The latest effort to reduce the overwhelming number of state agencies, boards and commissions fizzled. So, we’re headed up again, not down?

 

Last fall Mississippi Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann called for the legislature to formulate a plan to reorganize state government and consolidate several state agencies, boards and commissions.

 

“We in Mississippi have over 200 boards and commissions,” Hosemann told the Clarion-Ledger. “This has been on my agenda to get to, but we had education and roads and tax cuts and a lot of other things that were also on our agenda. We’re laying the predicate here for a really strong look at Mississippi government. We want to have a very efficient government.”

 

After the session started, the Senate unanimously passed SB 2275 to establish a task force that would “make recommendations regarding the reorganization of state agencies to improve governmental efficiency.”

 

Double-referred in the House, which appears to have less interest in shrinking government, the bill died in both the State Affairs Committee and the Accountability, Efficiency, Transparency Committee.

 

Passing both the Senate (43 to 8) and House (117 to 2), however, was SB 2573 introduced by Sen. Mike Thompson of Gulfport. The bill creates a new state agency, the Mississippi Department of Tourism. Basically, the bill moves personnel and programs from the Mississippi Development Authority to the new agency. If approved by Gov. Tate Reeves, the new agency will stand up on July 1, 2025, and will begin the journey to grow its bureaucracy.

 

As I wrote in my book, historic efforts to rein in government agencies, boards and commissions have accomplished little. Rather, growth in Mississippi government resembles kudzu, which spreads rapidly and is difficult to prune.

 

“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 state CEOs said 32 agencies in 1971. These thoughtful recommendations got nowhere with the Mississippi Legislature which wielded 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 more than 140.”

 

The Lt. Governor said there are now over 200 and his Senate, with support from the House, wants to add one more.

 

Hmmm. Cut taxes but add agencies – that makes sense, right?

 

Crawford is the author of “A Republican’s Lament: Mississippi Needs Good Government Conservatives.”