Critics pan bill merging Pennsylvania agencies for ‘lacking a plan’
(The Center Square) – A bill designed to merge eight of Pennsylvania’s governmental agencies into just four departments met with criticism from Democrats on Wednesday who said the proposal lacked a plan.
House Bill 47 is the first in a package of bills designed to streamline government operations and realize administrative cost savings through agency mergers. This specific proposal would combine the Department of State and the Department of Community and Economic Development into the new Department of Local Government and Community Affairs.
Prime sponsor Rep. Matt Dowling, R-Uniontown, said the new department would serve the state’s 5,000 local jurisdictions and offer a Center for Local Government, a Bureau of Elections, a State Athletic Commission and an Office of Local Government Consultants.
“Our local governments are on the ground floor of helping to manage our communities, educate our kids, protect public safety, and ensure the provision of infrastructure and other support services,” he said. “The state can and should do a better job of supporting their efforts.”
But Democrats on the House State Government Committee bristled at the idea of approving a measure that lacked a strategic plan or fiscal analysis for the proposed merger. The legislation gives the state seven months from adoption to create a plan that must realize a 20 percent reduction in administrative costs, among other bench marks.
“This proposal looks to be nothing more than a shuffling of the deck,” said Minority Chairwoman Margo Davidson, D-Upper Darby. “Just a lot of changes without any real strategic plan behind those changes, without any real fiscal management analysis behind those changes. To do a strategic plan after you’ve already moved those resources around is just not considered prudent in the business world.”
Davidson cited her previous career experience executing strategic management for companies and said she’d never suggest shifting around employees and resources without a plan to follow.
“That’s not how it works in the real world,” she said. “People don’t buy a house and sign an agreement and then try to figure out where the down payment is coming from and how they are going pay their mortgage. It just seems like another legislative overreach and I’m very, very concerned.”
Majority Chairman Seth Grove, R-York, said the plan gives the Legislature an opportunity to reorganize and provide the next governor a more streamlined, efficient government to manage. Doing it now would also eliminate infighting among which department leaders get to stay on the job.
“Particularly right now with COVID and a lot of employees teleworking, we have a real opportunity to do some redesign and management moving forward,” he said.
The committee advanced the bill on a party-line vote of 15-10. It now moves to the full House for consideration.
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