The Reading Warehouse

One of the most difficult if not least productive exercises undertaken in Mississippi in the last half-century has been the recurring effort to reorganize the executive branch of state government. In reviewing those efforts, Thomas Kynerd attempts to gain insight into the repeated failures.

In 1932, a study of state government described its organization as chaotic, but the recommended improvements were shouted down. Nearly twenty years later, the governor decided it was time to reorganize state government and asked the legislature to develop a plan. The plan was prepared with much enthusiasm by a legislative committee, with the full support of every state agency. Everyone in state government seemed to feel that reorganization was long overdue. The plan, however, was not implemented, and subsequent governors and legislatures have repeated the seemingly futile exercise.

The continuing reluctance of state officials to correct the alleged deficiencies in state government has not gone unnoticed by the public. One citizen, for example, felt so strongly about the importance of the matter and became so irritated with the inaction that he initiated a court proceeding to force changes in the structure of state government. In taking this action he charged that the problem has been neglected for so long that the low economic standing of the state can, in part, be attributed to ineffective organization of state government. At this writing, that court case remains unresolved--as does the question of state government reorganization, which has been an interesting issue in Mississippi politics for the last 50 years.

Thomas E. Kynerd (retired) served as a public administration analyst.