A start at better government

Usually, an interim legislative committee generates more yawns than yippees, but in the case of the new Select Committee on Government Efficiency, we think at least a tentative cheer is appropriate.

We know it’s hard to get overly invested in a committee that is going to be meeting for months, chewing away at the minutiae of state bureaucracies, but it seems like this is a well-intended effort to make government more responsible.

The panel’s efforts got started this week in Kalispell during a two-day meeting that involved local government officials and technology and health-care experts.

Improved efficiency in government is a goal we believe to be worthwhile, necessary and entirely obtainable, and it certainly doesn’t have to devolve into partisan divisions.

As the chairman of the committee, Sen. Jon Sonju, R-Kalispell, has wisely made clear from the start, this is not about slashing programs, agencies and services, but rather all about finding new and better ways for state government to do business.

And the benefits, it seems, may spread well beyond state government. Kalispell city officials gave the committee an earful on how eliminating redundancies between agencies and different levels of government would benefit the city and ultimately property owners and businesses.

A more efficient government could in many ways be a better government from the citizens’ standpoint.

In the technology arena, there are already scores of successful examples. Think of websites that have made state agencies far more efficient in providing information and services, such as the Fish, Wildlife and Parks site that now processes a big share of license sales. Think of GIS systems and how they have transformed government programs for the better. The examples go on and on, and the committee should be able to find ways to continue applying technology for better, more efficient, less costly government.

The committee plans to continue holding meetings across the state in the months to come, and there will be an emphasis on hearing from experts as well as the public before preparing a set of recommendations to the next governor and Legislature.

This should be a success, because it’s not an all-or-nothing proposition. The best, most innovative and most common sense recommendations will get some deserved traction with the full Legislature.