COLUMBIA - Gov. Mark Sanford's commission on state reform suggested Tuesday that South Carolina's government must be streamlined like a business and made more accountable to better serve residents.

"State government is, in many senses, broken, and is in need of repair," the Commission on Management, Accountability and Performance said in a 198-page report submitted to Sanford. "State government needs to be seriously overhauled in order to maximize efficiency and worker productivity."

Ken Wingate, chairman of the panel and a former gubernatorial candidate, said the state "suffers from agency gridlock" with some 55 independent agencies, boards and commissions, in addition to its 13 separate Cabinet agencies. This fragmentation of S.C. government has led to redundancies, he said.

He said the panel found enough such practices that could be eliminated, changed or consolidated to save $250 million in the first year and more than $300 million a year down the road - good news as the state struggles with tough economic times and budget deficits.

Sanford, who said he'd not yet read the report, pledged to work with legislators and commission members on laws or executive actions that could bring the new ideas to fruition.

"It's certainly something we are going to be pushing on," said Sanford, who created the commission in June to study government accountability and performance and to cut waste. The panel was made up of 12 business leaders from across the state who paid their own costs to serve, Wingate said.

Sanford had pushed reform plans to eliminate elections for most constitutional officers, putting their responsibilities and powers under the Governor's Office. The General Assembly considered similar plans but took no final action on them during this year's session.

In its report, the panel acknowledged it was divided on the extent to which the number of top government posts should be elected vs. appointed.

It called for restructuring the executive branch by reducing elected offices from nine to six. That would end election of the state education superintendent and adjutant general and eliminate the office of secretary of state, moving those duties to the Department of Revenue.

An Education Department spokeswoman said Tuesday afternoon that state Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum had not seen the report and did not yet have a comment.

South Carolina is the only state that elects the leader of its National Guard, and Adjutant General Stan Spears opposes appointing the post. "We have the best system possible," he said Tuesday.

The panel recommended that there be 14 Cabinet departments and "clusters" that would report directly to the governor.

Savings would come from consolidating administrative functions such as human resources, finance, information technology and purchasing, the report said.

Each agency or cluster would be led by a secretary appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. Most of the current agencies, boards and commissions would become part of the Cabinet.

The commission also reported that more than 30 percent of the state's work force will reach retirement in the next five years, which will require a business-style approach to recruit, retain and train quality employees.

Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom, who served as an ex-officio member of the panel, said the success of the commission's effort will depend on the willingness of the legislature "to accept these recommendations in a helpful spirit."