While the State Assembly took a whack Wednesday at the much ballyhooed bill to determine if the governor should be again allowed to appoint the Department of Natural Resources head, a lesser known but possibly farther reaching item was included in the bill.
State Rep., Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, introduced an amendment to Assembly Bill 138 Wednesday that would split the DNR into two separate bureaucracies. Huebsch said the DNR is too big and too difficult to manage. Huebsch wants take environmental issues out of the DNR, and create a Department of Environmental Quality. The DNR would tackle hunting, fishing and wildlife habitat issues.
On the surface, the Huebsch's idea makes sense because it would separate two critical and differing functions, presumably making each more manageable. The idea isn't unique - the federal government has the Environmental Protection Agency and a separate Fish and Wildlife Service under the Department of the Interior; Illinois has a state EPA and DNR.
This proposal could create a more responsive permitting process and more efficient DNR to regulate hunting and fishing in the state, but this split, if it were to succeed and make it into the final version of the bill, must be done with great care and skill.
One law of bureaucracy is that it is ever expanding and very difficult to shrink because of demands for services a bureaucracy provides. For example, look at the impact of state agency furlough days on public services such as the Department of Motor Vehicles. Eliminating government jobs is also not the easiest task.
The DNR currently employs about 4,800 people, according to its Web site, and has six divisions and five regional offices and numerous service centers.
Despite the notable irony of a Republican legislator advocating for more government - not necessarily larger government - Huebsch's amendment has merit.
Time will tell whether the risk to the status quo is too much for other legislators to accept.
State Rep., Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, introduced an amendment to Assembly Bill 138 Wednesday that would split the DNR into two separate bureaucracies. Huebsch said the DNR is too big and too difficult to manage. Huebsch wants take environmental issues out of the DNR, and create a Department of Environmental Quality. The DNR would tackle hunting, fishing and wildlife habitat issues.
On the surface, the Huebsch's idea makes sense because it would separate two critical and differing functions, presumably making each more manageable. The idea isn't unique - the federal government has the Environmental Protection Agency and a separate Fish and Wildlife Service under the Department of the Interior; Illinois has a state EPA and DNR.
This proposal could create a more responsive permitting process and more efficient DNR to regulate hunting and fishing in the state, but this split, if it were to succeed and make it into the final version of the bill, must be done with great care and skill.
One law of bureaucracy is that it is ever expanding and very difficult to shrink because of demands for services a bureaucracy provides. For example, look at the impact of state agency furlough days on public services such as the Department of Motor Vehicles. Eliminating government jobs is also not the easiest task.
The DNR currently employs about 4,800 people, according to its Web site, and has six divisions and five regional offices and numerous service centers.
Despite the notable irony of a Republican legislator advocating for more government - not necessarily larger government - Huebsch's amendment has merit.
Time will tell whether the risk to the status quo is too much for other legislators to accept.
