EARLIER THIS year, Gov. Mark Sanford took a page from Carroll Campbell’s 1991 playbook and proposed consolidating a dizzying array of state agencies into something manageable enough to function as a whole rather than more than 100 largely independent parts.

In addition to the now-critically wounded plan to let governors appoint six of the nine constitutional officers, the proposal would have merged and reconfigured nine health-related agencies, turning them into three streamlined departments; folded three small schools into the Department of Education; collapsed four cultural agencies into one; combined three environmental agencies into one; and merged two prison-related agencies and two economic development agencies.

The plan also would have picked divisions out of some departments and dropped them into other departments, where the fit was better, and created a new Department of Administration, to take over most of the duties handled by the five-headed part-legislative-part-executive beast known as the Budget and Control Board. The governor would have been able to hire and fire the directors of all of these new agencies, but the agencies still would have been bound by the laws — and the budgets — passed by the General Assembly.

When Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell took up the mantle of reform, he scaled the plan back slightly — leaving the cultural agencies alone, retaining a good bit more control for the Legislature over purely administrative functions of government and creating a rather cumbersome arrangement for the health agencies, which could only be simplified with additional legislative approval.

Still, the 1,900-page bill represented a huge step forward in the quest for a simpler, more manageable, more efficient government with direct lines of accountability. Mr. Sanford declared it 90 percent of what he had sought.

What came out of a month’s worth of intense and consensus-driven work by Sen. McConnell’s subcommittee, however, is not so comprehensive.

I’m not saying the emperor is naked; but he’s down to his underwear — and it’s in tatters.

In order to maintain unanimity, the five-member subcommittee that reviewed the proposal agreed to strip out the proposals to merge the prison-related agencies and consolidate economic development agencies. It voted to maintain as separate, independent agencies the Commission on the Blind, the Employment Security Commission, the Vocational Rehabilitation department and three small specialty schools. Perhaps most significantly, it rejected the plan to move the health-related programs in the largely independent Department of Health and Environmental Control to a new health agency and to consolidate the state’s environmental programs under a Cabinet agency.

To be sure, the plan that goes before Mr. McConnell’s full Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon is still a step forward. Putting several health agencies under one director would certainly lead to some efficiencies, some better coordination and probably even to some of the improved communication Mr. Sanford says is critical to innovative thinking; and legislators probably would be more likely to allow some consolidation within the behemoth once they get used to all its moving parts being under one roof.

Moving even a handful of functions from the Budget and Control Board to a Cabinet agency will inject some accountability into the system; and this new Department of Administration should give governors a few more tools to deal with some areas of significant potential cost savings, particularly with the creation of a new state inspector general working for the governor.

But this legislation is a far cry from the initial proposals, and from the kind of simple, straightforward, accountable government we need in this state. Little wonder, then, that the biggest opponents of plans to really overhaul the government were falling all over themselves last month to praise this legislation, with Sen. Robert Ford declaring repeatedly that “I’m for restructuring ... I’m all for this agency stuff” and Sen. John Kuhn gushing that “This bill is going to be an amazing step forward for this state.”

Our state needs both components of government restructuring that were put forward by Mr. Sanford, Mr. McConnell and 22 other senators. But that doesn’t appear likely, largely because personal ambition and selfishness are blocking attempts to reduce the number of independently elected officials in charge of various pieces of the executive branch of government.

What’s amazing is that bureaucratic intransigence appears to be blocking most of the proposals that are most likely to result in significant cost savings — something I thought our legislators were interested in finding, so they wouldn’t have to keep bleeding essential state services.

Ms. Scoppe can be reached at cscoppe@thestate.com or at (803) 771-8571.