Printing office makes money under Nevadan’s administration

Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2004 | 9:22 a.m.

SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Nevadan Bruce James, the nation's public printer, has pulled the General Printing Office out of a financial tailspin, the agency reported on Tuesday.

The office reported a surplus of $11.2 million in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, after reporting more than $100 million in losses in the previous five years.

Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing, said the agency's turnaround was "nothing short of remarkable."

The General Printing Office, responsible for printing 280,000 government documents and now undergoing a transformation from paper to digital documents, reduced its employee rolls by almost 20 percent to about 2,450 people in the last two years through attrition with no layoffs, said James, chief executive officer of the GPO. James, of Lake Tahoe's Crystal Bay, started the job in December 2002.

The agency, which had an aging workforce when James took over, has offered two popular early retirement incentive programs. New technology and outsourcing has allowed the agency to eliminate jobs, its spokeswoman Veronica Meter said. The agency continues to rely on private contractors that can do some of the work cheaper than the government can, Meter said.

The agency also closed a Denver plant that was losing money. Now the agency is pondering a move from its four historic buildings just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol to a newer, much smaller modern headquarters. The old buildings cost $35 million a year to maintain -- 12 percent of the agency budget -- and could be redeveloped to save taxpayers even more, Meter said.