Opinion - Geoff Pender: Creeping bureaucratic sprawl continues
Jackson, MS
The vast, creeping bureaucratic sprawl of Mississippi’s agencies, boards and commissions is like the weather: Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it.
Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann broached the subject again last week. He was talking to hundreds of business leaders from across the state of the need to consolidate or eliminate many of the state’s 206 agencies, boards and commissions. They are run by some 1,800 appointees and they regulate everything from acupuncture (yes, there’s a board for that) to veterinarians.
“With our state government, we have created what you wouldn’t create if you were running a lemonade stand,” Hosemann said. “We have accountability issues. You pick up the paper and you see bad things are happening. Almost in every instance, that flows from the boards, how we structure our state government.”
The danger is — heck, the reality is — that many of these autonomous little agencies or boards, usually comprised of non-elected folks who work in that particular field, are too cozy with the people they are supposed to regulate. Or, they become little potentates and help their own businesses or buddies with regulatory or policy decisions.
Gov. Phil Bryant in his first state-of-the-state address after he took office in 2012 vowed to make eliminating or consolidating many of these government entities a top priority. He directed Hosemann to conduct a study and make recommendations. But Bryant soon learned the realpolitik of the situation.
“Politically, it is difficult, because each of these has a support system, if you will,” Bryant said more than a year later, after his initial consolidation efforts fizzled.
Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who has also voiced support for government consolidation, summarized the political situation: “They all have a constituency, and they all have relationships with various (legislative) members, so consolidation becomes politically difficult. But just because something is politically difficult doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it.”
Here’s the problem: Let’s say lawmakers decided to consolidate the separate boards for barbers and cosmetologists. Heck, they could even go crazy and roll in the acupuncture and massage therapy boards — make it the “Board of Those Who Touch or Poke on People But Aren’t Doctors.” Trouble is, the 5,000 barbers in the state fear that the 20,000 cosmetologists would control things, or vice versa.
Elected officials don’t want 25,000 barbers and cosmetologists, and voting members of their families, mad at them — particularly in an election year. Throw in several hundred mad, voting massage therapists and acupuncturists, and you’ve got a grassroots lobby that can scare the heck out of any politician.
Reeves recently opined that at least the “back office” operations of small agencies, boards and commissions could be consolidated. There is likely great savings to be realized by consolidating office and meeting space, accounting, staff, etc. Most now have their own digs, apparently wherever they want, and ink their own contracts for accounting, legal and other services. The state Massage Therapy Board has headquarters in in downtown Morton.
In his study, Hosemann found about 70 percent of the state’s agencies, boards and commissions don’t have any means in state law of removing members from office. About 600 of them don’t have any specific term of office — essentially they’re appointed for life. Some boards, he said, can appoint their own replacements if a member resigns.
Hosemann has said: “We really have created almost a fourth branch of government, one that is self-perpetuating.”
That’s step one — identify the problem.
But despite state leaders’ talk of wanting government to run more like a business, much of it is still run like 206 individual lemonade stands.
Contact Geoff Pender at (601) 961-7266(601) 961-7266 or gpender@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @GeoffPender on Twitter.