-OK as duplicating efforts and 'inventing a whole bureaucracy.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Miami Herald
04-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
In some states, colleges face a double dose of DOGE
Oklahoma wants some of its less-expensive universities to cut travel and operational costs, consolidate departments and reduce energy use - all in the name of saving money. Already, earning a degree at one of these regional institutions is relatively inexpensive for students, costing in total as much as $15,000 less per year than bigger state universities in Oklahoma. And the schools, including Southeastern Oklahoma State University and the University of Central Oklahoma, graduate more teachers and nurses than those research institutions. Those graduates can fill critically needed roles for the state. Still, state policymakers think there are more efficiencies to be found. Higher education is one of the specific areas targeted by a new state-run agency with a familiar name, with the goal of "protecting our Oklahoma way of life," Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said in the first DOGE-OK report this spring. The Oklahoma Division of Government Efficiency, created around the same time as the federal entity with a similar title, counts among its accomplishments so far shifting to automated lawn mowers to cut grass at the state capital, changing to energy-efficient LED lighting and cutting down on state government cell phone bills. The Oklahoma governor's office did not respond to a request for comment about this effort. Oklahoma is one of about a dozen states that has considered an approach similar to the federal DOGE, though some state attempts were launched before the Trump administration's. The federal Department of Government Efficiency, established the day Trump took office on Jan. 20, has commanded deep cuts to federal spending and the federal workforce, with limited justification. As academia becomes a piñata for President Donald Trump and his supporters, Republican state lawmakers and governors are assembling in line: They want to get their whacks in too. Related: Interested in more news about colleges and universities? Subscribe to our free biweekly higher education newsletter. Beyond Oklahoma, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launched FL DOGE in February, with a promise to review state university and college operations and spending. Republicans in the Ohio statehouse formed an Ohio DOGE caucus. One of the Iowa DOGE Task Force's three main goals is "further refining workforce and job training programs," some of which are run through community colleges, and its members include at least two people who work at state universities. The current political environment represents "an unprecedented attack on higher education," said Veena Dubal, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, and general counsel for the American Association of University Professors. The state-level scrutiny comes atop those federal job cuts, which include layoffs of workers who interact with colleges, interdepartmental spending cuts that affect higher education and the shrinking of contracts that support research and special programs at colleges and universities. Other research grants have been canceled outright. The White House is pursuing these spending cuts at the same time as it is using colleges' diversity efforts, their handling of antisemitism and their policies about transgender athletes to force a host of changes that go beyond cost-cutting - such as rules about how students protest and whether individual university departments require more supervision. Higher education, which relies heavily on both state dollars and federal funding in the form of student loans and Pell grants, research grants and workforce training programs, faces the prospect of continued, and painful, budget cuts. "Institutions are doing things under the threat of extinction," Dubal said. "They're not making measured decisions about what's best for the institution, or best for the public good." For instance, the Trump administration extracted a number of pledges from Columbia University as part of its antisemitism charge, suspending $400 million in federal grants and contracts as leverage. This led campus faculty and labor unions to sue, citing an assault on academic freedom. (The Hechinger Report is in an independent unit of Teachers College.) Now Harvard faces a review of $9 billion in federal funding, also over antisemitism allegations, and the list of universities under similar scrutiny is only growing. Related: The Hechinger Report's Tuition Tracker helps reveal the real cost of college Budget cuts are nothing new for higher education - when a recession hits, it is one of the first places state lawmakers look to cut, in blue states or red. One reason: Public universities can sometimes make up the difference with tuition increases. What DOGE brings, in Washington and statehouses, is something new. The DOGE approach is engaging in aggressive cost-cutting that specifically targets certain programs that some politicians don't like, said Jeff Selingo, a special adviser to the president at Arizona State University. "It's definitely more political than it is fiscal or policy-oriented," said Selingo, who is also the author of several books on higher education. "Universities haven't done what certain politicians wanted them to do," he added. "This is a way to control them, in a way." The current pressure on Florida colleges extends far beyond budget matters. DeSantis has criticized college campuses as "intellectually repressive environments." In 2021, Florida state lawmakers passed a law, signed by the governor, to fight this perceived ideological bent by requiring a survey of public university professors and students to assess whether there is enough intellectual diversity on campus. At New College in Sarasota, DeSantis led an aggressive cultural overhaul to transform the college's atmosphere and identity into something more politically conservative. The governor has cited Hillsdale College, a conservative private Christian institution in Michigan, as a role model. Faculty and students at New College sued. Their complaints included allegations of academic censorship and a hostile environment for LGBTQ+ students, many of whom transferred elsewhere. One lawsuit was ultimately dropped. Since the takeover, the college added athletics programs and said it has attracted a record number of new and transfer students. Related: A case study of what's ahead with Trump DEI crackdowns Across America, Republicans control both the legislature and the governor's mansion in 23 states, compared with 15 states fully controlled by Democrats. In those GOP-run states, creating a mini-DOGE carries the potential for increased political might, with little oversight. In Florida, "state DOGE serves as an intimidation device," one high-ranking public university administrator told The Hechinger Report. The administrator, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said "there's also just this atmosphere of fear." In late March, university presidents received a letter signed by the "DOGE Team" at the governor's office. The letter promised a thorough review by FL DOGE officials, with site visits and the expectation that each college appoint a designated liaison to handle FL DOGE's ongoing requests. The letter highlighted some of the items FL DOGE might request going forward, including course codes, descriptions and syllabi; full detail of all centers established on campus; and "the closure and dissolution of DEI programs and activities, as required by law." The state did not respond to a question about whether FL DOGE is designed to attack higher education in the state. Molly Best, the deputy press secretary, noted that FL DOGE is now up and running, and cities and counties are also receiving letters requesting certain information and that the public will be updated in the future. DOGE in Florida also follows other intervention in higher education in the state: Florida's appointed Board of Governors, most of whom are chosen by the governor, removed dozens of courses from state universities' core curriculum to comply with the Stop WOKE Act, a state law that took effect in 2022. The law, which DeSantis heavily promoted, discourages the teaching of concepts such as systemic racism or sexism. The courses removed from Florida's 12 state universities were primarily sociology, anthropology and history courses. "You can't erase history," said Meadow Swantic, a criminal justice major at Florida Atlantic University, a public institution, in an interview at its Boca Raton campus. "There's certain things that are built on white supremacy, and it's a problem." Fellow Florida Atlantic student Kayla Collins, however, said she has noticed some professors' liberal bias during class discussions. "I myself have witnessed it in my history class," said Collins, who identifies as Republican. "It was a great history class, but I would say there were a lot of political things brought up, when it wasn't a government class or a political science class." At the University of Central Florida in Orlando, political science major Liliana Hogan said she had a different experience of her professors' political leanings. "You hear 'people go to university to get woke' or whatever, but actually, as a poli-sci student, a lot of my professors are more right-wing than you would believe," Hogan said. "I get more right-leaning perspectives from my teachers than I would have expected." Hogan said. Another UCF student, Johanna Abrams, objected to university budget cuts being ordered by the state government. Abrams said she understands that tax dollars are limited, but she believes college leaders should be trusted with making the budget decisions that best serve the student body. "The government's job should be providing the funding for education, but not determining what is worthy of being taught," Abrams said. Related: Inside Florida's 'underground lab' for far-right education policies Whatever their missions and attempts at mimicry, state-level DOGE entities are not necessarily identical to the federal version. For instance, in Kansas, the Committee on Government Efficiency, while inspired by DOGE, is in search of ideas from state residents about ways to make the state bureaucracy run better rather than imposing its own changes. A Missouri Senate portal inspired by the federal DOGE works in a similar way. Yet the federal namesake isn't taking suggestions from the masses to inform its work. And at the federal level, then-DOGE chief Elon Musk in February emailed workers, asking them to respond "to understand what they got done last week," he posted on X. "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation." Employees were asked to reply with a list of five accomplishments. The Ohio DOGE Caucus noted explicitly it won't be doing anything like that. "We're not going to be emailing any state employees asking them to give us five things they worked on throughout the week," Ohio state Rep. Tex Fischer, a Republican, told a local radio station. 'We're really just trying to get like-minded people into a room to talk about making sure that government is spending our money wisely and focusing on its core functions that we all agree with." Contact editor Nirvi Shah at 212-678-3445, securely on Signal at NirviShah.14 or via email at shah@ This story about DOGE cuts was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter. The post In some states, colleges face a double dose of DOGE appeared first on The Hechinger Report.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State versions of DOGE take more modest approaches than Elon Musk's shock-and-awe moves in Washington
States are continuing to roll out their own versions of the Department of Government Efficiency, the outside advisory commission led by tech billionaire Elon Musk that President Donald Trump tasked with cutting federal spending and staffing. Many of the officials who launched the bodies, which take different forms in different states, say they've wanted to have the impact of Trump's DOGE, with some explicitly comparing them to the federal commission. But while Musk's slash-and-burn approach has caused major disruptions in Washington and across the country, the more than 20 state-level DOGE organizations that have been rolled out since Trump's federal launch have so far taken a far lighter touch. For many states with such organizations, that's a product of the fact that they don't have the same layers of bureaucracy as the federal government, while for others, it's due more to the fact that their DOGE-styled bodies are advisory in nature. Many of the state DOGE bodies are looking into state governments that have been under unified Republican control for multiple terms or even decades, unlike the federal government. 'It's more modest,' said Abegail Cave, a spokesperson for Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who in February signed an executive order to create a 'Division of Government Efficiency' dubbed DOGE-OK. His office said at the time that it was focused on eliminating wasteful government spending and improving efficiency. 'We don't have the huge bureaucracies to cut that the federal government did,' Cave added. 'There's just not as much to be wildly aggressive about. You're not gonna have a USAID.' Even as Musk has signaled that his forceful role at DOGE will soon be ebbing, efforts are just ramping up in many of the states that have created agencies, committees, task forces, bills and other mechanisms to streamline government regulations or spending. Texas joined that list most recently, after Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed a bill in April creating a permanent state agency — the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office — dedicated to streamlining government and spending. The law doesn't go into effect until Sept. 1, and his administration has said there is no timeline yet for when the new office will open. At the bill-signing event, Abbott said Musk's DOGE helped 'crystallize' the framework for what the Texas agency would do — while also acknowledging that the version would, unlike the federal one, focus predominantly on slashing state government regulations, as part of a broader push to make Texas even friendlier to businesses. That softer touch has largely been the case in other state-level DOGE apparatuses, as well. In Oklahoma, Cave said that two months after its launch, one of the biggest savings DOGE-OK has made was a $200,000 cut after it identified the existence of 'hundreds' of redundant fax machines across the state government. Perhaps the one exception in which a state DOGE is pursuing matters more aggressively is in Florida, where the state's organization, created via executive order by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in February, is actively reviewing grants and faculty research at public universities in the state, identifying prospective spending cuts and reforms in local governments and seeking to return 'unnecessary federal grant funding' to Washington. The version of DOGE launched by DeSantis, who has repeatedly taken aim at public higher education in Florida, has already begun requesting documents and information from public universities and colleges in the state, spokesperson Brian Wright said in an email. The Florida State Department of Governmental Efficiency, Wright said, has also begun reviewing 'the financial prudence' of all 67 counties and 411 municipalities in the state. On the other hand, New Hampshire's Commission on Government Efficiency, created in January via executive order from GOP Gov. Kelly Ayotte, has so far met a handful times to discuss cost-saving maneuvers such as selling state-owned property and reducing certain equipment purchases. The 15-member body, which comprises legislative leaders and local business leaders, can only submit recommendations to Ayotte. Its members have been outspoken in distancing themselves from Musk and his approach. 'I'm not Elon Musk,' GOP former Gov. Craig Benson, a member of the commission, said at a recent meeting of the group. 'We're not trying to do things the same way.' In Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has stated that her DOGE Task Force's goals include reducing the cost of government and improving effectiveness and efficiency. So far, the body has held only one meeting, and it isn't scheduled to submit its recommendations to Reynolds' office for five more months. Iowa Democrats have nevertheless complained that the body is operating opaquely. Iowa state Rep. Megan Srinivas said on a call with reporters this week that the force is acting with 'a lack of transparency around' any proposed changes in state government. A Reynolds spokesperson didn't respond to questions about the task force. In Missouri, a freshly formed Republican-led legislative committee, the Committee to Evaluate Efficiency in State Government, is reviewing at least 30 bills that propose modest changes to various state boards, state contracts and state payroll formulas. And in Kansas, the Republican-controlled state Senate's new Committee on Government Efficiency created a website on which residents could submit suggestions of where they wanted to see government waste cut. It crashed following an explosion of submissions. The committee's Republican vice chair, state Sen. Michael Murphy, admitted, 'All we're going to be able to do in most cases is have a recommendation.' Meanwhile, in several other states with divided governments, Republican-led legislatures have since the start of the year launched state legislative DOGE committees. Those bodies wield even less power, since Democratic governors can block their efforts, but they have proven useful as platforms for investigations, messaging and more. In Wisconsin, state Assembly Republicans launched a Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency Committee. Lawmakers quizzed state agency heads and the head of the state's university system on spending and alleged waste at its first meeting in March. A Republican member of the committee requested information from the state's biggest cities and all 72 of its counties regarding diversity, equity and inclusion spending in local government. The chair, GOP state Rep. Amanda Nedweski, said that the body's primary goal will be to make sure state government employees no longer work remotely. Nedweski said that the initial burst of attention surrounding Trump's DOGE certainly fueled the explosion of imitations in state capitals, including in Wisconsin, but that by nature, most state-level versions were going to have to operate more deliberately. 'Conceptually, the idea is something people want. Fiscal conservatism has become cool again,' she said in an interview. 'Whether you like the federal DOGE or not, it's getting a lot of attention because people want to save money and want to see if there's waste somewhere — and that it's being addressed and reduced." 'At the state level,' Nedweski added, 'we have restrictions — we cannot bulldoze into an agency and slash and burn, because we don't have that authority.' The committee, which has no counterpart in the state Senate, can only make recommendations to Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat. Republicans have this year launched legislative committees with similar dynamics and constraints in Arizona and North Carolina, which also have Democratic governors. In Arizona, conservative lawmakers acknowledged that the path to DOGE-like reforms would have to come through legislation passed by both chambers and signed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. In North Carolina, the state House committee has not yet issued any recommendations, proposed cuts or crafted any legislation. But it's not the only suggested way circulating to eliminate alleged waste. Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, proposed in March a new 'Impact Center,' housed in his Office of State Budget and Management that would oversee efforts to make government run efficiently. However, he has said his approach would 'use a scalpel, not a chainsaw.' The statement refers to an appearance by Musk at a conservative political conference in February, where he wielded a chainsaw to symbolize his government cuts. This article was originally published on
NBC News
02-05-2025
- Business
- NBC News
State versions of DOGE take more modest approaches than Elon Musk's shock-and-awe moves in Washington
States are continuing to roll out their own versions of the Department of Government Efficiency, the outside advisory commission led by tech billionaire Elon Musk that President Donald Trump tasked with cutting federal spending and staffing. Many of the officials who launched the bodies, which take different forms in different states, say they've wanted to have the impact of Trump's DOGE, with some explicitly comparing them to the federal commission. But while Musk's slash-and-burn approach has caused major disruptions in Washington and across the country, the more than 20 state-level DOGE organizations that have been rolled out since Trump's federal launch have so far taken a far lighter touch. For many states with such organizations, that's a product of the fact that they don't have the same layers of bureaucracy as the federal government, while for others, it's due more to the fact that their DOGE-styled bodies are advisory in nature. Many of the state DOGE bodies are looking into state governments that have been under unified Republican control for multiple terms or even decades, unlike the federal government. 'It's more modest,' said Abegail Cave, a spokesperson for Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who in February signed an executive order to create a 'Division of Government Efficiency' dubbed DOGE-OK. His office said at the time that it was focused on eliminating wasteful government spending and improving efficiency. 'We don't have the huge bureaucracies to cut that the federal government did,' Cave added. 'There's just not as much to be wildly aggressive about. You're not gonna have a USAID.' Even as Musk has signaled that his forceful role at DOGE will soon be ebbing, efforts are just ramping up in many of the states that have created agencies, committees, task forces, bills and other mechanisms to streamline government regulations or spending. Texas joined that list most recently, after Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed a bill in April creating a permanent state agency — the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office — dedicated to streamlining government and spending. The law doesn't go into effect until Sept. 1, and his administration has said there is no timeline yet for when the new office will open. At the bill-signing event, Abbott said Musk's DOGE helped 'crystallize' the framework for what the Texas agency would do — while also acknowledging that the version would, unlike the federal one, focus predominantly on slashing state government regulations, as part of a broader push to make Texas even friendlier to businesses. That softer touch has largely been the case in other state-level DOGE apparatuses, as well. In Oklahoma, Cave said that two months after its launch, one of the biggest savings DOGE-OK has made was a $200,000 cut after it identified the existence of 'hundreds' of redundant fax machines across the state government. Perhaps the one exception in which a state DOGE is pursuing matters more aggressively is in Florida, where the state's organization, created via executive order by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in February, is actively reviewing grants and faculty research at public universities in the state, identifying prospective spending cuts and reforms in local governments and seeking to return 'unnecessary federal grant funding' to Washington. The version of DOGE launched by DeSantis, who has repeatedly taken aim at public higher education in Florida, has already begun requesting documents and information from public universities and colleges in the state, spokesperson Brian Wright said in an email. The Florida State Department of Governmental Efficiency, Wright said, has also begun reviewing 'the financial prudence' of all 67 counties and 411 municipalities in the state. On the other hand, New Hampshire's Commission on Government Efficiency, created in January via executive order from GOP Gov. Kelly Ayotte, has so far met a handful times to discuss cost-saving maneuvers such as selling state-owned property and reducing certain equipment purchases. The 15-member body, which comprises legislative leaders and local business leaders, can only submit recommendations to Ayotte. Its members have been outspoken in distancing themselves from Musk and his approach. 'I'm not Elon Musk,' GOP former Gov. Craig Benson, a member of the commission, said at a recent meeting of the group. 'We're not trying to do things the same way.' In Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has stated that her DOGE Task Force's goals include reducing the cost of government and improving effectiveness and efficiency. So far, the body has held only one meeting, and it isn't scheduled to submit its recommendations to Reynolds' office for five more months. Iowa Democrats have nevertheless complained that the body is operating opaquely. Iowa state Rep. Megan Srinivas said on a call with reporters this week that the force is acting with 'a lack of transparency around' any proposed changes in state government. A Reynolds spokesperson didn't respond to questions about the task force. In Missouri, a freshly formed Republican-led legislative committee, the Committee to Evaluate Efficiency in State Government, is reviewing at least 30 bills that propose modest changes to various state boards, state contracts and state payroll formulas. And in Kansas, the Republican-controlled state Senate's new Committee on Government Efficiency created a website on which residents could submit suggestions of where they wanted to see government waste cut. It crashed following an explosion of submissions. The committee's Republican vice chair, state Sen. Michael Murphy, admitted, 'All we're going to be able to do in most cases is have a recommendation.' Meanwhile, in several other states with divided governments, Republican-led legislatures have since the start of the year launched state legislative DOGE committees. Those bodies wield even less power, since Democratic governors can block their efforts, but they have proven useful as platforms for investigations, messaging and more. In Wisconsin, state Assembly Republicans launched a Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency Committee. Lawmakers quizzed state agency heads and the head of the state's university system on spending and alleged waste at its first meeting in March. A Republican member of the committee requested information from the state's biggest cities and all 72 of its counties regarding diversity, equity and inclusion spending in local government. The chair, GOP state Rep. Amanda Nedweski, said that the body's primary goal will be to make sure state government employees no longer work remotely. Nedweski said that the initial burst of attention surrounding Trump's DOGE certainly fueled the explosion of imitations in state capitals, including in Wisconsin, but that by nature, most state-level versions were going to have to operate more deliberately. 'Conceptually, the idea is something people want. Fiscal conservatism has become cool again,' she said in an interview. 'Whether you like the federal DOGE or not, it's getting a lot of attention because people want to save money and want to see if there's waste somewhere — and that it's being addressed and reduced." 'At the state level,' Nedweski added, 'we have restrictions — we cannot bulldoze into an agency and slash and burn, because we don't have that authority.' The committee, which has no counterpart in the state Senate, can only make recommendations to Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat. Republicans have this year launched legislative committees with similar dynamics and constraints in Arizona and North Carolina, which also have Democratic governors. In Arizona, conservative lawmakers acknowledged that the path to DOGE-like reforms would have to come through legislation passed by both chambers and signed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. In North Carolina, the state House committee has not yet issued any recommendations, proposed cuts or crafted any legislation. But it's not the only suggested way circulating to eliminate alleged waste. Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, proposed in March a new 'Impact Center,' housed in his Office of State Budget and Management that would oversee efforts to make government run efficiently. However, he has said his approach would 'use a scalpel, not a chainsaw.' The statement refers to an appearance by Musk at a conservative political conference in February, where he wielded a chainsaw to symbolize his government cuts.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE-OK announces $19.4 million in waste cut, Stitt applauds efforts
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — On Friday, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and the Oklahoma Division of Government Efficiency (DOGE-OK) announced savings of approximately $19.4 million through collective work with state agencies. Agencies regularly submit projects with DOGE-OK, which are reviewed and shared on the department's public website. The projects can include items like the elimination of costly contracts, replacing old processes with new technology, and reducing state-owned assets. Only projects launched in 2024 or 2025 that deliver measurable savings are included. DOGE-OK releases first report, plans to return $157M in federal health grants 'DOGE-OK is proving that Oklahoma can do more with less,' said Governor Stitt. 'Oklahomans expect their government to be lean and spend dollars responsibly. Great work is being done to eliminate waste and deliver better services to Oklahomans.' DOGE-OK shared a few examples of where costs are being cut: The Department of Human Services secured better rates for wireless phones and lowered monthly rates by $10 per device, resulting in significant savings of $65,000 per month. This adjustment delivers an impressive $780,000 in annual savings. The Teachers' Retirement System went paperless for all courtesy mailings, resulting in savings for postage and printing of over $100,000. The Interstate Oil Compact Commission eliminated all state vehicles from their fleet, resulting in an annual savings of approximately $15,000. State employees are said to have reduced around 67,000 hours of manual tasks, freeing up valuable staff time and helping to avoid future budget increases. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
