Gov. Tom Corbett Thursday announced the Governor's Innovation Office has worked with state agencies to achieve more than $400 million in cost savings and productivity gains. 

"Innovation is a key part of our efforts to reform state government and protect taxpayer dollars," Corbett said. "By finding ways to do things better, more efficiently or at less cost, we are helping to keep money in the pockets of hard working Pennsylvanians."

One of the projects noted in the announcement was from the Environmental Hearing Board which implemented a new system to allow documents associated with legal cases to be filed electronically.

Prior to this system, documents were filed in paper copy. This required manual recording, copying, distribution to judges and filing. This process was both time consuming and costly.

As a result, 80 percent of the board's filings are now done online, saving more than $115,000 in its first year.

The office was created in March 2012 to focus on initiatives to reduce spending, boost productivity and improve service. To date, the office and state agencies have completed 165 initiatives. There are an additional 147 projects in progress.

10/21/2013