Free advice is worth its price. In that sense, the state Streamlining Commission, which presented its final cost-cutting report this work, was well worth its minimal expense. The $20,000 or so it cost for per diem payments to its handful of legislative members can be covered many times over by the most modest of its 238 recommendations.
So it cost next to nothing and only used the time of state Senate staffers during their slack period. But as for its mission to recommend how to down-size state government, did it accomplish anything more than what Gov. Bobby Jindal already has to do when he presents a balanced budget to the Legislature next month? Or did if go farther, as the governor challenged it, by offering bold, long-range ideas for reorganizing the core functions of state agencies?
The final report presented by its chairman, Sen. Jack Donahue, R-Mandeville, contains some of both, which makes its work useful for now and potentially more so in the future.
Some criticize Jindal, who asked the commission for $802 million in specific cost-cutting suggestions, for tasking the advisory group to do his job for him. At the start, it was more like the other way around, because most of the recommendations with identifiable savings came from state agencies themselves, at the prodding of Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis, also a member of the commission.
At the same time, administration officials say the commission helped by keeping the pressure on the bureaucracy to reduce resistance to change.
That did not work as well, however, as Donahue hoped. He complained that he never got the full list of all government programs because of "stalling tactics from agencies." He said they did not comply or did so very late so that the commission could not use that information in its report.
Despite the governor's letter to department heads ordering their cooperation, Donahue singled out the Department of Education ("very frustrating") and the Department of Transportation and Development ("I'm amazed how little they know about what they do").
He's not through with them yet. The law that Donahue wrote keeps the commission operating until 2012, as the state's worsening budget picture will leave plenty of room for streamlining improvement.
Initially, the commission's success depends on how much of its advice the governor takes. Jindal already has given thumbs down to two of the bigger recommendations. One would save $124 million by ordering all state agencies to spend two percent less next year while maintaining the same services through greater productivity. The governor says that amounts to across-the-board cuts, which he wants to avoid by making targeting reductions.
Jindal also opposes another suggestion for saving $180 million by charging "full cost recovery" to some customers of state services. That would require raising fees, which the governor and the Legislature are loath to do on that scale.
Besides what recommendations the governor embraces or doesn't, Donahue intends the commission's report to empower the Legislature to develop cost-saving strategies of its own. He plans to draw from the recommendations to work up a package of bills and to enlist the support of his colleagues.
For the most part, budget-cutting originates with the administration, to which the Legislature reacts. Now the streamliners have offered a body of broad recommendations that this Legislature and future ones can debate and develop. That won't completely change the system, but it does give the part-time Legislature a resource for putting more of its own mark on government.
For that reason, it is important that the Streamlining Commission doesn't fade away. Three of its legislative members have resigned, but the leadership should appoint replacements. There always will be private citizens willing to serve, even without per diem payments. And its most outspoken member, Treasurer John Kennedy, would hate to let go of the forum that has framed his image as the state's leading budget hawk.
To avoid the fate of previous cost-cutting advisory groups, whose reports ended up gathering dust on a shelf, the Legislature should keep this commission off the shelf by not closing the book on its work, which comes at a bargain price.
“““““At the same time, administration officials say the commission helped by keeping the pressure on the bureaucracy to reduce resistance to change.””””” - - - - - - Yeah right, so “Administration” officials “say”…………… Well folksies, it is 2010 and the same old problems will keep popping up again and again…. Basically, we have a pinhead for a Governor who’s only real experience aside from being the mail boy was axing jobs at some government department. Oh sure, he got to play governor for the past few years and fly around on the taxpayer’s dime ‘pressing the flesh’, but aside from that he really hasn’t done anything. Just another azzclown that got 20 something percent of the registered voters vote to get into office so he could live on the taxpayer’s dime is all he is. And who or what was his ‘base’ “voter” constituency? For the most part state workers, folks on the public dole, or business owners who do state contracts. You know, other people that make their living off of the taxpayer’s dime. Sort of like putting monkeys on the perimeter to guard a banana plantation is what it all amounted to……….. ““““…charging "full cost recovery" to some customers of state services.””””?!?!?!?????? Oh, I get it….. Get the taxpayer’s dollar, provide some services, and charge for those services AGAIN!!!! While putting the ‘proceeds’ of the service “sale” back in the monkies pockets… What a ponzi scheme! Makes Bernie Madoff look like a Romper Room amateur. Ahhhh yesss, all hail to the state!! The sheer ignorance of anything and everything that has to do with Louisiana politics be it on the local level or the national level is amusing at best. And State Bureaucracy? Again, give the monkies some more banana munchies… Oh well, enjoy the reaming because you folks have earned every inch of it……. Written by
on 1/6/2010
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Free advice is worth its price. In that sense, the state Streamlining Commission, which presented its final cost-cutting report this work, was well worth its minimal expense. The $20,000 or so it cost for per diem payments to its handful of legislative members can be covered many times over by the most modest of its 238 recommendations.
