Article published January 28, 2009
GOP floats plan to shrink Ohio's government, cut 11,448 positions
Gov. Ted Strickland checks the seating in the House chamber, where he is to deliver his state of the state address today.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
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By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF
COLUMBUS - Ohio legislative Republicans yesterday urged Gov. Ted Strickland to embrace a massive downsizing of state government that they said could go a long way toward solving the budgetary crisis.
The plan calls for consolidating 24 cabinet-level departments into 10 or 11 and eliminating 11,448 state jobs, nearly a fifth of the state work force, through attrition, for a projected saving of about
$1 billion a year.
"Our state government today was established under the Constitution of 1912,'' said House Minority Leader Bill Batchelder (R., Medina). "That was a good effort, but some things have changed since 1912, but not so much for state government except for growth and excessive employment. … The executive branch is too large and too bloated, 24 cabinet departments and over 300 boards, commissions, task forces, [and] councils."
Mr. Strickland, a Democrat, will deliver his third state of the state address today. While much of his speech is expected to focus on education and school funding, foremost on the minds of most listening will be his plan to turn around the state's manufacturing-heavy economy that began to founder before the nation followed.
His administration has estimated that the budget shortfall over the next two years could stretch to $7.3 billion, although he's counting on the federal stimulus package under consideration in Washington to reduce that number significantly.
"The governor will review the proposal just like any other legislative proposal," said Strickland spokesman Amanda Wurst. "The governor is always looking for ways to make government more efficient."
| GOVERNOR’S SPEECH |
Gov. Ted Strickland will deliver his third state of the state address to lawmakers at noon today in the Ohio House of Representatives chambers at the Ohio Statehouse.
In the Toledo area, the speech is expected to be broadcast live on WGTE-Channel 30 and WGTE-Family Digital Channel 30.2, Buckeye Cable Channel 9, Time Warner Cable Channel 3, and WGTE-FM 91.3. |
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Under the GOP plan, the
24 departments under the governor's authority would be merged into 10 departments focusing on education, public safety, health, transportation and infrastructure, finance and operations, human resource development, community and institutional rehabilitation, business, resource protection, and development.
The one wild card is the Department of Veterans Services, recently spun off into a separate department under Mr. Strickland with Republican blessing. Mr. Batchelder noted that no decision has been made as to which agency it would merge with or whether it would remain a stand-alone 11th department.
Jim Petro, the Ohio attorney general and former auditor, had proposed something very similar prior to running unsuccessfully for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2006.
"If it had really caught hold, I'd be giving the state of the state tomorrow," he said. Mr. Petro lost the nomination to then Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who went on to lose to Mr. Strickland.
Backers of the plan said they recognized such a consolidation would not be logistically easy, noting the scandal, computer woes, and other problems that occurred when the state's welfare and Medicaid programs merged with state jobs programs to create the Department of Job and Family Services under Gov. Bob Taft.
The plan offered yesterday would again split those two functions.
Medicaid programs, which represent about a fourth of the state budget, would merge with health and professional licensing programs into a new Department of Public Health. The training and employment services programs would join a new Department of Human Resource Development.
The Republicans anticipate that 2,246 jobs could be eliminated in the new health department and 2,212 in the new human resources department by reducing duplication of services.
Just a few years ago, a Taft budget proposal that would have collapsed many professional and licensing boards and commissions under a single administrative umbrella, but the language was ultimately removed from the budget by a Republican-controlled General Assembly.
Republicans are in the minority in the House for the first time in 14 years.
Republicans, however, still control the Senate by a wide margin.
Sen. Tim Grendell (R., Chesterland) said the state's budgetary crisis has opened a window to do something that prior state legislatures would not.
"Trying to solve our budgetary problems with money from the federal government may have a short-term solution but leave a long-term operational gap, because two years from now you can't count on the federal government's generosity…," he said. "The odds are that gambling is not going to produce enough money to solve our budgetary problems over the next two years."
Contact Jim Provance at:
jprovance@theblade.com
or 614-221-0496.
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