David Dunmoyer - Campaign Director, Better Tech For Tomorrow Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Those the cuts begin seven twenty two is our time
here in Houston's Morning News. All right, plenty of fact
to cut from not only the state budget, but local
governments as well. David Dunmoyer joins this campaign director Better
Tech for tomorrow. I was hoping I was going to
see that we're going to have a doge movement here
in Texas, and that seems that that's going to be
the case. We've got a thirteen member committee that's being

(00:22):
set up. It's going to be run by South Lake
Republican Giovanni Caaprioni. He's going to share the committee. I
don't know how far it's going to go, what sort
of things they're going to recommend, but I'm thinking the
state of Texas has as much waste as maybe not
as much waste as any other state, but certainly plenty
of waste and plenty of duplication that if we got

(00:43):
to the bottom of it all could save us a
lot of money, don't you think.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah? Good Morton, Jimmy know completely agree here. And the
political will at the national level, of course, is creeping
into state houses, and Texas is no exception here. We're
already seeing that there's enthusiasm. I spend a lot of
time at the Capitol, and the members who got to
point into this committee, they are laser focused on using
their new authority to really just open the hood and
see where is this broad waste and abuse residing and

(01:09):
let's pass legislation to cut this waste and return it
back to the tax player. So it's very encouraging and
I think we're going to see a lot of fun
successes its first session.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah, where would you suggest they look first?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, that's a great question. So during the interim, there
was this committee that was established called the AI Advisory Committee,
and basically they heard from state agencies everywhere from Office
of Attorney General to help in human services and just
ask basic questions, you know, where are their inefficiencies where
it can automation come into play. And just based on

(01:42):
that report alone, we can see at least based on
my analysis, probably hundreds of millions of dollars in bloaded
workforces where we could not automate those jobs away and
get rid of them, but shift them to different departments
where they have oversight over human the loop activities. And
just one example, Texas Department of Transportation, there are certain

(02:02):
paperwork inventoring processes that can take three months when it's
a human conducting this process, and when you automate it,
it can happen as fast as twenty seven seconds. So
it's basic things like that that we're already seeing. And
so once we dig deeper into this, if that's the
tip of the iceberg, there's no knowing what else we'll
find now that we have this specific jurisdiction over these issues.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
I would think one of the bigger departments as far
as employment is the DMV. How many people work for
the Texas DMV and how many thousands of positions could
potentially be eliminated without cutting service.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, no, I don't know the numbers off the top
of my head, but it feels like it's way too
many despite how long we wait in line around the DMV.
And I think that's exactly right. In fact, the chair
of this committee, Giovannicapriclio, has explicitly said the DMB is
going to be one of the first areas they look at.
There's perhaps no better evidence of government inefficiency than waiting
in line just to get renewal for a driver's license.

(02:57):
So things like making sure we can do more of
this online as a consumer is Look, at the end
of the day, what we're trying to do here is
not just cut the waste and the spending side, which
will be a priority, but it's also makes it easier
for Tectans to engage with their government or to receive
the basic services that fits within the proper role of government,
So that the DMV should be one of the first

(03:18):
starting points for this committee.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, I think the thing that makes me feel particularly
good about Texas tackling this as number one is I
have more confidence in Texas, you know, doing some actually
doing something about it, than I do a whole lot
of other states. And this is despite the fact that
we have a surplus. You know, it's very easy to
ignore bloated government when you're running a surplus, but it
might not always be that way. Imagine how much of
a surplus we could have if we actually streamline things.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
That is exactly the right mentality. And I'm glad you
brought that point up, because Texas is booming and it's
in spite of some of these inefficiencies. So what can
we do. You know, if we had tens of billions
of dollars in surplus, of the last few sessions, and
there's more to come there. Ultimately, what we're hoping at
the Texas Public Policy Foundation is that this money can

(04:03):
be used to return it to the taxpayers. And there
is no more efficient power of the purse, so to speak,
than the individual Texan who knows how best to use
their money. And so we're not getting distracted by the
incredible gains Texas is having because there's always more. That's
what the Texas Miracle is all about, is We're going
to perpetually grow, not be comfortable with the current growth

(04:25):
rate we have. I think the sky's the limit and
it's a really exciting moment for all Texans.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Right David, good to talk to you. Thanks appreciating campaign
director Better Tech for Tomorrow, David Dunmoyer