If you’ve ever been puzzled, perplexed or perturbed while navigating the often slow-moving and sometimes problem-prone agencies of our state bureaucracy, rest assured, you’re not alone.

Complaints regarding Ohio state-sponsored services and professional licensing are relatively common, with some areas seeing eye-popping increases. In one recent year, for example, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office handled over 20,500 complaints from state residents.

Clearly, there is plenty of room for improvement in the delivery of Ohio services that could reduce bureaucratic hurdles for residents and businesses, harness technology for greater efficiency and stimulate economic growth.

Fortunately, state Rep. David Thomas, R-Jefferson, recognizes as much. The proof is in the meat of his Government Service Delivery Improvement Act, which he introduced two weeks ago in the state House of Representatives. That measure, House Bill 834, seeks to modernize and improve state services by establishing dedicated roles for optimizing their delivery and creating tracking systems to measure successes and shortcomings.

The legislation, co-sponsored by fellow Mahoning Valley state Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Canfield, targets a wide swath of services such as unemployment insurance, licensing and permits with a simple but needed end goal to increase efficiency and slash bureaucratic red tape.

Specifically, HB 834 mandates these factors gain primary attention in all state interactions: “ease, efficiency, transparency, accessibility, fairness, burden and duration, including wait and processing times.”

As many of us have learned the hard way, those qualities too often get short shrift.

Toward his goal, Thomas’s legislation targets the so-called “engine of state government,” the Ohio Department of Administrative Services. It oversees and provides centralized services and support to state agencies, boards and commissions, many of which

everyday residents routinely rely on.

Thomas and Fischer propose creating a new leadership role at the Department of Administrative Services to synchronize agencies and establish a system to track and measure agency performance. That leader would be charged with coordinating efforts to monitor and improve the delivery of services, with priority given to high-impact, most-used services. Part of that role would include soliciting input and evaluations from residents.

“Some of the best ideas we get in the Legislature come from our constituents. State departments should similarly benefit from input from those they serve,” Thomas said in a news release about the new bill.

HB 834, however, is not totally self-invented. It draws upon proven similar successful models from other states, including Utah, New York and Pennsylvania.

As Thomas put it, “Other states have already proven successfully that this concept works, and even the federal government has attempted to tackle customer response using this model. I think it is only fitting that Ohio leads the nation in becoming the first state to put this into law instead of an executive order.”

In Utah, that state’s Citizen Feedback Program, established in 2020, has significantly improved state services by fostering a data-driven, customer-focused approach. With over 300,000 responses from residents gathered, the initiative has improved government efficiency, streamlined user experiences for state services such as the Department of Motor Vehicles and enhanced digital accessibility. For example, it found that moving employees from in-person, paper and phone services to digital services saved the state tens of millions of dollars.

In the Empire State, the similar New York Experience program reportedly has led to licensing wait times falling by 83%, its Division of Human Rights backlog declining by 44%, and its Higher Education Services Corp. eliminating its backlog of 8,000 unprocessed grants and scholarships for students in the state.”

Next door in the Keystone State, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s executive order created the Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience (CODE PA). Its reported benefits include saving taxpayers over $10 million through in-house projects, increasing transparency for companies doing business with the commonwealth and better tracking and processing of applications for programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

If Ohio could achieve a fraction of those gains in tax dollars and losses in consumer frustration levels, it would be well worth the investment. Toward that end, the Ohio House and Senate should fast track Thomas’s Government Service Delivery Improvement Act to hearings and then quickly to sweeping bipartisan passage.