Brown’s Government Reorganization Plan Debated by Lawmakers

On May 24, the Assembly began evaluating a plan by Gov. Jerry Brown to reduce the number of state agencies from 12 to 10, a reorganization move that Brown says streamlines the delivery of services and saves taxpayers money.

Modifying the structure of state government has been championed by a number of previous governors.

Republican C. C. Young, governor from 1927 to 1931, counted his reorganization efforts, which added seven new departments to the state’s existing five, as his greatest achievement.

Three decades earlier, Democrat Jim Budd ran on a platform of reducing government spending, in part by consolidating management of in individual agencies. [....]