Cut 15,000 state jobs over three years, consolidate higher education management to one central board and pool purchasing and service contracts with Arkansas and Mississippi. Those are among the first recommendations to emerge as the Commission on Streamlining Government looks at ways to trim Louisiana government costs.
The recommendations — all offered by Treasurer John Kennedy, a commission member — were approved Monday by a subcommittee led by Kennedy. The ideas would have to be approved by the full commission before being forwarded to Gov. Bobby Jindal and lawmakers for consideration.
The streamlining commission is trying to come up with ideas to cut millions in Louisiana government costs amid years of projected budget shortfalls.
It’s unclear when the full 10-member commission will review Kennedy’s suggestions. It must pull together a report with recommendations by Dec. 15 after other subcommittees review data and take testimony as well. Any restructuring would go before lawmakers in the 2010 regular session.
The suggestion likely to be most controversial would involve cutting Louisiana’s government work force by 15,000. The Senate committee that works on the state’s annual budget stripped a similar House-backed plan from the current year’s spending plan.
Kennedy cited U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics that Louisiana — with 118,000 state government jobs — is eighth in the nation for the number of government employees per capita. Louisiana has 275 state government workers for every 10,000 people, Kennedy said, compared to a nationwide rate of 223 per 10,000. The difference would amount to about 22,000 state workers, he said. Louisiana, however, has a statewide public hospital system that many other states don’t have.
Kennedy’s plan, backed by his three-person subcommittee, would shrink the government job rolls by 5,000 positions per year for three years.
“It has to be done through reorganization so the services won’t be impacted,” Kennedy said.
He said vacancies should be eliminated and layers of management should be reduced. The recommendation is that 20 percent of the savings from the job cuts should be used to increase the salaries of those employees who remain — and who presumably would be doing more work.
Subcommittee member Leonal Hardman said agencies must eliminate administrative jobs and management positions to keep services intact.
“When I look at government, it’s top-heavy. It shouldn’t take five layers of supervision to get something done. But my problem is the people being streamlined and being cut are at the bottom,” said Hardman, a commission appointee representing the AFL/CIO.
Another recommendation backed by the panel that has been discarded by past groups of lawmakers would merge Louisiana’s higher education management. Currently, four separate university systems and system boards oversee the state’s public colleges. Those systems and boards are then overseen by the Board of Regents.
Kennedy’s plan would change the state constitution — which would need voter approval — to abolish those independent boards and put all colleges under the oversight of the Board of Regents.
Former Gov. Buddy Roemer pushed for a single higher education governing board nearly 20 years ago to no avail. On Monday, he again suggested it to Kennedy’s subcommittee.
“We don’t have too many universities. We just don’t use them well. We don’t coordinate them at all,” Roemer said.
Among other ideas forwarded by the streamlining subcommittee was a proposal that Louisiana try to work together with Mississippi and Arkansas government agencies in areas like pest control, water quality protection, tourism marketing, tax collections and licensing services. Kennedy said the idea was modeled on a similar program between Wisconsin and Minnesota.
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Kennedy urges job cuts, college management changes
April 27, 2009
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