Delaware’s Government Efficiency and Accountability Review or GEAR report is released by Governor Matt Meyer.
This year’s report, released November 3, spans 87 pages of recommendations from the GEAR board to Governor Matt Meyer on fiscal reform efforts.
GEAR was created by former Governor John Carney to identify ways the state can improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of public services while reducing costs- a new report is required to be filed each year by executive order.
The full list of recommendations will require support from the state’s executive, legislative, and judiciary branches. Charles Clark, Executive Director of GEAR, says that it’s imperative they get that support.
“Gear estimates that the rough order of magnitude savings to the state, of the 166 projects in the GEAR portfolio, will be $110 million dollars under the life of projects underway.” he said.
That’s a nine million dollar increase in projected savings from last year, according to Clark- 2024’s GEAR report estimated $101 million dollars in savings across all projects.
The GEAR board this year sought to create economic opportunity in the state through predictability in key areas of development.
Dan Madrid is the Deputy Director of GEAR.
“When you look at permitting, across the state of Delaware, there’s dozens of systems in permits that businesses may need to operate here. The philosophy with GEAR is that we can make these systems smarter, faster, and more responsive without sacrificing the necessary regulatory considerations that need to be made.” he told DPM.
The board also advocated to expand site training opportunities for state employees further through its Continuous Improvement Practitioners training program, of which it has graduated 155 practitioners and another cohort of 18 presently in training.
GEAR’s goal for Gov. Meyer’s entire term is boosting the savings number to $300 million in total.
The full report is available to the public on the GEAR website.
