Posted on 04/26/2006 8:38:17 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
California's action-star governor pledged in his first State of the State address in 2004 to "blow up the boxes" of the state's bloated bureaucracies. But that campaign fizzled like a box office dud -- one that Gov. Schwarzenegger has apparently forgotten.
The governor on Tuesday announced his support for SB 162, which the Senate passed in January. The measure would split emergency health duties from the Department of Health Services.
The result: A new state bureaucracy, the Department of Public Health, would concentrate exclusively on preparing California to address a bioterror attack or an epidemic, such as the avian flu.
Schwarzenegger said the new department would ensure that when disaster strikes, "Californians will still be able to breathe clean air, drink safe water and eat healthy food" -- all without costing taxpayers a single additional cent. Not likely.
And not necessary. California already has a Department of Health Services Emergency Preparedness Office, which is responsible for public and environmental health-disaster response issues. And just this month, that agency finalized its comprehensive 454-page "Public Health Emergency Response Plan." So will the new agency duplicate that effort?
It's striking how quickly the governor has dropped the streamlining ideas that one of his own commissions generated in 2004. The California Performance Review advanced 2,500 pages worth of suggestions to save taxpayers money and scrap bureaucratic inefficiencies -- to little avail.
Schwarzenegger had the right idea when he took office. He should be working to make California's current bureaucracies leaner and more effective, not adding to the government's already ample girth.
Sigh.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
It sure wasn't in the nature of the humans that founded this country!!!
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