By: Alex Ignatowski, Institute for Reforming Government
This is an opinion piece.
On November 5th of this year, Donald Trump once again stunned the nation with his second successful election to the highest office in the country. Gaining the popular vote and sweeping the battleground states has given him and his incoming administration the mandate to deliver as the “change” candidate. The status quo of the past couple of decades brought to completeness in the last four years, is no longer in vogue. The majority of the country voted to change in such a resounding way that it is safe to assume that the incoming President will feel the political pressure to deliver.
Enter the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE.
Spearheaded by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, two intrepid entrepreneurs in their own rights, DOGE promises to look at the entire enterprise of the federal government, from the million-dollar grants to multi-billion dollar agencies. Regardless of what you think about the co- directors of this non-governmental department, they are both very accomplished, successful, and incredibly bright. Of course, their initiative has brought heaping amounts of praise and criticism, but based on national polling, they are on to something.
According to Gallup, 55% of Americans think the federal government is doing too much. That sentiment is not just national – Wisconsin wants change too. In our recent polling, IRG found that 62% of Wisconsinites believe that regulations need to be cut to encourage business growth in the state. Only 18% disagreed.
Enter the Wisconsin DOGE Project.
Wisconsin state government, much like the federal government, is in need of change and modernization. Wisconsin became a state in 1848 and was organized and structured in the context of the mid-19th century. At that time food was the most common “fuel” for transportation and the speed of communication depended on the US Postal Service. 176 years later, Wisconsin has seen little change in the way that it does business.
State government is almost exclusively based in the City of Madison and is heavily staffed with over 65,000 employees when considering the UW System. Despite the fact that we can travel the length of the state in a matter of hours, can communicate instantaneously, and see how AI can automate routine tasks, Wisconsin stands unchanged. We have numerous large office buildings sitting in a prime real estate market practically empty with the embrace of the hybrid work model, while our Madison- centric state government keeps employees disconnected from the residents they regulate or provide services to.
There is a road map for change. In 2023, the Institute for Reforming Government produced a report outlining how to create efficiencies, improve customer service, and modernize our state government. The first step is to reduce the number of employees by contracting out for professional services. Lawyers, accountants, and engineers are a huge part of the public workforce, but the state could purchase the services they provide on an as-needed basis.
As the report outlines, this will not only reduce costs, but will increase the quality of the work that policymakers use to make important decisions. Furthermore, functions that at one time required staff and a brick-and-mortar building can now be accomplished with an app and a smartphone.
Second, there needs to be a reduction of the physical footprint of office space in Madison. This is achieved with the staff reductions and taking advantage of the hybrid work model. This is already starting to take shape under Governor Evers. Third, large agencies like the DNR should be split in two, with physical locations being moved to new locations to bring regulators closer to the people they regulate.
Other agencies, like the Department of Tourism, could have their responsibilities absorbed by a policy-adjacent department. Lastly, Wisconsin needs improved accessibility and customer service. Regional offices would blur the bureaucratic lines between agencies, allowing citizens looking to access state government could go through one locally situated door rather than combing through the alphabet soup of state agencies located in Madison. This would then be paired with a single electronic portal, with one login and user name, for all of state government.
State government services have stagnated while the size has inflated. A state government that was designed in the 19th century is not up to the task before us in the 21st. There is a growing will to change and a roadmap to start us on our way. Wisconsin’s DOGE moment has arrived, it’s time for Madison to embrace it.
Alex Ignatowski is the Director of State Budget and Government Reform at the Institute for Reforming Government (IRG).
