Klein to Co-Chair Task Force on Government Efficiency

Lawmaker tapped to head renewed, bipartisan effort to identify savings,
eliminate wasteful spending, streamline bureaucracy

Senator Jeffrey D. Klein, (D-Bronx/Westchester), has been selected to lead renewed efforts to uncover waste, inefficiency and mismanagement throughout state government as a co-chair of the bipartisan Senate Task Force on Government Efficiency, it was announced today.

Senator Klein headed the Task Force on Government Efficiency when it was first established in early 2010.

“The Task Force worked in a bipartisan fashion at a time when nothing else did in Albany,” Senator Klein said. “I'm proud of our past work and and I look forward to continuing our efforts to shed light on the wasteful practices and structural problems that abound in our state bureaucracy.”

During his tenure, the Task Force uncovered more than $312 million in questionable spending and potential savings. Additionally, they proposed reforms to crack down on overtime abuses, develop new accountability standards for outside contractors, review the use of state assets, and eliminate duplicative administrative functions.

He and the other members of the Independent Democratic Conference built upon that work in the just concluded legislative session. The IDC issued 15 legislative reports and advanced proposals to revamp state government that would save New York more than $1 billion during the next decade.

Klein will join State Senator Tom O’Mara, (R-C, Big Flats), to lead the reconstituted nine-member panel.

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