Senator Maziarz Joins Task Force on Government Efficiency

Demonstrating his commitment to developing a fiscally responsible budget, Senator George Maziarz (R-C, Newfane) is pleased to announce that he will sit on a newly-formed, bipartisan Task Force on Government Efficiency. The twelve-member task force will conduct a statewide investigation into the spending practices of state agencies and operations to uncover areas of administrative inefficiencies and government waste.

Maziarz will be joined on the task force by Senators Jeff Klein, Darrel Aubertine, Brian Foley, Craig Johnson, Elizabeth “Betty” Little, Tom Morahan, Diane Savino, Jose Serrano, William Stachowski, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and David Valesky.

“This task force will provide an unparalleled opportunity to determine how we can conserve resources and reduce unnecessary and extraneous expenditures.  I am pleased to join this diverse group of senators in confronting our recurring fiscal problems head on,” said Maziarz.

Maziarz cites the abuse of billions of dollars in fraudulent Medicaid payments as a likely target of the task force. “The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates New York’s Medicaid fraud to be near $5 billion in 2010,” said Maziarz.  “Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ranked New York 26^th nationally for Medicaid fraud recovery. This is an unsustainable burden on the taxpayers of the state that must be addressed.”

The task force will work to uncover inefficient government spending and develop solutions to put taxpayer dollars to better use, in an effort to help close the substantial state budget shortfall in Governor Paterson’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2010-2011.  By rooting out inefficiency, this special Task Force on Government Efficiency will recommend to the Senate ways to control government spending at all state agencies.  This in turn will allow New York State to cut wasteful spending and provide vital tax relief statewide.  

The task force comes on the heels of two recent reports that uncovered massive spending inefficiencies at the State University of New York system (SUNY) and the New York State Department of Correctional Services (DOCS).