FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, September 2, 2026
CONTACT: Christina Johnson
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – During a ceremony held in Tallahassee on Tuesday, September 1, Florida TaxWatch (FTW) announced 10 winners of the 2026 Government Productivity Awards, a program designed to inspire, reward, and recognize enterprising state employees whose innovative work has improved state services, boosted productivity, and saved money for Florida taxpayers.
Over the past 30 years, more than 16,000 nominations have been submitted, with state employees credited for saving or maximizing nearly $10 billion in state funds. The Government Productivity Awards (GPAs) are made possible through the generosity of Kyra Solutions, Inc., as a presenting sponsor, and the vision of the late J.E. Davis and A.D. Davis, co-founders of Winn-Dixie Stores Inc., and Florida TaxWatch.
Piyush Patel, CEO, Chairman, and Founder of Kyra Solutions, Inc., the Presenting Sponsor for the Government Productivity Awards, said, “The Government Productivity Awards is a one-of-a-kind program that functions to recognize, reward, and replicate the success of Florida’s most innovative employees. In both my roles at Kyra Solutions – the presenting sponsor – and Florida TaxWatch, I would like to congratulate all the outstanding 2026 award winners and thank them for their dedicated service to the Sunshine State.”
Florida TaxWatch President and CEO Jeff Kottkamp said, “It is our pleasure to present Florida TaxWatch’s Government Productivity Awards, recognizing and honoring the incredible work, innovative ideas, and ingenuity of our state workers that saves millions of taxpayer dollars each year. Congratulations to these dedicated and hard-working award winners whose accomplishments benefit all Floridians and will influence future government professionals to strive for excellence.”
2026 Government Productivity 10 Award Winners:
Florida Department of Corrections – Streamlining the Department’s Statewide HIV Drug Formulary
Cost Savings: $28,500,000
In September 2025, the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) established a work group to focus on finding solutions to the growing drug budget deficit and rising cost of medication associated with inmate health care. The workgroup streamlined FDC’s statewide HIV drug formulary by eliminating high-cost HIV drug regimens in favor of similarly efficacious, yet more cost-efficient drug regimens. These changes were made in collaboration with the Florida Department of Health (DOH) and their 340B program. In November 2025, DOH HIV providers, who provide HIV care to inmates in the custody of FDC, began evaluating inmate patients under their care and switching inmate patients from the high-cost regimens to the more cost-efficient regimens. In the seven months since implementation of FDC’s streamlined statewide HIV drug formulary, FDC has realized over $14 million in cost-avoidance. Annually, this change is projected to help FDC avoid between $28.5 – $33 million in costs. These savings are expected to continue and reach a quarter of a billion dollars over the next decade.
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services – Implementation of Block Grant Disaster Relief
Cost Savings: $30,000,000
In 2025, the Florida Department of Agriculture (FDACS) became the first in the nation to finalize a disaster block grant agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), securing $675.9 million to design and administer the Florida Block Grant Disaster Relief Program. The program was created to help Florida’s farmers, ranchers, citrus growers, and timber landowners recover from the catastrophic losses caused by Hurricanes Idalia, Debby, Helene, and Milton during the 2023 and 2024 hurricane seasons. Rather than requiring producers to navigate multiple, overlapping federal disaster programs, FDACS designed a single, state-administered application. The department built and launched a centralized online information hub and application portal, assigned every applicant a dedicated Case Manager, and has processed over 550 applications to date. This model displays how FDACS and the state of Florida can successfully negotiate, design, and implement an extensive disaster relief program in less time and resources than the federal government.
Florida Department of Transportation – Advancing Toll System Efficiency Through Automated Image Review
Cost Savings: $5,300,000
Florida Turnpike Enterprise’s (FTE) TOLL-BY-PLATE Program utilizes license plate image capture to allow drivers to pay their tolls after receiving an invoice. FTE improved this program by enhancing the license plate image processing system which includes a manual process for images that cannot be identified automatically. While automatic identification can process transactions within hours, the manual process requires the intervention of staff to visually identify the license plate. This manual process is less cost efficient and leads to longer processing times. Starting July of 2023, FTE’s cross functional group comprised of analysts, developers, technicians, and system specialists made several optimizations to the license plate image recognition engine, including implementing targeted database and workflow enhancements, increasing data throughput, and refining business rules, which increased automated image review performance. These enhancements increased automated image review by 6.46%, reducing manual image reviews by more than 76 million, despite continued growth in traffic and transaction volume. With an average labor cost of $0.07 per manual image review, this results in an estimated cost savings of over $5.30 million.
University of Florida – Development of Low-Cost Citrus Pest Management Programs
Cost Savings: This program resulted in a 50% reduction in insecticide sprays and translated into millions of dollars in savings by, for example, reducing one spray per acre from 12 per acre saves $3,148,128 to $6,000,000 over 262,344 to 500,000 acres over time.
The invasive Asian citrus psyllid is a pest causing significant losses in citrus crops. It is associated with the spread of a devastating citrus disease called huanglongbing, or citrus greening. Pest monitoring is critical for its management. The novel tap-sampling method that Dr. Qureshi developed at the University of Florida Southwest Florida Research and Education Center (UF-SWFREC) was adopted across thousands of commercial acres implemented by his program in collaboration with UF/IFAS Extension, with just 6,000 acres monitored by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) using this method for several years. The growers and agencies continue to use this method. The method allows for getting instant counts of the pest in the samples and deciding whether to spray. Growers save on spray applications if no psyllids are found in tap samples or their numbers are low compared to monthly calendar-based sprays. The actual and direct cost savings and benefits are described for the winter spray tactic and parasitoid Tamarixia release. These impactful, innovative, and cost-saving tools are replicable and useful in other citrus-producing states.
University of Florida – Facilities Services Energy Efficiency Initiatives
Cost Savings: The combined initiatives have generated significant, measurable, and direct cost savings across multiple facilities.
The University of Florida Facilities Services has implemented a comprehensive, data-driven energy efficiency program across more than 11 million gross square feet of campus facilities. The initiative integrates lighting modernization, occupancy-based HVAC control, chilled water plant optimization, retro-commissioning, and expansion of alternative energy sources into a unified strategy focused on reducing operational costs, improving system performance, and minimizing capital risk. Cost savings include the following:
- Building $3,381 (UF Human Resources) Proof of Concept: Annual direct utility cost savings of $86,830, driven by a 44% reduction in Energy Use Index (EUI), from 154 to 86 kBtu/GSF.
- Chilled Water Plant Optimization (Weil and McCarty Plants): Documented annual direct savings of approximately $860,000 compared to the 2022 baseline, and up to $1.40 million compared to the 2021 baseline, based on reduced electricity consumption and improved system efficiency.
- Campus-wide energy management efforts: Contributed to a $9.30 million annual utility cost avoidance as of FY2025, associated with a 15.74% reduction in overall campus energy use compared to the 2008 baseline. These savings are recurring annual reductions in actual utility expenditures and are directly attributable to implemented energy efficiency improvements and system optimizations.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission – Strengthened Technology Infrastructure and Reduced Statewide Technology Cost
Cost Savings: $1.50 million in recurring annual cost savings
Transformational Change Through a Service First Model. OIT strategically shifted from a traditional governance centric IT organization to a modern, service driven partner embedded across agency operations. Technology decisions are now shaped through collaboration with FWC’s divisions, ensuring solutions are built around operational needs, field conditions, and measurable mission outcomes. This service-first culture increased transparency, strengthened relationships, and established OIT as a trusted advisor delivering secure, reliable technology services to employees in headquarters, regional offices, patrol vehicles, marine vessels, research labs, and remote conservation lands.
Florida Department of Health in Brevard County – Improved Claims Accuracy and Revenue Recovery
Cost Savings: $923,568.30
The Florida Department of Health in Brevard County (DOH-Brevard) implemented a comprehensive Quality Improvement (QI) initiative in the Maternity department to address significant revenue losses caused by denied, rejected, and unbilled claims. Analysis of CY2025 data revealed over 1,000 unbilled claims and dozens of denied claims across Melbourne and Viera clinics, with the majority linked to documentation errors, medical coding inaccuracies especially with maternity services, missing prior authorizations, and system workflow gaps. This project aims to attain revenue recovery within the maternity department at DOH-Brevard by increasing claim accuracy from 67% (2025) to achieve 80% claim success rate by February 1, 2026, using the PDCA methodology. Using the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) model, the team conducted root cause analysis, streamlined workflows, strengthened documentation standards, provided staff training, revised policies, and developed tools for denial management. The project resulted in an increase from 67% to a 93% approval for clean claims and a significant increase in paid claims after September 1, 2025, boosting DOH Brevard’s revenue recovery.
Florida International University – Increased Graduation Rates of FIU Students
Cost Savings: $2,300,000 annually
Florida International University (FIU) increased its four-year graduation rate for First Time in College (FTIC) students from 25% in 2014 to 70% in 2024. It also increased the six-year graduation rate for FTIC Pell recipients from 55% in 2016 to 73% in 2024, earning FIU the #1 ranking in the Nation for Economic and Social Mobility by U.S. News and World Report. This success is attributed to the continued investment in a central student success office, which leverages the strengths of having a coordinated central vision and strategy, while working with individual colleges and schools to implement initiatives to best serve their unique student population. What is now known as the Office of Student Success Operations and Strategy (SSOS) began developing in late 2014 with one full-time employee. By 2021, the office had grown to nine full-time employees. The Office of the Provost focused on grant-writing and leveraging foundation support to continue growing the team, and over the past five years, the Office of Student Success Operations and Strategy has scaled to 22 full-time employees.
Florida Institute for Child Welfare – Created Florida’s First Immersive Child Welfare Learning Lab
Cost Savings: $1,009,000
The Florida Institute for Child Welfare (FICW) developed Florida’s first statewide experiential learning lab dedicated to strengthening the child welfare workforce through immersive, evidence-informed training and innovation. Located at Florida State University, the FICW Learning Lab serves child welfare professionals, community-based care organizations, state agencies, universities, students, researchers, and legislative stakeholders across Florida. The Learning Lab was designed to address a long-standing challenge: although experiential learning and simulation-based training are proven approaches for preparing professionals for complex, real-world situations, many organizations lack the facilities, technology, resources, and staff capacity needed to implement and sustain these experiences independently. Before the Learning Lab opened, there was no centralized statewide resource dedicated to providing realistic child welfare simulations, testing innovative training approaches, and evaluating their effectiveness. Combined, the Learning Lab’s centralized VR model represents an estimated $1.09 million in direct equipment and licensing cost avoidance for participating partners. In addition to these direct savings, partners benefit from access to VR equipment, technology support, training space, and administrative infrastructure through the Learning Lab. Although these additional benefits have not yet been formally quantified, they further increase the value and efficiency of the state’s investment in workforce development.
Florida State University – Beyond the Bid: Transforming Custodial Solutions for FSU’s Off-Campus Facilities
Cost Savings: $485,000 annually
Florida State University (FSU) Facilities maintains nearly 400 buildings on its Main Campus in Tallahassee, Florida. In addition to Main Campus, the university operates numerous facilities associated with the Tallahassee campus that support research, healthcare, and other academic programs. These off-campus locations require custodial services that differ from the custodial model used on the Main Campus. The portfolio includes 33 buildings with specialized functions, including laboratories, medical offices, studio and production facilities, and other unique spaces that require customized cleaning schedules, staffing levels, security considerations, and specialized services. These operational differences make a one-size-fits-all custodial contract impractical and would not be effectively replicated using the Main Campus model. The solicitation generated 34 competitive responses, allowing Facilities to consider multiple proposals tailored to the needs of each building. As a result, the University has awarded a multi-year contract with an initial term of five years, along with two optional two-year renewals. This contract is expected to save $485,000 annually for the first five years across Facilities Educational & General (E&G), other E&G-funded departments, and auxiliary units. Over a total of nine years, the University stands to potentially save up to $3.6 million while still providing high-quality cleaning services for our customers.
About Florida TaxWatch
As an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit government watchdog and taxpayer research institute for more than 47 years and the trusted eyes and ears of Florida taxpayers, Florida TaxWatch works to improve the productivity and accountability of Florida government. Its research recommends productivity enhancements and explains the statewide impact of fiscal and economic policies and practices on taxpayers and businesses. Florida TaxWatch is supported by its membership via voluntary, tax-deductible donations and private grants. Donations provide a solid, lasting foundation that has enabled Florida TaxWatch to bring about a more effective, responsive government that is more accountable to, and productive for, the taxpayers it has served since 1979. For more information, please visit https://floridataxwatch.org/.
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