Can Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann do what so many government leaders have touted but failed to accomplish and actually reorganize state government? He has his Mississippi Senate looking to restructure state government and run it more like a business.
A little history. In 1932 the Institute for Government Research of the Brookings Institution studied Mississippi government. Its Report on a Survey of the Organization and Administration of State and County Government in Mississippi recommended a maximum of 12 agencies. A study by Highsaw and Mullican, The Growth of State Administration in Mississippi, suggested 17 agencies in 1950. A group of CEOs, said 32 agencies in 1971. These thoughtful recommendations got nowhere with the Mississippi Legislature which wields the power over agency creation and dissolution. In 1817 the state started with eight administrative agencies, by 1932 there were 80 and by 1950 just over 100, and in 2023 over 140. Hoseman says we have over 200 today. As I have written time and again, our state government more resembles kudzu – the “vine that ate the South” – than an efficient organism. A little bit of kudzu can grow up to a lot before you know it. Pruning has little impact. Kill a section and it reappears. For successful long-term control of kudzu, experts say, it is necessary to kill or remove the kudzu root crown and all rooting runners. Notably, every government program in Mississippi has its own “root crown” – a powerful legislator, official, or interest group – with “rooting runners” – alumni, farmers, nurses, road builders, business leaders, parents and teachers, and so on. Rooting beneficiaries everywhere!
Back to the present. The first of an expected array of government efficiency bills passed the Senate unanimously. The bill, written by Senate Governor Structure Committee Chairman Tyler McCaughn, would eliminate 22 “obsolete” commissions and boards. Okay, just a baby step, but at least a first step. However, that expected array of bills has not appeared. Sen. McCaughn’s committee late last year requested state agency leaders to provide input on how to make their operations more efficient and less wasteful. But the only relevant efficiency bill still alive in his committee is SB 2017 which would establish a task force to study streamlining and eliminating duplication among five agencies – Medicaid, health, mental health, child protection, and human services. Interestingly, one bill that is still moving forward and championed by Hosemann, would add another agency. "We need a Department of Tourism that focuses on tourism,” he said. SB 2016, which passed the Senate 47 to 3, would remove tourism from the Mississippi Development Authority and create a stand-alone Department of Tourism. Kudzu is hard to kill. "Sometimes mere words are not enough” – Proverbs 29:19. Crawford is an author and syndicated columnist from Jackson.
12 comments:
We do not want to run government like a for profit business. The structural models are entirely different for good reason.
Government is supposed to be " by the people and for the people"!
What we'll end up with is rich politicians and the rest of us will their "employees"!
Layoffs and firings come with having employees.
The complainers are always the first to be downsized or fired.
Everyone knows that shrinking government in Mississippi will leave a lot of people without jobs who are incapable of doing anything else.
The sad thing is that AI is soon to make having a real prize out of having government job.
Here Bill, I fixed it for you:
"Hypocritically, one bill that is still moving forward and championed by Hosemann, would add another agency. "
Last time I checked there’s a whole lot of lazy people getting all kind of free shit in ms.
Hoseman, feeling the nudge of irrelevance is suddenly looking through the prism of his ship sailing toward the horizon and is entering a 'scrambling mad' phase of his life in search of relevance.
Take a damned nap, Delbert.
More from half-measure Donkeycrat Delbert who has been talking about getting this done for 15+ years. This isn't a DOGE level effort, this is soundbite window dressing by a politico who ONLY knows how to nibble at the edges.
I am certain there are some outdated and irrelevant agencies that could be eliminated. I would not be surprised if there is some agency still regulating horse drawn carriages and riding crops. Also, probably more than a few agencies that are completely redundant with federal agencies. Mississippi could use a DOGE type internal audit.
Someone call?
It goes back to the foundation principles on which Mississippi's constitution was conceived. No matter how small the population, every white man who could spit tobacco juice was a judge, superintendent, supervisor, or just plain boss. After a couple hundred years we are still there. Some new bosses though.
Government is and always has been a "Self-Perpetuating Entity" and always will be. It will be here after we & the State as a whole are gone...
Well at least they kept the water flowing, the streets passable and crime was under control.
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