The other half of Treasurer John Kennedy’s streamlining package, a bill that would significantly trim state contracts, won approval Monday from the House Appropriations Committee. Last week, the full House endorsed the other bill advanced by the committee, a proposal to eliminate 15,000 positions from the executive branch by 2014. House Bill 15 by Rep. Dee Richard, No Party-Thibodaux, calls for a 10% reduction in professional, personal, consulting and social services contracts under the jurisdiction of the Division of Administration’s Office of Contractual Review. Kennedy drafted the plan as a member of the now-defunct Streamlining Government Commission.
Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater has said in the past that the number of redundant and useless contracts cited by Kennedy is overly broad, so that there wouldn’t be massive savings to find. Rainwater also contends that the state is already aggressively renegotiating contracts every year and in 2009 alone saved $42 million as a result. The proposed law, if adopted by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Bobby Jindal, would take effect in the fiscal year that begins July 1. If the law had been on the books at the start of the last fiscal year, Richard says savings would have equaled about $120 million. —Jeremy Alford
