Ronald Reagan once said that "a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth." Gov. Jerry Brown is challenging that notion.
Brown's state budget plan would eliminate or consolidate 50 state programs, agencies and commissions. He also wants to cut the state payroll by 3,000 employees.
"The state's current organizational structure lacks sense and cohesion," he said in the budget summary, adding that his plan "makes government less costly and more efficient, more sensible and easier to manage effectively."
Among other things, Brown wants to reduce the number of cabinet agencies from 12 to 10, combine revenue collecting functions in a single department, merge the Corporations and Financial Institutions departments and eliminate the Mental Health and Alcohol and Drug departments, folding their responsibilities into other health and social service programs.
Brown also targeted a long list of boards and commissions for elimination, including the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board — a part-time job with a six-figure salary that has been a popular landing spot for termed-out legislators.
Other panels on the governor's hit list include the Commission on the Status of Women, the 9-1-1 Advisory Board, the Electronic Funds Transfer Task Force, the Public Safety Radio Strategic Planning Committee, the state Geology and Mining Board and a host of advisory panels in the Department of Fish and Game.
Proposing these and other cuts is one thing, getting them through the Legislature is a very different challenge. Just ask Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"Every governor proposes moving boxes around to reorganize government," Schwarzenegger said in his first State of the State Address. "I don't want to move boxes around — I want to blow them up."
Suffice it to say, there weren't a lot of pyrotechnics during Schwarzenegger's tenure. Brown, however, has had some success. He eliminated several programs, including the state Postsecondary Education Commission and local redevelopment agencies in his 2011-12 budget.
We applaud Brown's efforts to consolidate state government, although we acknowledge that the potential savings are relatively small. Four programs — K-12 education, colleges and universities, corrections and health and welfare — account for 89.4 percent of general fund spending. The programs and agencies that Brown would cut or combine are a small part of the rest.
But his proposal is an exercise in setting priorities, as are his proposed cuts in welfare and corrections. Eliminating low-priority programs — blowing up some boxes, so to speak — might make voters more willing to approve the temporary sales and income tax increases that Brown wants to avoid another round of cuts for schools.
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