KANSAS CITY - Missouri's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is taking complaints from citizens about what waste they are seeing in the state.
Missouri State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican from Jefferson County, is the creator of the state's Government Efficiency Portal and she says so far, there has been some success.
Click here for Missouri's DOGE portal
"We just got a list of over 500 pages from the office of administration about all government buildings in the state of Missouri, what there vacancy rates are, what there utilization rates are looking like," said Coleman on 'The Chris and Amy Show'.
"We're going to be creating legislation to allow the governor to sell property we're no longer using instead of holding onto this unproductive property."
In addition, Coleman says they have found 7.5 million dollars in abandoned funds that are 'just sitting there not being used or returned to tax payers.'
However, Missouri's DOGE hotline is getting blown up with all kinds of issues, and they are not all central to the state.
Coleman says some people have been confused on what to submit to the portal and she says Missouri DOGE's has received complaints about federal issues along with problems with local city and county governments.
Some of the complaints they have also gotten have included complaints about how the Missouri Department of Conservation manages the chronic waste disease of the state's deer population.
"I think that is important to hunters and sportsman across the state, but I don't know that it is necessarily the highest priority on everyone in the committee," said Coleman.
Missouri's DOGE is different from the one Elon Musk is heading up. Coleman says the state has a committee made up of Republicans and Democrats who can lay a magnifying glass on the things people are submitting and it's doesn't fire employees.
"DOGE effort to try to bring efficiency to the state government and that is obviously the same and I think there is a lot of appetite for that," said Coleman.
"People are frustrated that the government hasn’t been working well for tax payers that people maybe don’t feel like they’re getting what they’re buying with their tax dollars."
Coleman’s office sifts through the complaints and pulls out the ones they think are most important. Then they compile them in a spreadsheet and distribute it to all committee members. The public does has access to view the complaints.
However, not everyone supports the Missouri DOGE effort. Missouri House Rep. Kathy Steinhoff, a Democrat, told KMIZ she isn't 'super optimistic that it’s going to lead to big massive saving without damaging some serious services to people.'