State government gets a major makeover in Gov. Mark Sanford’s first budget proposal.

Fifteen agencies are either eliminated or consolidated. Two USC branch campuses are closed. Every constitutional officer except the attorney general becomes appointed rather than elected.

In all, the governor claims to save nearly $26 million from restructuring alone. The savings come from eliminating duplicated services and merging administrative functions.

“Our state is still burdened with a government that is not accountable to the people it serves and the taxpayers who fund it,” Sanford wrote in the budget.

Many of the changes were recommended by the Governor’s Commission on Management, Accountability and Performance or were left over from the restructuring effort of the early 1990s.

The changes range from the major — closing two campuses ; merging state health agencies —to the minor — moving the guardian ad litem program from the governor’s office to the USC Children’s Law Office.

Many of the changes face a difficult path. For instance, making the constitutional officers appointed rather than elected will take a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate, and approval from voters in November.

When he was elected in 2002, Sanford supported making the adjutant general an appointed position. But later in the year, he agreed with legislative leaders to leave it as an elected position. Now, he’s proposed making it appointed again.

South Carolina is the only state where voters choose the adjutant general, who leads the state’s National Guard and Air National Guard.

Sanford’s plan doesn’t expand the government bureaucracy, but it does create a few super-agencies.

He proposes merging the departments of Health and Human Services and Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services into one new agency. This new agency would receive nearly $697 million from the state, including $140 million in new dollars for Medicaid.

Last year, these two agencies received a total of $565 million.Also, the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Disability and Special Needs would merge with the health divisions of the Department of Health and Environmental Control.

Sanford’s budget balances by making these changes. But if one of the restructuring proposals fails in the General Assembly, his budget would be out of balance, and the difference would have to be made up elsewhere.

Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com.