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 Scraping the barnacles from the ship of state
by Tom Campbell
May 31, 2007
Our legislators are preparing to pass a ,000,000,000.00 state budget. Regardless of how you write or say it twenty billion dollars is a large sum. A fast-growing state with a rapidly growing state government needs to periodically step back, take stock and scrape away all barnacles that might be slowing progress.
The last attempt at such an assessment came during the economic slowdown in the early 1990’s, with the Government Performance Audit Committee (GPAC). When the report was finally released the economy was once again on the upswing, special interests mounted opposition and the fervor for reform waned. Few of the major recommendations were seriously considered or enacted.
There is more than sufficient evidence that we need such a self-examination today. Roads are crumbling and congested. Despite major infusions of funding our public schools are mired in mediocrity. Health and human services is a train wreck. We are giving away incredible sums to buy jobs for our people even as large numbers of newcomers are taxing our infrastructure beyond capacity. Where once we prided ourselves on being known as a “good government state,” indictments and accusations have created a crisis of confidence. So much budget and critical legislation is conducted behind closed doors that we question the people doing the people’s business. Our judicial system is being held hostage by the legislative branch of government, endangering the separation of powers. Contrary to our Constitution leaders are running up huge amounts of public debt without the necessary approval of the voters. The ability of local governments to conduct their affairs is also limited by legislators. Moreover, the one organization that was charged with charting our progress has been disbanded.
Whereas GPAC made an attempt to examine what was working and how government could work better, the last time there was any serious attempt at government reorganization was when a young Jim Hunt was first installed as Governor.
It is past time we reviewed state government with an eye toward reorganization. With some 26 agencies of state government it is almost a cinch we could improve efficiency and effectiveness. Perhaps money can be freed to return to taxpayers but, more importantly, the larger goal is to ensure that government is working, doing what we expect, serving us instead of the other way around. As we prepare for the 2008 elections we should ask and expect those who would serve us to go on record for performance audits, reform, and reorganization. Our ship of state needs to be dry docked, scraped of barnacles that might be holding back our progress, and re-launched. Now would be a good time to begin the process.
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