Saturday, February 12, 2005
 
It's Not Overexuberant Government, It's Marketing

The cover story from the latest issue of Integrated Solutions frightened me, since it told me about how the state of Washington was earning money: Imaging Success Is No Accident: The Washington State Department of Transportation improves access to collision reports and earns $4 million in additional revenue with a document capture solution.

However, I skimmed to the end of the article and discovered how the state of Washington is "earning" that money:
    Due to the increased efficiency of this document management system, WSDOT is no longer in danger of losing federal funding. The system also is helping the agency raise extra revenue. WSDOT estimates it is now collecting between $3 and $4 million annually for damage to state-owned property that it was previously unable to obtain. "It used to take a long time to get the paper reports for a specific accident," says Stanley. "By the time we tracked down who was responsible, the insurance case was closed."
They're recovering damages from insurance companies for state property, probably non-vehicular, damaged in auto accidents. So losing less money is really earning money.

Unfortunately, although I don't think whomever came up with that turn of phrase--whether a puffing state employee or the writer who was looking for a marketable spin for his piece--meant to engage in Newspeak, but when it's inadvertent, it's much more disheartening.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:34 AM
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