Government reshuffling comes with a heavy price

Last month’s commentary by Larry Willey titled, “Confront change in government,” was unintentionally both sad and amusing. His idea for abolishing both the Department of Human Services and Mental Health and consolidating their responsibilities into a new department has some minor fiscal benefit. The problem being, DHS is not now functioning in accordance with statutory as its purpose in a manner which could be considered fiscally responsible and efficient – why would one suspect that its successor department function any better? Wouldn’t this new entity be composed of the same incompetent bureaucrats and empire builders that now permeate the existing entity?

What is said for DHS can, to a lesser degree – because of relative budgetary size – be said for each of the other departments cited for restructuring. Restructuring might eliminate a few jobs, consolidate a few services which should be consolidated and possibly yield some short- term benefit; but not without cost. Much more efficient would be an elimination of the senior level of the bureaucratic structure, and all those without appropriate educational credentials for the roles they are now filling. But even that would not result in the savings available from more simple management restructuring.

Here we are enjoying traditional nightly Maine temperatures of 20 below zero. Enter any state building and move your hand along the edges of the windows – be prepared for frostbite. Go through the same building and record the temperatures for the interior rooms – be prepared to strip to a bathing suit. The buildings are so improperly insulated, the windows and doors so damaged with age that they leak all the heat, the compensatory furnace operation so extreme that workers in some offices are actually forced to open windows in the dead of winter.

Enter state buildings after hours and you are likely to find those windows have been left open. Much of the long-term budgetary problems are the result of our physical plant infrastructure; and much the problem can be fixed for less than the cost of the new stationery that would be required if we get into a process of combining, creating and renaming existing agencies. Had Maine addressed this structural problem 10 years ago – allowing for inflation and costs – the state budget would likely be in surplus.

This is not intended to denigrate, or otherwise diminish the need for restructuring and even extensive consolidation to gain agencies which are more in tune with the realities of this century. But we should understand that such overzealous restructuring, as proposed by Willey, carries a significant up-front cost. Better to first focus on those things which will result in immediate savings – weatherization and winterization of state-owned, rented or subsidized facilities.

If a department is to be created, let it be for the purpose of unifying all computer and communication services under one network with common software and systems that are actually useful to those whose job it is to rely on those systems. Do not, under any circumstances, use the need to balance the budget as an excuse for politically reshuffling the bureaucratic power structure, or enacting “remedies” that are not thought out and have the result of disrupting services – with the possible ultimate result of placing the state out of compliance with its own laws and those governed by federal mandate.

It is because this is what we have done before that we find Willey able to cite an issue, and provide nearly identical quotes, from Sept. 1, 1992 and Nov. 9-10, 2002. It is why we are talking of the same “restructuring” Willey cites as being talked of on Dec. 15, 1991. We find no one addressing the fundamental structural problems – but everyone trying to capitalize politically through creation of a bureaucratic barn dance.

W. Lawrence Lipton, of Harrington, is a former professor of business studies at the University of Maine.