In a move that would sharply change state government, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy called Thursday for reducing the number of agencies by 30 percent - from 81 to 57 agencies.
Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell attempted to make similar consolidations in the past, and they were routinely rejected by the Democratic-controlled legislature. The difference this year is that both the governor's office and the legislature are controlled by Democrats.
Before Rell, the legislature also rejected most of Republican Gov. John G. Rowland's proposals to merge or consolidate state agencies, including moves that would have eliminated the departments of agriculture, higher education and public works and turned the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women into a nonprofit advocacy group. Some of Rowland's plans were approved in 1995, including the proposal to consolidate three state mental hospitals at Connecticut Valley Hospital.
This year, Republican legislators recently proposed consolidating 43 state agencies into 11.
"When putting together my budget, I had to ask - what sense does it make to split the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security and the Department of Public Safety?'' Malloy asked. "Or why are the Offices of Workforce Competitiveness and the Commission on Culture and Tourism stand-alone agencies, apart from the Department of Economic and Community Development? And why are all of the government accountability functions - the Elections Enforcement Commission, the Freedom of Information Commission, the Judicial Review Council, the Contracting Standards Board, and the Office of State Ethics separate entities when so many of their issue areas and jurisdiction overlap? It just didn't make sense.''