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Panel discusses efficiency of board, commissions Friday, Feb 8, 2008 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Lawmakers on Wednesday began discussing ways to evaluate the efficiency of more than 70 state regulatory boards and social welfare commissions. The Standing Committee on State Agencies of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee hopes to present a report to the Legislature next year. Committee members began interested in issue last year when a Performance Audit report showed Arkansas has more boards and commissions and recorded more expenditures by those panels than any of the 15 states used for comparison. "One thing that caught my eye and of some of the other committee members was the cash balances that some of the cash funded agencies maintained," said Rep. Robert Moore, D-Arkansas City, noting some have $5 million or more in the bank. "I have question ... on why these independent agencies have jurisdiction over this pretty substantial amount of money outside of general revenue," said Moore, co-chairman of the committee. "We have a charge to look at the efficiencies of operation of these various agencies." More, a former director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, said the ABC board was under the state Department of Finance and Administration, which managed all the finances. Seventy-three boards and commissions do not fall under the DF&A umbrella and are responsible for all of their finances. A report presented to the committee Thursday showed the state's 51 regulatory boards have more than $38 million in cash balances and the 22 social welfare commissions have nearly $30 million. During the meeting there was talk of possibly consolidating some of the boards and capping the amount of money they can have in reserve, with the rest possibly going to state general revenue. Sen. Jerry Taylor, D-Pine Bluff, co-chair of the committee, said doing so might be a problem because the boards and commissions, while they do receive some operating expenses from the state, generate most of their money through fees charged to people and organizations. Because many of the boards and commissions must receive legislative approval for fee hikes, some lawmakers suggested denying those increases if the panel's cash balances are above a certain level. Committee members agreed the ultimate goal was to make sure the boards and commissions are managed more efficiently. Mitzi Ferguson, deputy legislative auditor, told the committee that one concern was that 75 percent of the boards have three or few employees, leaving just one person responsible for all finances. Paul Louthian, DF&A's administrator of accounting, cautioned the committee that the changes it was contemplating would need the support of members of the boards and commissions. He also spoke against adding any additional layers of bureacracy to the panels. The committee agreed to first consider the regulatory boards and then address potential efficiencies in the social welfare commissions. |
