An initiative by the Secretary of State to replace its antiquated business filing process with an automated, online service has won preliminary budget approval in the Assembly.
The Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 4 on Thursday voted 4 to 1 in favor of the administration’s $2.6 million request to fund the suspended IT project, which advocates say will improve customer experience and reduce the state’s operational costs.
The online system, known as Business Connect, is intended to enable the Secretary of State to process documents within a few hours, allowing business to quickly open their doors, create bank accounts, acquire loans, hire employees and generate income, according to a committee analysis.
Business filings currently take an average of five days to process. The paper filings are manually sorted and tracked on different automation systems, including one that relies upon three-inch-by-five-inch index cards.
The budget request comes after a significant narrowing of the 2011 initiative, which was suspended last year after the original project fell behind schedule. The revised plan proposes to address about 100 "higher-volume" filing types instead of the more than 500 types handled by the Secretary of State’s Office.
Business filings that would be moved online include those by Limited Liability Companies, Limited Partnerships and Corporations. Financing statements, federal and state tax lien notices, other lien notices, trademarks and services markets would also be incorporated into the new online system.
“Instead of a big-bang implementation of all filings, a more results-oriented, risk-based approach is proposed,” according to a Department of Technology statement included in budget documents.
The remaining low-volume, niche filings would be added to the system after the project is completed.
The subcommittee also approved $325,000 to backfill staff positions redirected to the project.
