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Innovations Awards by State

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Alaska

• 2005 Finalist: Active Managerial Control - This program, used by retail food establishment operators, manages risks that contribute to food borne illness. This system includes four components: trained food service work force, standard operating procedures in food establishments, self-assessment and regulation through inspection and enforcement.

 

Alabama

• 2005 Winner: BioTrac - The program examines the three basic components of patient care—cost, delivery and patient compliance—as one package that can be used to determine the best treatment plan for patients. Medicaid participants given a medical device that records weight, blood pressure, blood glucose and other physiologic signs transmit the medical information into a statewide database, which is then used by the state to formulate cost calculations, and by the state health department to identify gaps in patient care. 

 

Arizona

• 2004 Finalist: Behavioral Health Assessment and Service Plan Project - This project led to the design and implementation of a statewide, standardized behavioral health intake, enrollment, assessment and service planning process for people enrolled in Arizona’s behavioral health system.

 

Arkansas

• 2004 Winner: Antenatal and Neonatal Guidelines, Education and Learning System (ANGELS) - Provides expertise and treatment guidelines for best practices in maternal-fetal care in collaboration with family practitioners and obstetricians throughout the state. In a cooperative effort between Arkansas Department of Human Services and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, ANGELS serves anyone with a high-risk pregnancy.
  

• 2003 Winner: IndependentChoices Program - Allows participants of the state Medicaid program to receive a cash allowance to help pay for needed medical services rather than receiving care from a state agency. The allowance may be used in a variety of non-traditional ways to meet personal care needs, allowing consumers to assume more responsibility for their service arrangements.

• 2003 Finalist: GeoStor - This program is a statewide, publicly accessible geospatial information system (GIS) with the ability to deliver customized geographic data. This program allows users across the state to respond quickly and efficiently to location-based questions dealing with a host of issues, including economic development, city zoning and disaster response.

 

California

• 2004 Finalist: Rent Reduction Program - This proactive strategy to reduce the cost of leased state facilities includes such actions as terminating leases, reducing the amount of space under lease, consolidating leased space, backfilling excess space before adding new space, and negotiating rapid rent reductions with current lessors.

• 2004 Finalist: Abusive Tax Shelter Program - This state Franchise Tax Board initiative aggressively attacks abusive tax shelters through a multidisciplinary approach. This includes spearheading legislation that increased penalties for investors in and promoters of abusive tax shelters, redirecting staff auditors to focus on abusive tax shelters, and a Voluntary Compliance Initiative similar to one the IRS uses. 

• 2003 Finalist: Mental Health Services Continuum Program - Provides the state’s Department of Corrections with a customized, real-time, automated database to help identify and treat mentally ill parolees. The purpose of the program is to enhance the quality and timeliness of mental health services provided to mentally ill parolees after release, with the overarching goal of reducing recidivism and improving public safety.

• 2003 Finalist: Integrated Nonfiler Compliance System - Is designed to obtain tax returns from individuals and businesses that have not filed returns. The program’s goals are to improve compliance with tax laws, increase revenue, improve customer service, and organize the income and income activity data for all of the California Franchise Tax Board’s programs. 

 

• 2003 Winner: Home Care and Assisted Living Alternatives to Nursing Home Care Initiative - In an effort to provide elderly persons in need of long-term care the ability to remain in the community and avoid, or delay, entrance to a nursing home, the initiative includes an expansion of the income eligibility criteria for Connecticut's Home Care Program for Elders, implementation of assisted living pilots in state-funded congregate housing and federally-funded HUD housing, implementation of a private pay assisted living pilot and the subsidized assisted living demonstration project.

• 2003 Finalist: Higher Education Asset Protection Program - This program evaluates the condition of Connecticut’s public higher education facilities through a comprehensive facility condition assessment. The program includes physical inspections of buildings and uses a Web-based database application to assist each institution with capital planning and management.

 

Delaware

• 2005 Finalist: Home- and Community-Based Services Waiver Individualized Rate-Setting Program - This program is a resource allocation and reimbursement structure based on the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities. It empowers each individual to determine when, where and how his or her services are provided.

• 2004 Winner: Health Rewards - To empower state employees to make positive health choices and to save money for the state’s self-insured health plan, Delaware created a free, voluntary program under which state employees receive health assessments, lifestyle coaching and other perquisites. Because of improved health, officials estimate the program has saved the health insurance plan $1 million annually.

• 2004 Finalist: Partner$ in Procurement - Using Internet auctions, leveraged procurement practices and sophisticated electronic tracking to save money on state purchases of goods and services, this program helps ensure the state is buying the products it needs while saving money.

• 2003 Finalist: Models of Excellence in Education - Identifies schools that improve student achievement and seeks to learn from their success, and to recognize and share their “best practices” with other schools, fostering the development of a statewide education network designed to improve the performance of all schools.

 

District of Columbia

• 2004 Finalist: Wireless Networks Program - Provides wireless tools for combating domestic accidents, emergencies, crime and international terrorism to first responders in the nation’s capital.

 

• 2004 Alternate: State Emergency Operations Center Mapper - Within 15 to 30 minutes after impending and current disaster information is received in the emergency operations center, the data is available online statewide to emergency responders and the public.

• 2004 Finalist: Self-Directed Work Teams- The Florida Board of Nursing uses these teams to streamline the process for licensing nurses, assign work, solve problems, improve communications and improve performance at the board’s offices. These teams reduced the time it takes to process a license from 33 days to an average of 14.2 days, which has lowered personnel costs for the board, reduced customer complaints and increased the supply of nurses in Florida during a critical shortage.

• 2004 Finalist: Florida Initiative in Telehealth and Education - In a partnership between the University of Florida’s Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and the Children’s Medical Services Network in Daytona Beach, this program provides telemedicine clinics for children with diabetes and endocrinopathies.

• 2003 Finalist: Civil Workflow Control System- Devised to provide advanced technology to non-criminal justice agencies, this system allows users to electronically “scan” fingerprints and enter information to request criminal history record checks.

2003 Finalist: Florida: A Healthy State -This public-private collaboration is designed to address the critical health care needs of the state’s Medicaid population suffering from diabetes, hypertension, heart failure and asthma. The initiative is investing in the care of Florida’s chronically ill population through three distinct programs on disease management, health literacy and medical product donations.

2003 Finalist: Global Match - Through cooperation between the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, this program allows the use of “global match” in lieu of cash match for disaster recovery funds from FEMA. It provides a creative and effective way for greater leveraging of existing efforts by state and local governments in pursuit of disaster relief and related projects.

 

• 2005 Finalist: Hawaii Rx Plus - A prescription drug assistance program for those who qualify, Hawaii Rx Plus is designed to reduce the price of prescription drugs, keep administrative costs to a minimum, streamline the application process, prevent crowding out the prescription drug benefits already available through the Hawaii Pre-Paid Health Care Act and protect the rights and benefits of Medicaid recipients.

• 2004 Finalist: From Pollutant to Power: Transforming Marine Debris to Energy - This program created a process by which discarded commercial fishnets are burned at the state’s garbage-to-energy plant to generate electricity instead of being sent to a landfill.

• 2003 Winner: Hawaii 3Rs: Repair, Remodel and Restore Program- This program matches public funds with volunteers from private industry, reducing the $450 million of needed maintenance and repairs in the state’s schools and promoting community involvement in the school system.

 

Iowa

• 2004 Winner: Charter Agencies- Under this program, six agency directors volunteer to sign agreements with the governor promising to meet specific performance goals. In exchange, the directors are granted greater flexibility and more authority to run their agencies in a manner that will achieve the performance goals, including making their own decisions about personnel, purchasing and technology.

• 2004 Finalist: Iowa Excellence - Using techniques from the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program to improve state agency performance, this program includes rigorous agency self-assessments and planning.

• 2004 Finalist: Lighten Up Iowa - This program is a statewide team competition that encourages healthy weight loss, physical activity and good nutrition among state employees.

• 2004 Finalist: Construction Permitting Business Improvement Program - This program streamlines the process of issuing construction permits by eliminating unnecessary steps, adopting more user-friendly application forms, and implementing a hotline. These actions have reduced the average time for issuing a permit from 62 to 11 days.

• 2003 Winner: Pollution Prevention (P2) Intern Program - This program places college graduate and upper level undergraduate students in Iowa's businesses, industries and governmental agencies for a 12-week period to help identify, evaluate and implement ecological and economical solutions for specific environmental issues or problems.

• 2003 Finalist: Tax Gap Compliance Program - This program uses technology to help the Department of Revenue and Finance accurately collect all taxes owed to the state. Through a combination of data warehousing and a customized software application, the program has generated $26 million more in tax revenues than the baseline collections during the three-year development and implementation period.

 

• 2005 Alternate: Mapping Evapotranspiration from Satellites Project - To address water supply issues, cooperation between the University of Idaho, the Idaho Department of Water Resources, NASA and the private sector has created an operational tool for water administration using satellite image data.

 

• 2005 Winner: Shared Services Model - State legal services, internal audits, facilities management, fleet management, information technology and media relations functions have been consolidated into the Department of Central Management Services (CMS), centralizing and standardizing the states’ procurement process and saving Illinois hundreds of millions of dollars.

• 2005 Finalist: InfoNet - A state-of-the-art data collection system for victim service providers developed by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, this system facilitates uniform data collection and promotes program planning and accountability.

• 2004 Finalist: All Our Kids Early Childhood Networks- This program provides comprehensive health care to children under age 5. This includes prenatal care, well-baby checkups, developmental screenings, parenting education and home visits.

• 2003 Finalist: Partners for Inclusive Employment Job Match and Fair - This program educates employers about the Americans with Disabilities Act and helps match disabled job-seekers with employers.

• 2003 Finalist: Emission Reduction Market System - Operated by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, this system allows participating companies to buy, sell or trade units of ozone-producing emissions. This market-based program was designed to reduce atmospheric ozone and improve air quality.

• 2003 Finalist: Operation Protect and Provide - This program gives low interest loans to military Reserves and National Guard members from Illinois who are called up for active duty. The State Treasurer’s office has pledged millions of dollars in low-interest loans through local financial institutions throughout the state.

• 2003 Finalist: Urban Systems of Care Program - The Department of Human Services provides mental health and social services for at-risk children and their families who live in 11 Chicago Housing Authority developments. This program bridges the barriers caused by socioeconomic factors, lack of transportation and gang boundaries that may prevent residents from obtaining needed services.

• 2003 Finalist: After-school Initiative Task Force - Co-chaired by the Department of Human Services and the State Board of Education, this task force brought together leaders in youth development, human services and education to evaluate and coordinate the state’s after-school services.

 

• 2004 Finalist: Operation PADLOC (Parole, Absconder, Detection, Location and Capture)- This initiative enables law enforcement officers to quickly locate and apprehend parole absconders who pose a significant threat to public safety based on past criminal history of sex offenses, crimes of violence or crimes against children.

• 2004 Finalist: Child Welfare Mental Health Partnership - This program increases access to mental health services for youth in state custody, and particularly for those who are involved in serious disturbances.

 

Kentucky

• 2009 Winner: Kentucky Reentry Hotline - Kentucky’s Department of Corrections Reentry Hotline is a 24-hour toll-free hotline that provides information about complying with parole, job training, and other social services to callers who are just out of prison. The hotline is staffed by inmates who are at the end of their prison terms. These inmates volunteer to staff the hotline. Corrections department staff provide the resources and train these volunteers to handle the calls. Thirteen volunteers usually staff the hotline throughout any month. The hotline is averaging 3000 calls each year since it began. The inmates who answer the hotline benefit from helping people and getting training that could translate to a job once they are released from prison. Callers benefit from being able to talk to someone during a crisis and getting directed to resources that can help them.

 

Lousiana

• 2004 Finalist: CORe—Corrections Organized for Re-entry - This program helps prisoners transition from prison into society by encouraging offenders to use their time in custody to learn marketable skills, develop new behaviors, address character deficiencies and begin planning for a positive future.

• 2003 Finalist: Computers for Louisiana’s Kids- This multipurpose initiative takes donated computers – thereby reducing the amount of electronic waste in public landfills – refurbishes them and distributes them to needy schools. Prison inmates and high school students learn how to refurbish the machines, which gives them marketable skills.

 

Massachusetts

• 2005 Finalist: Shared Services Model Hiring Reform Program - This program sought to fix a redundant, expensive, prolonged and frustrating hiring process. By forming a partnership with state agencies, utilizing technology and assuming more of an oversight role, the Human Resources Division developed a set of new hiring guidelines that reduced the hiring time by 85 percent. 

 

• 2005 Finalist: Chesapeake Bay Watershed Restoration Fund - This program establishes a new funding mechanism to support capital improvements to wastewater treatment plants and other measures essential to the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. The program helps generate revenue by implementing new fees on the use of septic systems and in water and sewer bills. 

 

Michigan

• 2005 Winner: Michigan SmartZones - Collaborations among universities, industry, research organizations, government and other local institutions have resulted in regionally based high-tech zones which target growth in a specific economic sector that fits the geographic region’s strengths and needs, creating clusters of high-skilled, high-paying jobs.

• 2005 Finalist: Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) - In order to develop and promote a recognized, voluntary and proactive environmental assurance program targeted to Michigan's agriculture industry, this program ensures that producers engage in cost-effective pollution prevention practices and are in compliance with applicable state and federal environmental regulations. MAEAP uses a systems approach based on education, site-specific risk assessments and third party verification that is developed for all Michigan farms, regardless of size, commodity or species.

• 2005 Finalist: FieldManager - A suite of software tools used to manage and track field-level progress of road and bridge construction projects, this program can be used by State Department of Transportation field offices, local government agencies, engineering firms and construction contractors.

• 2005 Finalist: Statewide Earned Income Tax Credit Coalition Initiative - This partnership among the governor's office, the Department of Human Services and communities throughout Michigan provides affordable, ethical access to tax preparation services to the working poor that yields a cost-effective method enabling eligible workers to increase household income by gaining federal and state tax refunds.

• 2003 Finalist: Wireless Learning - This program is designed to improve student achievement by providing K-12 students with access to 21st century learning tools, and eventually to achieve one-to-one access to wireless computing in all Michigan schools. The program provides funds for computers, software and related expenses.

 

• 2005 Alternate: eFolio Minnesota - This program provides Minnesota students and residents the ability to construct and deploy a free, multimedia, Web-based showcase of their educational and work force accomplishments.

• 2005 Finalist: MinnesotaHelp.info - This comprehensive online human services database contains more than 30,000 services and resources for providers and consumers of all ages, income levels and abilities.

• 2005 Finalist: Strategic Conservation Agenda - This program uses new approaches for defining and measuring progress toward statewide natural resources results. The program also uses 85 specific indicators and targets to measure results in six performance areas: natural lands, fish and wildlife, waters and watersheds, forests, outdoor recreation and natural resources stewardship education.

• 2004 Winner: Minnesota Advantage Health Plan - A cost-tiered system, this health plan has saved the state and employees millions of dollars while creating new levels of competition and incentives for efficiency in the health care market. The state continues to contract with the same three major health carriers for administration and network services, but there is now a single rate and employee contribution for all three plans.

• 2004 Finalist: Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Network - This program provides support and expertise to families with babies who have hearing problems. It also educates people and doctors about the need to quickly identify and address hearing loss in babies.

• 2004 Finalist: Negotiations Module - A central system that provides a range of work force information, contract costing tools, and final contract settlement reports directly to management teams before, during and after contract negotiations with labor unions, this program allows for one-click work force information for use in reporting to customers.

• 2004 Finalist: Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Initiative - This initiative works to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities in the state as experienced by American Indians, people of color and other ethnic groups. The program addresses poverty, racism, language differences, cultural differences, environmental conditions and other factors that can be detrimental to the health of minorities.

• 2003 Finalist: Fisheries Easement Formulation Process - Minnesota’s Division of Fisheries designed this program to acquire stream easements to provide recreational and management access and to protect critical riparian habitat. These easements are acquired using a cost-efficient and creative formula that was adopted into state law. 

 

• 2005 Finalist: Rediscover Your Roots: Connecting Urban Dwellers with their Rural Heritage - This program promotes travel destinations that involve work/stay farms and native grown produce in order to address visitors' increased demand for cultural heritage and historical experiences, the need for additional income in agricultural communities and the need to reconnect vital constituencies in a state polarized by an urban/rural split.

• 2004 Finalist: Department of Insurance Licensing Section Self-Directed Work Team Program - This program reorganized the Missouri Department of Insurance Licensing section from a traditional supervisor decision-making model into three teams of six or seven licensing technicians who work under a team leader.

• 2003 Finalist: Grow Native! - This program is designed to increase demand for Missouri-grown native vegetation and promote naturally resilient plants to increase biological diversity on public and private lands. Through a combination of education, demonstration and marketing techniques, the program boosts consumer and commercial demand for these plants and helps consumers find quality native plant materials and capable native landscape professionals.

 

Montana

• 2005 Winner: Voter Verification Service - Designed to enable citizens to vote under the new Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requirements, this program enables election administrators in all counties to use the Internet to search Montana Department of Justice’s driver record database to verify the identity of prospective voters who show up at the polls without identification.

 

North Carolina

• 2005 Alternate: Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP) - The initiative restores and protects that state’s natural resources and assists responsible economic growth, proactively compensating for unavoidable environmental damage to North Carolina’s wetlands and waterways.

• 2004 Finalist: Agency Security Assessment Project - This program assesses the security of the computers and related data at 27 of the state’s executive branch agencies against ISO 17799 security standards.

• 2004 Finalist: TAG IT - Under this program, police officers who investigate accidents attach waterproof tags to the parts of any median barrier or guide-rail that are damaged because of the accidents. The tags help the state Department of Transportation locate and bill the parties involved in the accidents for repairing those structures.

• 2003 Alternate: State Facilities Utility Savings Initiative - To reduce utility expenditures and conserve energy and water through no- and low-cost measures, this initiative provides tools to 25 state agencies and 17 universities. Rate reviews of utility bills, operations and maintenance surveys and sample building monitoring, and comprehensive training in energy management are tools used to achieve savings.

 

North Dakota

• 2004 Finalist: Cooperative Weed Management - This program encourages federal, state and local agencies to share funding and personnel to control and eradicate invasive weeds on public and private lands in the state.

 

Nebraska

• 2003 Finalist: County eGovernment Initiative - This program provides support for development of Web sites and online services for county governments, and as the state’s official Web portal and network, provides the service at no cost to participating counties.

• 2003 Finalist: Purple Loosestrife Management Project - A joint initiative between Nebraska, South Dakota and South Dakota’s State Prison, this program helps stop the invasive plant purple loosestrife. Prison inmates raise approximately 250,000 Galerucella beetles each year and release them into the Missouri River to help control the purple loosestrife population, which damages wetland ecosystems and habitat.

 

New Hampshire

• 2004 Finalist: Full Quantity Generator Certification Program - This program requires hazardous waste generators in the state that produce more than 220 pounds of hazardous waste in a month to have a hazardous waste coordinator on staff at the facility where the waste is generated. The coordinator must be certified annually by the state Department of Environmental Services.

 

New Jersey

• 2005 Winner: DNA Convicted Offender Sampling and Testing Program - A statewide unified approach to classification and upfront verification of information, this program ensures that offenders and their DNA samples are properly identified and entered into the state’s criminal records database through the utilization of handheld biometric computers.

• 2005 Alternate: Garden State Network Enterprise Intrusion Detection Project - Created by a partnership between the state and the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC), the project is an effort to thwart cyberterrorists by researching and analyzing the state’s networks and developing an intrusion detection system.

• 2005 Finalist: Focus on the Victim (FOV) Program - A voluntary offender program, FOV employs restorative and reparative justice principles as its main focus and provides offenders the opportunity to examine the impact of their crimes on victims and communities. Through unique role-playing techniques and face-to-face interaction with survivors of victimization, this program has empowered victims by allowing them to help offenders modify negative behaviors, ultimately preventing destructive future behavior.

• 2005 Finalist: FastID - This system, implemented by the New Jersey Department of Corrections, provides a one-to-one comparison/verification between an individual’s live fingerprint and offender information stored within New Jersey’s database. This accurate and secure identification method allows the NJDOC to increase efficiency and accuracy in intake and release processes at correctional facilities.

• 2003 Finalist: Intergovernmental Transfer Program - This program allows state and local government employees with permanent civil service status to transfer between state and local employment jurisdictions while maintaining their permanent status.

• 2003 Finalist: Law Enforcement Intervention Hotline - This statewide initiative aimed at helping law enforcement officers and their families achieve a better quality of life allows law enforcement families to vent anxiety, relieve stress and discuss personal and marital problems via a 24-hour hotline.

 

New Mexico

• 2004 Winner: New Mexico 9000 - To help state companies comply with the International Organization for Standardization criteria for quality management (ISO 9000), this certification training consists of 16 three-hour or eight six-hour classroom sessions over the course of a year or less.

 

Nevada

• 2005 Winner and 2004 Finalist: International Representatives Program - This program developed a number of international offices around the world to represent the state’s economic, trade and investment interests. Because the offices are kept with independent representatives paid by clients on both sides of a deal, they increase state exports, establish a network of strategic foreign representatives and do not cost the state any money.

• 2004 Finalist: OSHA/SCATS Emergency Response Teams - Comprised of 12 members on two teams who have special, high-level hazardous materials training and equipment, these teams respond to a Level A biological, structural, chemical or radiological emergencies. The teams provide safety and health analysis at the site of an incident, environmental monitoring, wet and dry decontamination, plus an array of other expertise in the safety and health field.

• 2004 Finalist: Academic Preparation for Limited English Speakers - This program helps increase the English language skills and computer literacy of academically under-prepared, limited English proficient adults who reside in Clark County, Nev. The program also offers academic and career guidance to participants.

 

New York

• 2005 Winner: Pharmacy Service and Clinical Knowledge Enhancement System (PSYCKES) - A health information technology product implemented in the state mental health system provides access to medication guidelines and medical information that physicians, other clinicians and quality managers can access. The system is a new and creative method for using administrative and pharmacy data to support clinical decision-making at the individual patient level.

• 2004 Winner: Health Emergency Response Data System (HERDS) - Serving as a central repository of information related to health emergencies, the system identifies human resources and hospital assets that can be directed to enhance responses. HERDS is linked to the state health department’s communications directory and notification system to provide backup and integration within the department’s overall emergency communications structure.

• 2004 Finalist: Distributed Generation–Combined Heat and Power Program - The program supports development of distributed generation and thermally activated technologies and sub-systems in a variety of applications through showcasing new technologies in various innovative, replicable combined heat and power applications. Its goal is to make clean and efficient onsite generation a viable option for New Yorkers.

• 2004 Finalist: Transitional Opportunities Program (TOP) - This program provides special services to help low-income families transition from public assistance to the work force, serving working families with active cash assistance cases and those families that have transitioned off cash assistance due to earnings.

• 2004 Finalist: eJusticeNY - This program is a browser-based portal that acts as a single point of access to criminal justice information for law enforcement officials in the state.

• 2003 Alternate: Management Information, Research, References and Operational Reports (MIRROR) - An application software system that automatically extracts performance data from functional systems and delivers performance measure reports for every level of the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board, MIRROR reports show how effectively and efficiently the board is providing services to its customers.

• 2003 Finalist: Office of Public Security Counter Terrorism Network - This program provides law enforcement personnel throughout the state with timely information on terrorism and potential terrorist threats to enhance knowledge and capabilities in the war against terrorism.

• 2003 Finalist: Law Enforcement Counter-Terrorism Training and Local Empowerment Program - A cost-effective initiative, this program enhances the ability of local police agencies to prevent acts of terrorism and to respond safely when acts of terrorism do occur.

• 2003 Finalist: Clean Fueled Vehicles Program - This program is a coordinated effort to assist state agencies, authorities and universities in acquiring and utilizing clean fueled vehicles and to develop a statewide network of fueling stations to support the vehicles.

 

Ohio

• 2004 Finalist: Oil and Gas Emergency Management Web site - This Web site provides the oil and gas industry, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and local emergency responders with immediate access to up-to-date information about oil and gas well ownership, emergency contacts, location, oil storage capacity, production history and other data necessary to respond to an oil spill, gas leak or well fire.

• 2003 Winner: Ohio Business Gateway - This program is a Web-based filing and payment system that allows business taxpayers to file and pay various state level taxes to different state agencies at one Web site electronically for free. The program is designed to provide a "one stop shop" for businesses to comply with a variety of state agency tax and reporting requirements, including sales tax, employer withholding, worker's compensation, unemployment compensation and unclaimed funds.

• 2003 Finalist: Parks Subcontracting Process - This process is designed to determine when it is more economical and efficient to contract work out, and when it’s best to use existing staff. The process was developed through a collaborative agreement between labor and management in the Department of Natural Resources.

• 2003 Finalist: Project Employee - This program creates a new category of appointed state employees which allows state agencies to hire union workers to fill short-term positions created through state and federal grants. The new designation avoids some of the more cumbersome aspects of the traditional hiring process, benefiting both state agencies and unions.

 

Pennsylvania

• 2005 Finalist: Maintenance Efficiency and Cost Effectiveness (MECE) - Experienced maintenance professionals recommended 92 ways to improve asset management, staffing, winter operations efficiency, department work force versus contracting, and equipment optimization. Through the implementation of MECE, PennDOT has refocused the highway maintenance community on core business functions, redirected savings, increased productivity and facilitated the use of better highway maintenance business practices.

• 2005 Finalist: Blue Ribbon Passport Program - The keystone in the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s agritourism initiative, this program aims to partner various agricultural related assets and promote agricultural awareness through increased tourism. The program also helps drive agricultural economic development by assisting farms and farm-based ventures with additional income, thus preserving small farm operations and increasing tourism revenue in rural communities.

• 2004 Alternate: Adjusted Gross Revenue—Lite (AGR-Lite) - This insurance program protects producers of agricultural commodities from reduction or loss of revenue due to natural disasters or fluctuations in market prices, paying out when a producer’s gross revenue falls below a level of coverage that the producer selects.

• 2004 Finalist: Terrorism Awareness and Prevention - This initiative uses specially trained law enforcement officers to educate citizens about the realities and myths of terrorism. The program strives to help citizens understand the threat of terrorism to our society, explains their part in protecting their community, and offers common sense measures citizens can take to enhance their own security.

• 2003 Winner: Basic Education/Higher Education Science and Technology Partnership - Through this program, mobile educators are able to work directly with classroom teachers and deliver fully prepared experimental materials and equipment to ensure that state-of-the-art, hands-on laboratory experiences in biology and chemistry are a regular part of the science curriculum for secondary students throughout Pennsylvania regardless of school district wealth.

• 2003 Finalist: Center for Workforce Information and Analysis New Hire Data Mart - This program provides functional access to the center’s employment data to increase the effectiveness of new hire reporting in Pennsylvania. To accomplish this goal, several data sources are extracted, transformed and loaded into the center’s centralized data mart.

 

South Carolina

• 2005 Winner: Information Sharing and Analysis Center - A statewide system to coordinate the detection, analysis, notification and response to cybercrime against public agencies combines resources of state and federal law enforcement agencies. The system includes an early warning mechanism to alert public agencies about threats, a clearinghouse of information about cybercrime and a mechanism to help agencies deal with attacks on computer networks.

 

South Dakota

• 2004 Finalist: Digital Trunked Radio System - The first wide-area trunked system to utilize digital (VHF-150 MHz) technology, this system includes 40 towers and 9,000 local, state and federal public safety radio users.

• 2004 Finalist: Rapid City Skills Development Center - This center is a one-stop-shop that helps welfare recipients prepare for, find and keep jobs. Staff provides basic skills training, intensive pre-employment training, individualized counseling on personal and work matters, life enhancement and marketable work skills, career planning and job search assistance.

• 2004 Finalist: Livestock Auction Barn Planning Grant Program - This program gives grants to help communities modify livestock auction barns to comply with new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules for concentrated animal feeding operations.

• 2004 Finalist: Health Occupations for Today and Tomorrow - This program provides K-12 students with information about academic, technical and professional requirements for careers in health care.

• 2003 Alternate: Substance Abuse Prevention Services for At-Risk Pregnant Women Initiative - A continuum of services for adolescent and adult pregnant women and recent mothers struggling with addiction and dependency to alcohol and other drugs, this initiative is designed to provide pregnant and parenting women with necessary skills to overcome addiction, fostering self-sufficiency in their ability to pursue education, work and parent.

• 2003 Finalist: Abandoned Tank Removal “Tank Yank” Program - As the nation’s largest and most comprehensive abandoned tank removal program, this project provides private owners with state funds to remove inactive or abandoned underground petroleum and waste-oil storage tanks, thereby reducing the environmental risks from petroleum releases.

• 2003 Finalist: Electronic Vital Records and Screening System - This comprehensive Internet-accessible data system is designed to collect vital records, such as birth, death, marriage and divorce records, as well as newborn metabolic and hearing screening data. This system handles the business functions of the State Vital Records Office and local registrars, including issuance of certified copies, accounting, document tracking, modifications and preservation of records.

• 2003 Finalist: MicroLOAN South Dakota - This program provides low-interest financing to small businesses. In this public/private partnership created by Citibank, the South Dakota Development Corporation and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the state provides “gap financing” to encourage banks to make loans they otherwise might not make.

• 2003 Finalist: Purple Loosestrife Management Project - A joint initiative between Nebraska, South Dakota and South Dakota’s State Prison, this program helps stop the invasive plant purple loosestrife. Prison inmates raise approximately 250,000 Galerucella beetles each year and release them into the Missouri River to help control the purple loosestrife population, which damages wetland ecosystems and habitat.

 

Tennessee

• 2005 Finalist: Exemplary Educator (EE) - This targeted technical assistance program which assists high priority state identified schools in reading, language, math and writing utilizes the expertise of recently retired exemplary educators. Over the past four years, approximately one-third of Tennessee's initially identified schools have moved off the list with the help of this program.

• 2005 Finalist: Southeast Alternative Fuels Task Force - This team comprised of state environmental officers, energy officers, transportation officers, Clean Cities coalitions and private sector stakeholders works together to advance the use of cleaner burning fuels in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. The task force is currently focused on developing refueling corridors and accompanying support tactics so that by 2010, facilities that provide biodiesel and ethanol will be strategically located along key interstate highways.

 

Texas

• 2005 Finalist: Aging Texas Well - This program is designed to ensure that Texans prepare for aging in all aspects of life and that state and local social infrastructure facilitate lifelong healthy aging.

• 2003 Finalist: Office of Rural Community Affairs - Designed to serve as a focal agency for the state’s health, economic development, community development and leadership development programs, this office targets rural communities. The agency has positioned itself as the door to Texas government for rural citizens, acting as a research and policy resource for rural issues.

 

Virginia

• 2005 Alternate: Council on Virginia’s Future - Developed to create a new policymaking framework for the 21st century, the program balances continuous improvement of the daily delivery of services to citizens with breakthrough thinking to effect long-term, positive quality-of-life changes.

• 2004 Finalist: Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine - This institute is a premier trainer of forensic scientists and pathologists. VIFSM is a cooperative effort between the Department of Criminal Justice Services, Division of Forensic Science and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

 

Vermont

• 2005 Alternate: Comprehensive Environmental Resource Management Plan (CERMP) - This program establishes a single source within state government for identifying and advancing the environmental sustainability of state government operations.

 

Washington

• 2004 Winner: Priorities of Government (POG) - This program establishes results-oriented priorities for state services to help develop the state budget based on what citizens expect from state government. Lawmakers propose results they believe citizens want from government, establish priorities and allocate funds accordingly in a strategic approach to state government budgeting.

• 2004 Alternate: Spokane Youth Social Responsibility Project - In a cooperative effort between the state Department of Corrections and high schools in the Spokane area, this program offers social responsibility training classes to at-risk high school students. The idea behind the program is to correct the negative behavior of at-risk students before they become involved in the criminal justice system.

• 2004 Finalist: Professional-Based Discipline: A Settlement Agreement Process - This method for disciplining professional and sworn employees of the Washington State Patrol without resorting to a lengthy, formal investigation is designed to enable an employee to admit a mistake, discern and accept an appropriate sanction, provide rapid resolution of their case and handle minor acts of misconduct at the lowest possible administrative level.

• 2004 Finalist: Comprehensive Irrigation District Management Plan - This program provides a framework and guidelines for irrigation districts and farmers to voluntarily develop comprehensive management plans that simultaneously comply with the federal Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act and maintain economic viability.

• 2004 Finalist: 24-Hour Shellfish Safety Screen - Using a new genetic test to quickly detect bacterial pathogen in shellfish, the Washington State Public Health Laboratories developed this test, which is more sensitive and yields results more quickly than prior methods. This new test enables state shellfish regulators to stop shipments of contaminated products before the shipments reach consumers.

• 2003 Winner: Tri-Phase Initiative - State architects, engineers, project managers and facility planners provide condition assessment, project cost estimates, capital planning, project management and public works training to the state’s 297 school districts, bringing professional state facilities expertise and resources to K-12 school facility projects.

• 2003 Alternate: Strategic Forecast Support System - This program integrates proven emergency management tools, such as Geographic Information Systems, the Federal Emergency Management Information System and satellite data, to identify and assess all hazards in the state.

• 2003 Finalist: Burn Team: Reducing Smoke in Eastern Washington State from Agricultural Burning - This Department of Ecology program seeks to reduce the amount of field crop residue that directly impacts the safety and health of citizens breathing in the smoke-filled air. The burn team makes daily burn/no burn decisions for agricultural burning permit holders and provides air quality reports and forecasts to citizens with respiratory illnesses.

• 2003 Finalist: Barrier-Free Checklist for Leased Facilities - This program is used by state government to make leased facilities more accessible to people with disabilities. General Administration and tenant agencies use the checklist to assess accessibility when initially leasing space, renewing leases, evaluating accessibility in existing facilities and in planning barrier removal.

• 2003 Finalist: Utilization and Cost Containment Initiative - This program was designed to find inefficiencies and lower expenditures in the state’s Medicaid program, without reducing benefits or eligibility. This initiative saved the state $50 million between July 2001 and June 2003.

• 2003 Finalist: DCS Secure Card - This card allows transmittal of child support payments to custodial parents through Electronic Funds Transfer, thereby decreasing the Division of Child Support’s costs of distributing payments. Custodial parents may use their card at a bank teller, ATM or any other merchant that accepts debit or credit cards to access child support funds.

 

West Virginia

• 2004 Winner: Accessible Intelligent Medication Strategies (AIMS) - Developed by West Virginia University’s School of Pharmacy for the state Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA), the program employs registered pharmacists to educate physicians in their offices to help them prescribe more cost-effective drugs for public employees insured by the agency. The program is an effort to control rising costs while maintaining quality health care.

• 2003 Winner: Multi-State Pharmacy Benefit Management Services Program - This state partnership aggregates drug purchasing powers for a single pharmacy benefit manager to lower the unit costs for services provided, allowing states in the partnership group to enter into a relationship to increase their negotiating power when seeking prescription drug services.

 

Wisconsin

• 2005 Finalist: MEDDIC-MS and MEDDIC-MS SSI Rapid Cycle - This cost-effective automated system measures health care performance and improves the quality of the state’s publicly funded managed health care programs, which is especially important to the financially-pressured state Medicaid program.

• 2004 Alternate: School Aids Financial Reporting (SAFR) - Enabling school districts to submit data via the Internet to the state Department of Education, this program helps the state to calculate and distribute $4.2 billion in general aid to 426 school districts.

• 2004 Finalist: Critical Incident Response Team - This team consists of seven employees who are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through a single point-of-contact to coordinate the state’s response to critical highway incidents. Critical highway incidents are defined as unexpected events which cause the closure of a roadway and/or bridge on the state trunk highway system.

• 2004 Finalist: Community Mercury Reduction Program - In a partnership between the state Department of Natural Resources and 20 municipalities to reduce the use of mercury-containing products in the state and to increase mercury recycling, this program targets entities that have historically used mercury products, including hospitals, dental offices, schools and HVAC contractors.

• 2003 Finalist: I Owe You Campaign - This marketing campaign targets veterans, providing information about state and federal benefits available to them. The campaign’s slogan is “You served me when I called, now it is time for me to help you.”

 

 

 

 

 

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