Going green is not only saving the environment – it will also save the New York State government thousands of dollars per year.
Governor David A. Paterson announced that he would implement a new E-Budget initiative to help save taxpayers dollars by eliminating the costly and redundant full printed version of his 2010-11 Executive Budget books while continuing to post those documents on the Internet.
With the removal of the printed version of these books, 5.5 million sheets of paper, 660 trees and $75,000 per year will be saved.
In 2009-10, the state printed 2,700 sets of Executive Budget documents. Each set contained five separate books; stacked end-on-end, those documents would have been taller than the Empire State building.
“With the State facing historic fiscal challenges, we cannot leave any stone unturned when it comes to reducing the cost of government,” Paterson said. “In the Internet age, printing millions of pages of budget books each year is inefficient and unnecessary. This E-Budget initiative will save taxpayers thousands of dollars and reduce environmental impacts, while still ensuring that Executive Budget information is transparent and accessible to the public.”
A survey conducted by the division of the budget found that 22 other state budget offices have fully or partially eliminated their paper budget books in favor of Internet publishing. Their web site – www.budget.state.ny.us – will continue to include Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of each Executive Budget book in the same format as it would have appeared on paper.
As required by state law, Paterson will provide each member of the Senate and Assembly with a printed copy of his proposed appropriation and Article VII legislation for the 2010-11 Executive Budget.
For more information about Paterson’s efforts on fiscal and budgetary reform, visit the Governor’s Office of Taxpayer Accountability web site at www.taxpayer.ny.gov.
