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JEFFERSON CITY, MO. -- Over the past three months KRCG has been bombarded with emails and calls about the state's new multi-million dollar phone system.

State employees said they're worried money is being wasted while the state grapples with a budget deficit in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The new phones are popping up at state office buildings around Jefferson City.

They use the internet to make phone calls and some even have video conferencing capabilities.

In all, the state will install 22,000 new phones for a total of around $30 million dollars.

The new phone system has caused quite a stir with state employees.

In emails and Facebook messages to KRCG, viewers had the same complaints:

Randy said,"$30 million dollars could go a long way to help meet other areas that are facing financial shortfalls."

Anonymous said, "The state is suggesting full time employee cuts in the hundreds but is spending millions to replace a phone system that works perfectly as is."

And Rhonda said, "$30 Million could sure pay a lot of people to actually answer the phone."

We asked Missouri Chief Information Officer Doug Young, “How does the state justify a $30 million phone system when layoffs are looming?

He said, "primarily the system is paid for from the existing telecommunications spending the state has."

Young explained the state isn't spending any extra money on the phones to start, and will actually be saving money in the long run.

And this is why: the state already budgets to pay nearly $27 million to telephone companies annually.

Young told KRCG, "instead of paying it to a telecom provider, we're paying it to a hardware company, and so we're not spending anymore dollars than we ever have on telecommunications."

Because the state will own its own telephone system, it will pay less to the telephone company every month.

For example, here in Jefferson City, the state pays $17 per line per month, with the new phone system: only $2 a month.

Young said, “the first five years we'll use the savings to pay for the system, the second five years will be money in the pocket of the state. $30 million as opposed to what we spend today for telecommunications services. So this project has a 110 percent return on investment.”

4,000 phones, or about half of the first phase has been installed in Jefferson City, it’s expected to be completed by the end of June.

Another big way the state is saving money is through internal call features the new system offers. The digital system allows calls to be made between state offices without ever using an outside line.