Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Governor Leavitt Speaks to the Press Governor Leavitt met with the press today to answer questions regarding his confirmation and the transition in Utah to future Governor Olene Walker.  Here is a RealVideo clip of the entire press conference held earlier today. The transition schedule is also available for the coming week.  The new Lt. Governor will be announced tomorrow at 11:00 am.  I will post the announcement here shortly after it occurs. Governor Leavitt also held a press conference last night prior to the confirmation.  Here's the transcript. Acting EPA Administrator Marianne Horinko issued the following statement: “Today’s Senate vote confirming Mike Leavitt is great news for the Agency, and for our mission of continued protection of human health and the environment. Mike is a thoughtful leader who will bring to EPA his strengths of collaborative environmental management, his commitment to air and water quality and land conservation and his dedication to ensuring effective stewardship of our natural resources. “From what I understand, he is expected to start here as early as the end of next week. I know Mike Leavitt is looking forward to coming here as much as we are looking forward to having him. I know he will be a great Administrator and I am pleased at the Senate vote today.” 5:15:32 PM    comment []

Cross-matching to Eliminate Fraud An article in the Sacramento Bee suggests that California is losing $2 million a week by failing to cross-match unemployment payments with a new-hire registry.  The Bee recommends a low cost solution such as that implemented by Utah in 1997.  The article states: Every night, on an old main-frame computer, the state runs a cross-match between the unemployment rolls and the new-hire database. The programming and implementation cost a little less than $100,000 but, according to a 2000 report by the state of Utah, overpayments dropped 43 percent in the first year. "It's not a costly program relative to the millions of dollars of unemployment fraud it detects," said Bill Starks, tax chief for Utah's unemployment insurance division. "It's hard to imagine anything that could generate more money for the trust fund at such a low cost." The only problem with this statement is that Utah does not have an old mainframe.  Our mainframe is pretty up-to-date.  Many feel that anything associated with "mainframe" computing must be old.  This solution was developed by the same department that developed jobs.utah.gov, a site that now supports 65% of the state's job referrals through their online service. 8:07:22 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.