I’m Illinois State Treasurer Dan Rutherford. Since taking office in January of 2011, I have used my experience in the private sector business world to improve the efficiencies of my office. Numerous cost-cutting moves have been enacted while simultaneously improving services to taxpayers.

Here are the action steps taken to implement cost reductions, with the most recent listed first:

• Letterhead savings. Illinois State Treasurer letterhead is printed in-house in quantities of 25,000.  By printing these documents on a lighter weight stock we will incur a savings of more than $300 annually.

• Speaker phones reduced. Polycom speaker phone devices reduced almost in half resulting in an annual savings of $1,176.

• Office budget reduction. Proactively cut our general revenue operational budget to less than that of a decade ago. Legislature then enacted the cut statutorily.

• Desk calendars eliminated. Desktop calendars have been eliminated given that all workstations have computer-based calendars. Specialized calendars for banking and investment purposes are the exception. The result was a 90 percent reduction saving the state almost $350 annually.

• Decrease in Chicago land lines.  Realized an 18 percent reduction in land lines due to staff relocations and review of existing lines. Over $4,500 in savings will be accrued annually.

• Redacted letterhead. Redacted and reused tens of thousands of the former administration’s letterhead and envelopes saving approximately $800.

• Reduction in mobile phone usage. Evaluated cellular needs which resulted in an initial 72 percent reduction in users and an estimated $14,000 savings in the first year. Specifically, we dropped from 36 users to 10 active mobile phones. (These statistics may fluctuate as users are added and dropped.)

• Vehicle fleet reduction. Motor vehicle usage and costs were analyzed; accordingly, the fleet was reduced by half.

• No across-the-board salary increases were given.

• Staff reorganization. Efficiencies realized by restructuring of staff, reorganizing existing people, writing new job descriptions, combining duties and adding additional responsibilities to facilitate a consolidation of jobs.

• Performance audit. A wide ranging performance audit was ordered to determine the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of all programs. This has helped to streamline operations to be more cost effective.

• Closure of all satellite offices. Six satellite offices were closed within 30 days of the inauguration. Locations included Effingham, Collinsville, Mt. Vernon, Rockford, Rock Island and Riverdale.

And more will be coming soon!