Treasurer's proposal is creative idea

Nebraska faces a $761,000,000 budget shortfall, and dealing with it is going to be painful. Either we cut support for education, cut services for aged, disabled and truly disadvantaged, or we raise taxes. More likely, we will do a combination of the above.

But are there are other alternatives? Choices, which if selected, could help reduce the harmful effects of the other alternatives?

Among those responding in the affirmative are Lorelee Byrd, Nebraska state treasurer. Bryd doesn't promise to solve the state's budget problems alone, but listen to her idea.

It comes in the form of LB117, the priority bill of State Sen. Pam Brown, co-sponsored by State Sen. Tom Baker of Trenton.

Currently, mail addressed to the state arrives in the Lincoln Post Office about 4 a.m. each day. It is then sorted by post office box and delivered to more than 93 different state agencies, boards and commissions. According to Byrd, the mail includes several million dollars a day in taxes, license renewals, fees, fines and other remittances accompanying the appropriate forms.

By the time the payment is deposited with the state treasurer's office, several days or weeks may have passed -- days or weeks when the money could have been earning interest for state of Nebraska and the taxpayers who support it.

LB117 proposes ways to change that by taking advantage of new technology. The proposal would see the incoming mail delivered to the state treasurer's office where processing would begin immediately -- as soon as 4 a.m. -- and continuing throughout the day as it arrives.

Using a fully automated system, the envelopes would be opened, the contents would be imaged, sorted, date stamped and have tracking information added, prepared for deposit and ready for accounting entries, all before 8 a.m.

"The deposit could be earning interest for the taxpayers by 8 a.m. each day," according to Byrd. "If a taxpayer needed a copy of his or her check or other information, it could be e-mailed within seconds, saving postage and other costs. Most documents could be stored electronically instead of in paper form, further reducing costs," she said.

The new system wouldn't be without cost, of course. The treasurer's office would need about six new employees to process the state's mail, and about $500,000 for the new workers and the technology they need.

But it should pay off before long. According to Byrd, about 918 state employees are involved in some capacity with mail delivery, mail opening, mail processing, entering accounting information, document storage and related functions. All of those positions would not be eliminated, of course, but many of the positions could be reassigned or reduced.

The salaries of those 918 employees totals $21.6 million, not including benefits.

With that many jobs at stake, passing LB117 will be difficult. But the effort is a good example of the kind of creative thinking that will be needed to bring the state out of the current budget crisis.