Editor’s note: Cook County employs entire armies of paper pushers–and not just the desk workers who process forms all day. Walk many of the county government’s hallways and you risk being flattened by someone pushing a cart loaded with paper files, paper stacks, even cardboard boxes full of paper files and paper stacks. Imagine the cost of pushing all that paper–and eventually warehousing it somewhere so it can turn to dust over time.
Friday morning, county Treasurer Maria Pappas will tell members of the County Board, meeting as a finance committee of the whole, how she eliminated much of that paper, simultaneously slashed her budget–and greatly improved services to taxpayers.
With the following speech, Pappas will give County Board members a template they can use to question other county officials: How could you move aggressively to make your courtrooms, your law enforcement duties, your health delivery system as close to paperless as it can be? And how much will you reduce your budget as you shift your focus away from pushing paper and toward providing services?
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Eight years ago, the treasurer’s office had people waiting in lines and paper sitting in piles. Neither seemed to shrink. You will remember the $31 million in payment checks resting against a wall in trays, undeposited for as long as 12 weeks. Those checks were a costly reflection of the state of the office in 1998. The office had six computers, 30 typewriters and hundreds of spiral notebooks.
There was too little technology. And too much paper.
In 1998 the office dealt in paper. Payment checks, refund checks, application forms, memos–and much of it in envelopes. More paper. More mess. Human hands touched almost every piece of paper. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., our employees were sitting under a Niagara of paper. A torrent that never stopped.
The taxpayers–the ones paying for all this–had to stand and wait to pay their property taxes in six locations: downtown and at the five suburban courthouses. In their hands was more paper: Bills, money, receipts, all of which they exchanged with our drowning employees.
Today, the lines are all but gone. And so is most of the paper.
Members of this Finance Committee, allow me to present The Paperless Office.
The material given you describes our accomplishments. I would like to focus on the list of the top 75 automation projects that we put into place to bring us as close to being paperless as possible.
Today, a taxpayer can make a payment without going anywhere or touching any paper beyond the bill. And my office can process that payment without opening an envelope or touching a dollar.
These 75 automation projects were developed with several goals: Make things easier for taxpayers; give them more ways to pay; deposit revenues faster; make ourselves efficient; make government leaner; save money. And eliminate paper.
Almost every one of these projects eliminated some paper. All of them together eliminated a lot of paper.
Remember that there used to be only six places for taxpayers to make in-person payments. You can’t pay at five of those anymore. We closed our suburban locations. But you can pay at almost 300 Chase Bank locations and at another 214 community banks. Almost everyone in Cook County now has a payment place near home or work.
If you feel like staying home, go online to www.cookcountytreasurer.com to make electronic payment. We introduced online payments in March of 2002. About 7,500 people used it the first time. The last time, almost 70,000 people stayed home or paid from the office to make online payment. The program now accepts late payments for the current year, and we’re about to make it possible to pay for two years.
More than 356,000 payments have been made online, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We didn’t touch a piece of paper in accepting them.
We used to stagger under letters and phone calls asking for information about bills and about the tax-collection system. Today our Web site gets 300,000 visitors a month who check their own payments, refunds and exemptions, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Less paper, less traffic–and information in 21 languages.
We have answered 47,000 e-mails without touching a piece of paper or stamping an envelope.
Our automated phone system gets 41,000 calls a month, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Callers choose English, Polish or Spanish and most get answers without us doing anything. Less paper.
We had to keep copies of checks in filing cabinets, over 3 million a year. Today, canceled checks are imaged at the lockbox and sent to us the next day by electronic file. We image 3.4 million checks yearly, and any employee in the office can access them via our computers. Less paper.
Since 2003, some 4.3 million payments totaling $9.8 billion have been made over our Tax Paying Agent program. Less paper.
Mortgage companies have had to make late payments by check. Now they make late payments electronically. Less paper.
We used to hand-deliver reports to the Department of Revenue. Now we e-mail them. Less paper.
We used to mail at least one letter a week to each of Cook County’s 2,000 taxing agencies. Today local governments and other taxing agencies access our Web site, 24/7. Less paper.
It used to take a day to conduct an auction over the phone for banks to bid on Cook County deposits. Now it takes 20 minutes. Less paper and higher yields–everyone sees what everyone else is bidding.
“Less paper” is why we’re faster. Why the lines of people are gone. Why payments get deposited faster. Why taxing agencies get revenues faster. Why we don’t need so many filing cabinets. Why our office desks aren’t bursting at the seams.
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And it’s why I have been able to submit reduced budgets for the past six years. Since fiscal year 2002, my office’s budget has gone down nearly 25 percent.
“Less paper” is why I have been able to reduce staff from 250 in 1998 to 129 for this next fiscal year. Less paper, less traffic.
For all of our work, my office is not paperless enough. But we have another 100 projects planned over the next four years.
I end my remarks with a thought: Paperless office, paperless office … on our way to a paperless county.