FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, September 23, 2025
CONTACT: Christina Johnson
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – During a ceremony held in Tallahassee on Thursday, September 18, Florida TaxWatch (FTW) announced 10 winners of the 2025 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, the partnership of the Florida Council of 100, 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., and Chair of Florida TaxWatch, 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 2025 award winners and thank them for their dedicated service to the Sunshine State.”
Florida Council of 100 President Michael Simas said, “Florida’s business community applauds this year’s Government Productivity Awards nominees and winners, as well as all civil servants who find creative ways to make government more efficient and effective. As the most entrepreneurial state in the nation, Florida is a place where innovation thrives equally in the public and private sectors.”
Florida TaxWatch President and CEO Dominic M. Calabro said, “It is our honor to present the Government Productivity Awards, recognizing and honoring the incredible work, innovative ideas, and clever ingenuity that not only saves taxpayer dollars of our hard-working Floridians, but also supports the notion that many of these inventive solutions come from the public sector serving on the front lines every day. Congratulations to these thought leaders and enthusiastic teams whose accomplishments benefit all Floridians and will influence future government professionals to strive for excellence.”
2025 Government Productivity 10 Award Winners:
Florida Department of Corrections – Lone Worker Application for Probation Officers
Cost Savings: $14.7 million annually.
On May 31, 2024, the criminal justice community was shaken by the tragic death of Maryland Probation Officer Davis Martinez, who was killed in the line of duty by an individual under supervision. Traditional safety systems, while well-intentioned, were no longer enough. Early discussions focused on equipping all 2,200 certified officers with two-way radios and establishing a dispatch system to monitor safety check-ins. However, this approach came with staggering financial implications: over $15 million in upfront costs and $1.1 million in recurring annual expenses. A digital Lone Worker application was identified as a solution. It integrated with the department’s existing vehicle tracking systems and offered capabilities such as—automation, real-time communication and emergency response features in a single mobile platform.
Florida Department of Transportation — Improving Roadway Safety through Enhanced Law Enforcement Engagement
Cost Savings: $3,409,545 in direct savings from donated enforcement hours and Teen Driver Education program savings.
The Enhanced Law Enforcement Engagement (ELEE) Program, a first-of-its-kind program developed by FDOT District 7 staff, improves traffic safety by partnering with law enforcement agencies to conduct targeted enforcement in high-crash locations. Under this program, agencies earn points for enforcement hours in FDOT-prioritized areas and for visiting high schools and educating new drivers—a particularly high-risk group—on safe driving behaviors. FDOT then provides traffic safety equipment in exchange for these points, helping agencies overcome resource challenges and expand their enforcement capacity. Since its launch in 2022, ELEE has expanded to 30 agencies, supported more than 63,000 enforcement hours, distributed over 2,100 pieces of traffic safety equipment, and contributed to a 23 percent reduction in serious injuries and fatalities on state roadways in the Tampa Bay region.
Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation — Administrative Case Program – Increased Efficiencies with Cost Savings
Cost Savings: $245,025 in collected fees.
The Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco and the Office of the General Counsel created templates for each type of beverage and tobacco violation allowing the Enforcement team to serve administrative complaints against violating licensees with the appropriate monetary penalty. A backlog of four years of pending administrative cases was eliminated and cases are now settled in approximately three months. The Program has reduced attorney workloads and allows licensees to settle cases quickly, come into compliance, and avoid expensive legal costs. Since implementation, 707 cases have been disposed.
Florida Department of Veterans Affairs — Established Peer Mentorship Program to Retain Nursing Staff
Cost Savings: $9,300,000 annually.
To address high turnover rates and onboarding challenges among new direct care employees, the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs (FDVA) implemented a structured Peer Mentorship Program across its State Veterans’ Nursing Homes. The program matches new hires—Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), and Registered Nurses (RNs)—with experienced staff members at the same level who provide one-on-one mentorship during their first 90 days of employment. Mentors are trained and compensated with a $500 bonus upon the successful completion of the mentorship period, provided the new employee remains in satisfactory employment for at least 90 days. Mentors must meet strict eligibility criteria, including having two years of experience and no disciplinary actions. The program builds relationships, increases employee satisfaction, reduces early attrition, and promotes quality care delivery to veterans.
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services — Technology Transformation Initiative
Cost Savings: Approximately $5,000,000 over 10 years.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) has embarked on a comprehensive technology transformation initiative aimed at modernizing its operations, enhancing customer service, and improving data management. This initiative includes the consolidation of technology platforms, elimination of paper applications, reduction of technical debt, and the implementation of a single view of both the customer and the department. From July 1, 2023, through April 2025, FDACS successfully modernized over 14 legacy applications and created 18 new applications.
Florida State University — Institutional Research Saved Millions in Taxpayer Savings
Cost Savings: $10,073,497 annually.
The Florida State University Office of Institutional Research (IR) created a comprehensive, in-house training program that equips staff with high-value technical and data literacy skills while demonstrating the same efficiency and automation practices it teaches. During the 2024–2025 academic year, IR delivered 60 training sessions across 10 distinct courses, serving 864 employees in tools such as Microsoft Excel, Power BI, Oracle BI, Power Automate, Microsoft Teams, and data analytics fundamentals. By replacing external vendor-led training with internally developed courses, the program generated $109,350 in direct cost avoidance alone.
Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles — Implementation of the Desk Trooper Program
Cost Savings: $12,252.24 over 6 months.
The Desk Trooper Program provides a platform for minor traffic crashes to be investigated remotely leveraging technology to allow a Trooper to view the crash scene, vehicle damage, and driver documents from anywhere in the state, utilizing the driver’s cell phone, with their permission. Historically, the agency has 10 or more members at any given time who are unable to perform traditional law enforcement duties due to a medical restriction. Finding a way for these members to perform law enforcement services while on light duty (instead of clerical tasks) provides some support to troopers working the road in high crash volume areas. Additionally, this program eliminates the time between when the crash occurs and a trooper is available to respond, eliminates the drive time to the scene, and allows the parties to leave the side of the road in a more expeditious manner.
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services — Modernizing Agricultural Best Management Practices (BMP) Manuals
Cost Savings: $89,097.33 annually.
Best Management Practices manuals are published for every agricultural commodity statewide. These practices address agricultural water quality and water conservation. Agricultural Best Management Practices are practical, cost-effective actions that agricultural producers can take to conserve water and reduce fertilizer amounts, animal wastes, and other pollutants entering Florida water resources. Within a single fiscal year, the FDACS, Office of Agricultural Water Policy updated nine BMP manuals and created one new manual for small farms and specialty livestock – the first comprehensive revision in 20 years.
Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation — Electronic Return Receipt Implementation for Certified Mail
Cost Savings: $12,000 – $15,000 for the Division of Hotels & Restaurants alone.
The Division of Hotels & Restaurants is required to mail several documents certified to licensees, with proof of delivery. Mrs. Sarah Stout initiated the process of converting certified mailings to electronic return receipts (ERR). By converting to electronic return receipts (ERR), the proof of delivery process is much more efficient, straightforward and saves the Division between $1.48-$1.58 per mailing. In addition to the cost savings, the most impactful achievements include the increased transparency of always knowing where each piece of certified mail is, the speed of receiving the proof of service and the decrease in time to match up the certified mail green card to each tracking sheet.
University of Florida — Edugator: An AI-enabled Tool for Creating and Delivering Interactive Computing Content
Cost Savings: $150,000 annually, $500,000 since inception.
Edugator is a browser-based, AI-enabled tool designed to help instructors of introductory computing courses create and deliver interactive educational content at the University of Florida and other universities in the state. Edugator streamlines the content authoring process by incorporating generative AI models into both the creation and delivery stages. Instructors can create bespoke interactive computing lessons and programming problems by providing a prompt and a few clicks. Students can complete lessons and solve programming problems in a browser-based text editor receiving immediate feedback. They can also interact with a large language model-powered AI chatbot that scaffolds a student on how to approach the problem without giving out solutions.
About Florida TaxWatch
As an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit government watchdog and taxpayer research institute for more than forty 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 www.floridataxwatch.org.
Meet the Author:
