Governor's budget for CMS consolidates agency services

SPRINGFIELD, ILL. - Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich today proposed a fiscal year 2004 budget of $3.35 billion for the Illinois Department of Central Management Services (CMS); General Revenue funding for the department will total $1.04 billion, up from $904 million in FY03.

The department's FY04 budget exemplifies the governor's commitment to do more with less in two ways.

First, CMS is responsible for consolidating functions such as facilities management and audit and legal services that are currently decentralized, saving $115.8 million in FY04 without sacrificing the effective and efficient delivery of those services.

"Similar consolidation efforts undertaken by for-profit corporations have demonstrated that this strategy will produce what the governor has promised—less government bureaucracy, reduced duplication of costs, better services and significant, positive change in how state government functions," said Michael Rumman, CMS director.

Second, the agency's FY04 budget will address the important issue of employee benefit programs, which carry a $962 million price tag. The department's goal is to contain these program costs while maintaining benefits. CMS plans to sustain the state's benefit package, despite soaring group insurance premiums, and to hold down any cost increases through economies of scale.

Other efforts to reduce expenditures include a substantial reduction in the department's FY04 staffing levels. By adopting innovative new approaches to its core responsibilities to other state agencies and to the taxpaying public, CMS will lower operational costs with no anticipated reduction in service levels or quality.