“I’ve seen a lot of times where, you know, we get a report and don’t even open ‘em,” Senator Bret Allain told the Finance committee Monday.
They were considering one of more than two dozen bills and resolutions filed by lawmakers seeking more reports – on everything from college athletics costs to the possibility of reversing chemical abortions.
There’s even a measure – SCR 84 – requesting the Division of Administration to report on the number and types of reports it must create each year. Senator Neil Riser of Columbia summed that one up.
“So for clarity, this is a report about reports?” he asked the measure’s author, Senator Sharon Hewitt of Slidell.
Exactly.
And Monday, Senate Finance Committee members considered a request for an efficiency report about possible efficiencies.
“I’d like to know what the administration has in mind,” Mandeville Rep. John Schroder explained. “I have not heard much conversation at all about efficiencies and what can we do different, uh, those type of things that we hear from our constituents every day.”
That struck a chord with Metairie Senator Conrad Appel.
“I’ve asked the Commissioner of Administration, I’ve asked the Governor’s office – repeatedly – ‘What is the strategy to look at long-term spending from an efficiency and effectiveness position?’ And I hear nothing, just silence,” Appel complained. “Is it fair for us to go into a special session without the tools of knowing what spending efficiencies and effectiveness we should have?”
Yet with the previous administration eliminating more than 14-thousand state workers, and another bill advancing which prohibits any new state jobs for the next two years, Franklin Senator Bret Allain had concerns.
“I see that you’re ‘urging and requesting’ that this be done by July one. In all fairness, do you think that that’s a little optimistic?” Allain asked.
Senator Hewitt reinforced those concerns, saying, “I appreciate the value it would bring to the conversation, but I’m worried from a manpower standpoint whether that’s even a possibility.”
Schroder responded: “They have a lot of people in the Division, and I guarantee you, if they really wanted to, in an hour he could put together a nice little report of what we need to do to change how we do some things.”
“I can make you a list right now, in 30 minutes, of spending reforms I think would go a long way,” Appel interjected.
“I think if they came up with one idea, it’s better than zero,” Schroder concluded.
The measure, HCR 25, is now headed to the full Senate.