September 30, 2005

Review Commission Adopts Agency Reform Recommendations

In January, Gov. Matt Blunt created a Missouri State Government Review Commission comprised of 19 private sector appointees and the lieutenant governor. The commission was asked to identify ways to improve state operations by restructuring, consolidating or eliminating state agency functions. It completed its recommendations this week.

• The commission rejected a subcommittee proposal to move the Division of Medical Services, which administers Medicaid, from the Missouri Department of Social Services to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Commissioners noted the Medicaid Reform Commission is considering major changes to the program and suggested it would be premature to reassign the agency.
• The commission recommended the state have biennial rather than annual budgets. Until 1972, the state budgeted on a two-year cycle. Missouri has had a biennial capital improvements budget since 1993.
• The DHSS’ Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs would be moved to the Missouri Department of Public Safety. The intent is to improve coordination with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
• Responsibility for licensing emergency medical technicians would be transferred from the DHSS to the Division of Professional Registration. The division, which includes most of the state’s professional and occupational licensure boards, would be moved to a new department encompassing financial and insurance regulation and occupational licensure.
• The “First Steps” program of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education would move to the DHSS. The program is designed to identify and respond to developmental delays in children 3 years and younger.
• The commission proposed the DHSS examine the feasibility of outsourcing or privatizing case management services.
• An Interdepartmental Coordinating Council on Healthy Children would be formed to establish performance standards for state efforts to promote health initiatives for children, including access to health care. The council, using existing staff and resources, would be led by the DSS.
• Another Interdepartmental Coordinating Council would be led by the Missouri Department of Mental Health to coordinate and monitor the delivery of mental health services in various departments.
• The DSS’ State Technical Assistance Team, which manages the Child Fatality Review program, would be moved to the DPS.
• The state would conduct a feasibility study of consolidating the various state employee health insurance plans into a single purchasing entity.
• The DPS would be given responsibility for creating and overseeing a statewide emergency communications system. The State Emergency Management Agency would be transferred from the adjutant general of the Missouri National Guard to the DPS.
• Various state telephone information and assistance lines would be evaluated and consolidated when feasible.
• Appeal hearings for most state agency administrative decisions would be consolidated within the Administrative Hearing Commission.

Several of the commission’s recommendations will require enactment of implementing legislation.

Waste Tire Fee About to Return
Missourians buying new tires on Saturday will find a compete set of four will cost them another couple of bucks. The waste tire fee will be reinstated this weekend. The Department of Natural Resources expects to collect more than $2-Million a year from the fee. Scrap Tire Unit Chief Dan Fester says the Department will soon start cleaning up a one-million tire dump - the state's biggest one. He says it's impossible to predict how long it will take. Fester says it costs about $2 to get each tire out of an illegal dump and get it into the recycling system.

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