Though he couldn’t put an exact number to it, Governor Bruce Rauner says a new state agency to centralize the state’s many information technology operations could save hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars over several years.

Governor Rauner said the Department of Innovation and Technology, or DOIT, was created through executive order to bring together the various state agency information technology programs to drive value for taxpayers.

Rauner said the many different systems are outdated and “one of the reasons that our audits take many, many months to complete and are filled with hundreds of millions of dollars in accounting errors.”

Rauner said it’s a complex subject to get the actual savings numbers.

In other State news, Senate President John Cullerton is challenging lawmakers and the governor to reform the inadequacies in the state’s public education system, something critics say could increase property taxes in some areas.  In a speech before the City Club of Chicago Monday, the Chicago Democrat said the way Illinois funds its public schools is the defining crisis of our time.

Governor Bruce Rauner’s office said last week that they agree the school funding formula is not effective but were not in a position to address the proposed bill to reform the formula based off a district’s need and strengths or weaknesses of the property tax base. Opponents of the reform proposal say it could lead to higher property taxes to cover any diverted funds from more affluent school districts.