In February, Lamont laid out priorities that he said would make state government smarter, including digitizing services like voter registration and driver’s license renewal. At the same time, Lamont has asked for an increased investment in technology funding. The governor’s recent budget proposal, filed last month, asks for cuts to other areas of investment, but emphasizes information technology as a place for increased commitment.
"I have proposed a significant investment in technology and IT personnel to modernize and digitize state government," Lamont said during his budget address.
That’s partially because Lamont has championed technology as a way to drive down overall costs for the state. In certain areas, he said, costs could be reduced by as much as 75 percent through a transfer of transactions from manual to online. It also improves accessibility for users, the governor has reasoned.
“Today, we have over 2,000 different forms and less than 5 percent of them can be completed online,” he said, during his budget address. "As we digitize these interactions, we will achieve cost savings and a better customer experience."
The state’s CIO, Mark Raymond, concurred that investing in technology would make investment in other areas less necessary over time.
“If we think about this holistically, technology helps drive down the overall cost of providing citizen services,” said Raymond.
Budget documents also state Lamont has prioritized the creation of what he calls the "first all-digital government," a way of doing business in which residents can access services online instead of going through the cumbersome process of visiting a government office.
The governor's intention is that eventually “every interaction you would have with government would be available online,” Raymond said.
In this sense, the end goal for the state is to streamline services and user experience digitally to the point where citizens don't even have to think about which government departments they're actually working with, according to Raymond. "That's how we're really going to move the needle," he said.
