Posted on 07/30/2004 1:13:21 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - A plan to reorganize state government that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will release next week will propose eliminating one third of the state work force, hundreds of state boards and commissions while possibly saving $32 billion over the next five years.
Details in the 2,500-page report obtained Friday by The Associated Press also include contracting out government work to private contractors and requiring college and university students perform community service.
Months in the making, the sweeping report by the California Performance Review Board is already being called a power grab by critics and would mark the biggest reorganization of government since the 1960s. If approved by the Legislature, it would change everything from how soon children can enter kindergarten to greatly increasing the amount Californians could win in pooled lotteries with other states.
"California's spirit is alive and well, but in one vital area the state is ailing," the report states. "Once the envy of the nation, today our state government fails the people of California, and it fails the men and women who have given their careers to its service."
Officials involved in the reorganization effort declined comment Friday, and a Schwarzenegger aide also said the governor hasn't received a copy of the report yet, and didn't expect to see it until it was released on Tuesday.
Bill Leonard, a member of the Board of Equalization and a former legislator who was briefed on the report last month, said the report is "looking for less boards and commissions and a flatter organization chart, where the lines of responsibility would be clearer."
The report's reform proposals suggests a massive consolidation of state operations by combining 11 agencies and 66 departments into 11 major departments.
State finances would be controlled by a federal-style Office of Management and Budget, while a Public Safety and Homeland Security Department would oversee all law enforcement authorities who wear a badge, from fish and game investigations to the California Highway Patrol. The plan proposes creating a massive new infrastructure department to oversee water, energy, growth, housing and transportation issues in a state of 36 million people expected to reach 50 million by 2040.
Finally, it would create new super-departments to oversee the environment, commerce and consumer protection. Another would oversee health and welfare programs, now one of the state's biggest costs at $24.6 billion a year.
The report compiled in secret by 275 state employees, administration officials and consultants, has been delayed until Schwarzenegger won legislative approval for a $105 billion budget he expects to sign Saturday.
Schwarzenegger's California review resembles a National Performance Review started a decade ago by former President Clinton, who credited his panel with saving taxpayers billions of dollars by streamlining the federal bureaucracy and reinventing government operations.
In January, the governor promised to "blow up" the various boxes of state government, and he has also pitched a variety of government reform ideas, such as replacing the state's full-time Legislature with part-time lawmakers.
"The overall tone and tenor of the performance review is to put more power under the executive branch," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.
The report's release Tuesday will kick off a monthslong process that includes five statewide hearings before the commission's 21 members in August and September. Afterward, the state's government watchdog, the Little Hoover Commission, will make recommendations to Schwarzenegger and the Legislature.
Next year, Schwarzenegger will propose a final version of his plan to the Legislature.
A summary of the plans to reorganize public education includes granting broader powers to the governor's secretary of education. It also recommends the secretary head a new Department of Education and Workforce Preparation and "develop, implement and disseminate coherent policy" for public education through the community college level. The more powerful education secretary would be charged with ensuring that California's education programs are effective and with evaluating the state's labor market to guarantee a supply of skilled workers.
The plan differs slightly from a proposed master plan for education that's languishing in the Legislature, which would put the Department of Education under the secretary, instead of the elected superintendent. The superintendent, under the master plan, would have more of an inspector general role, ensuring the education programs implemented by the secretary, the board and the department were effective.
Both the master plan and the performance review put secretary in charge of policy, which both say makes the governor more accountable for public schools' successes and failures.
In turn, the state would abolish its elected state superintendent of public instruction, who oversees the state Department of Education, and its 11-member governor-appointed Board of Education which sets such state education policy as academic standards.
The report also suggests changing the state constitution to abolish 58 county school superintendents and boards of education.
All of this is easy posturing, critics said Friday.
"It's very facile and easily glib to say 'Combine 'em all and save something on personnel,'" said former assemblywoman and now Board of Equalization Chair Carole Migden.
Merging the board, Franchise Tax Board and Employment Development Department ignores the fact all "have separate functions, separate areas of expertise," Migden said. "It's a diversion of attention away from the real problem, which are rampant, runaway tax giveaways."
Fellow board member Leonard, a Republican, said he was excited about the plan.
"It would be so much easier if there was just one board and one phone number" for taxpayers to call, he said.
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On the Net: Visit the California Performance Review online at http://cpr.ca.gov/
What intrigues me is the suggestion that the report will suggest eliminating one-third of state jobs.
WooHoo...
We got some reading to do.. that's for sure..
Is it available on DVD?
Pocono qualifying is on. :-\
As it should. Unfortunately, we haven't seen much from Arnold in that department so far. Perhaps his recent experience with the Democrats in budget negotiations has hardened him a bit, but if results so far (such as the prison guards, or workman's comp) are any indication I won't hold my breath. I've seen a lot of promises from this administration that have yet to materialize and good many that I hope never will.
This is the result of years and years of liberal failed policies. Even when we had Republican Governors, they controlled the legislature. Dim leaders like Willie Brown should have been run out of this state on a rail. The arrogance of Burton is astounding. The fiscal condition of this state is ample proof that liberals should not be in charge of a pop stand. Let's hope that Arnold makes this an initiative, I like the chances that it will pass.
The more things change, the more they stay the same!!!
The Gub will present a final plan to the legislature next year and if it doesn't float in the manure pond, then we'll probably see the initiative in '05 at earliest and in '06 for sure..
question then is will the gub be sticking around?
or how many folks will have finally jumped ship by then if the spending isn't controlled .. and soon. :-}
LOL...I'm sure some wag will call a plan to eliminate one-third of state jobs "Terminator 4".
the state needs to be efficient in how it spends its money.. novel concept, huh? ;-)
SACRAMENTO (AP) - A plan to reorganize state government that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will release next week will propose eliminating one third of the state work force, hundreds of state boards and commissions while possibly saving $32 billion over the next five years.
Details in the 2,500-page report obtained Friday by The Associated Press also include contracting out government work to private contractors and requiring college and university students perform community service.
We know that Herr Davis and Burton would be doing the same thing if Davis was still in power. (full sarcasm)
This is why many of the top rats in education and other spoils jobs are deciding to take early retirement. We know a lot of rat teacher/education administration elites who have bailed out and taken early or regular retirement.
This is why the rats hate Arnold, he is a direct threat to their economic stability and power.
Woody, if Arnold and his staff are smart...and they've given every indication that they are...Arnold will use this report to highlight years of failed Democrat policies and administrations, and the need for reform. He should use this as a campaign platform in the Nov. legislative elections. I think he will. Californians will support him in this.
I am sure some hard working folks will be moved on,, but somehow 'crat creep will be back soon enough.
It should be call "'Rat Rot."
Hiramize 'em. ;-)
It certainly is no surpise that folks are very sircumspect about this. Imagine someone proposing 1/3rd of the California state workforce, plus over 100 commissions be cut, then folks just saying... "Well, I don't know this may not be good at all. We'll have to wait and see."
Lordy, this sounds like a weat dream to me. I've wanted this for decades... but I'll have to wait and see. LMAO
It's a definate step in the right direction and I'd like to see the folks that have skewered Schwarzenegger get behind him on this and push with all their might.
Geez guys, will nothing make you happy?
Once again, some of it will be good and some may not be so good, but it's a start.
Yeah... like what Geramandi just did:
Anthem, WellPoint lose more ground
By Russ Britt, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 5:37 PM ET July 27, 2004
LOS ANGELES (CBS.MW) -- In the wake of a California regulator putting a roadblock in front of their merger plans, Anthem and WellPoint Health Networks saw their shares fall further Tuesday.
Better than expected second-quarter earnings for both Anthem (ATH: news, chart, profile) and WellPoint (WLP: news, chart, profile) came as little relief. On Friday, California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi announced he's opposing Anthem's proposed acquisition of WellPoint's Blue Cross Life & Health Insurance entity, based in the state.
Garamendi said that California's policyholders would wind up paying for the union. The companies deny that policyholders would foot the bill.
Indianapolis-based Anthem's stock dropped $6.38, or 7.2 percent, to $81.78. Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based WellPoint (WLP: news, chart, profile) fell $6.18, or 5.9 percent, to $99.03.
Oh my gosh, the Manure Movers Logo has reappeared!!!
No way in H@11 will that many union jobs be cut in CA or anywhere for that matter while there is still one Democrat politician alive.
*0) lol.. It's time, don't you agree ? lol
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