Panel calls for sweeping changes in state government

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Cash-starved agencies could achieve savings of $250 million million the first year and $300 million in each succeeding year by eliminating "a high degree of redundancy and an enormous amount of fragmentation," said its chairman, Columbia attorney Ken Wingate.

The 200-page page report released Tuesday by the Governor's Commission on Management, Accountability and Performance recommended consolidating more power under the Governor's Office and cutting to six from nine the number of statewide elected officials.

Divisions that marked the 14-member committee's deliberations weren't apparent in the finished product.

Eddie Robinson, an Irmo veterinarian and panel member, said, "there were some things we discussed where we thought a minority report may be warranted," but ultimately, were discarded because of time constraints.

He declined to speculate what areas a minority report might have covered, but said "the most heated debate came over government structure.

The report did not directly address whether any state employees would lose their jobs. But Wingate said that with 31 percent of the 63,000 workers eligible for retirement over the next five years, "that will take care of itself."

He said the projected savings are "well documented and will support the recommendations."

Some savings would come from merging duplication in information technology and procurement, plus eliminating some of the 8,000 buildings with 60 million square feet for which there is "no central management authority," Wingate said.

Among the panel's major recommendations were:

— Creating a Department of Administration that would provide services to other agencies within state government to eliminate widespread duplication.

— Making the now elected state superintendent of education and adjutant general appointees of the governor and consolidating the elected secretary of state into the Department of Revenue.

— Expanding the governor's Cabinet to 14 agencies and "clusters" of related functions, including the addition of a Health and Human Services Cluster of health, environmental and social services agencies and merger of the Department of Correction and Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services and other units into a Public Safety Cluster.

— Consolidating smaller school districts into units of not less than 2,500 pupils or more than 25,000.

Gov. Mark Sanford, who campaigned on creating a more centralized, accountable state government, didn't get all he had initially sought, but predicted "a sustained level of engagement" to win approval of the recommendations from the Legislature.

Sanford said he hadn't seen the report and wouldn't comment on specific proposals.

House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, said that even though its thrust is to increase the governor's power and reduce the Legislature's, "we ought to have an open mind on all these things."

But, he said, "Just to shift power from one branch to another just to do it is not going to get a lot of support. If it makes sense, if it's more efficient, more accountable, then I think you can make a pretty good argument for doing that."

Sen. Brad Hutton, D-Orangeburg, said he expected his colleagues to assess the report with an open mind, but "there is a concern I — and others — have, that we maintain a balance of power between the legislative branches. Unless there are compelling reasons to change the system, it's going to be slow going."

Adjutant General Stan Spears, who would see his office become appointive under the recommendations, predicted he would remain the nations only elected state military commander.

"The voters won't give up the right to elect their constitutional officers and a lot of legislators don't want it either," Spears said.

He heads the state's politically potent Army and Air National Guard units.

Except for a proposal to streamline the state's system for procuring and maintaining its fleet of cars, trucks and buses, the task force steered clear of recommending that the Department of Transportation be brought directly under the governor.

Sanford said it is "fairly politically impossible" the alter the ingrained system in which the Legislature elects transportation board members, except for a chairman appointed by the governor, who then hires an executive director.

State Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum, a 2004 U.S. Senate candidate, has supported the change to an appointive office, but first-term Secretary of State Mark Hammond, is a vehement opponent.

Dan Hoover covers politics and can be reached at 298-4883.