Last week, it became news that, over two weeks after the fact, the
Elderly Protection Services unit’s budget authority had been moved from the
Governor’s Office to the Department of Health and Hospitals, even as its
administrative home remained there. This means a memorandum of understanding will
have to be written for DHH to perform these services.
This wimpering denouement concluded
a needlessly big argument over small potatoes. As have other governors in the
past, earlier in the session Gov. Bobby
Jindal tried to combine the functions of the Office of Elderly Affairs, located deep
in the Division of Administration and in part to coordinate a number of tasks
mandated by federal law and funding provided by it, into DHH. Since the GOEA,
which gets about $45 million, oversees the Older Americans Act, it’s not an
illogical place for it to be. However, at the same time, it performs a number
of functions that not only have little to do with that kind of role, they also
are largely duplicative in required oversight needs of others being performed
in other parts of government with more expertise to do them.
Jindal’s idea was to realize scales of economy in service provision
with the combination. However, some stakeholders disagreed with the approach (including
a former underling), with Councils of Aging, required as part of the
amended Older Americans Act that serve in provider roles of information and
services, particularly objecting. At the same time, other groups involved in
senior citizen advocacy such as AARP, ended up supporting the idea that part of
the functions should be transferred. AARP endorsed
the idea of folding EPS into DHH’s Adult Protection Services, and SB 762
by state Sen. Sherri Buffington
became the statutory device by which to do that. Eventually, the Jindal
Administration abandoned
the idea of a full combination.
GOEA’s EPS responds to alleged elderly abuse, while DHH’s APS reacts to
alleged abuse of the disabled younger than 60. Some dynamics differ in
performing these functions but there are more similarities than differences and
certainly the administrative aspects differ little. Still, the vast majority of
the state’s Councils on Aging opposed even this smaller shift for a reason that
might make sense to them in particular but not to taxpayers or clients. EPS, in
a budget unit that spends only about $7 million annually attached to a
relatively small agency of which it represented about $2.6 million, could be
expected to be more captive and responsive to COA demands, as opposed to its placement
in a budget unit of $30 million and part of the largest bureaucracy in state
government. It might be more cost effective to the aggregate without reduction
in service, but to the particular interests of the Councils, this arrangement
would be less convenient and decrease their influence over policy.
While it passed the Senate, SB 762 got scuttled narrowly
(but may have passed except for so many absences at the time of the vote in the
House) shortly before session end. Largely Democrats, who have an ideological
interest in maintaining more rather than less government, voted against it,
after an amendment by vocal opponent Republican state Rep. Joe Harrison was
approved that would have detailed reporting about the results of the transition
at the requests of the Councils, who throughout kept trying to spin a narrative
that the bill was the first step to some kind of “takeover” of them. It was a
classic example of legislators responding to local, parochial interests that,
to suit their own interests, preferred an arrangement that would provide
duplicative, less efficient service that otherwise could be improved that would
have benefited the general interest and clients – following a organization table
recommend by past House resolution and what is done in the majority of other
states.
But as persuasive as those interests were to legislators, these
opponents went missing in action when it came to the budgeting for this
function, which was submitted
to the House, left
the House, left
the Senate, and was concurred
in by the House, all containing language that gave the funding to DHH to
perform the service. With minutes to spare in the session, Harrison had
introduced HR 180
asking DHH to transfer back the budget authority, the entire debate over it
being reading its preamble, and was adopted without objection, without any
explanation as to why they never tried to retain budget authority for EPS in
GOEA instead of letting it go to DHH.
So Harrison and various Councils knew all along this was happening, meaning
the criticizing of Jindal smacks of hypocrisy and was designed for publicity
sake, especially in waiting until the operating budget signed before getting
either a gullible or complicit Baton
Rouge Advocate to sound the alarm of something already public knowledge.
Once the bill went to Jindal, he didn’t have the authority to move the money,
only to veto it, and if that then there would have been no EPS.
To summarize, this became an exercise in trying to score political
points. Opponents likely knew they’d never get the budget language changed so
they concentrated, successfully, on getting the statutory change defeated,
which they will be unable to repeat next year once DHH demonstrates it will
oversee EPS effectively and efficiently. After all, by doing so they could
demonstrate to special interests how they did their best to take care of them
but got thwarted by Jindal, when in fact if they truly had broader public
support, they could have exerted enough pressure to move the item around in the
budget. But never pass up a chance to create a crisis if it can make you look
better and/or your opponents worse, and that’s what Harrison and others tried
to do. Fake outrage over somebody doing something you sanctioned by your
inability to stop them may not be good government, but it is good theater.
And the larger lesson of all of this is to illuminate the danger of
legislative micromanaging. Given the Legislature represents districts, in the
operation of programs having 144 bosses creates incentives that produced opposition
to the transfer and what would have been the missing of the opportunity to
improve service delivery. Having one boss put there by the majority of the
entire state gives the incentive to look out for the needs of all, including
the clients served. This doesn’t even address the related issue that having a
committee of 144 runs things is highly unlikely to provide the leadership,
coordination, and coherence to run things as well as a single individual.
2 comments:
Your hero's hand-picked Sen Prez.
http://www.americanpress.com/Beam-6-24-12
Your hero continues to say nothing as Mr. Alario continues to screw state taxpayers.
What you call a "minor jurisdictional dispute" is called lying and duplicity in most circles.
When the Scorecard lies and is duplicitous, the Gofer calls it something else and demonizes the other parties.
It is tiring and dangerous for this State.
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