Majority Report on the Governor’s Reorganization Plan 2010-2

House, No. 4541

An act reorganizing certain agencies of the executive department

House No. 4541, filed pursuant to Article 87 of the Amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution and considered pursuant thereto and to the provisions of Joint Rule 23A of the two branches of the General Court, is the Governor’s plan to reform, reorganize, transfer, streamline and consolidate certain state agency operations.

Testifying before the Committee during the public hearing required by Article LXXXVII, Administration representatives indicated that the goal of this legislation is to improve the provision of certification and technical assistance services to minority and women-owned businesses by providing a single portal for accessing such services, to achieve cost-saving efficiencies by relocating certain agencies and formalizing the reorganization of the budget office within EOAF.

Since the bill was filed pursuant to the provisions of Article LXXXVII of the amendments to the Constitution, it cannot be amended and must be accepted or rejected exactly as presented.

The Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight, to whom was referred Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 2010 (House, No.4541) of his Excellency the Governor, reports recommending that the Plan ought to be approved.

The Committee believes that the plan would achieve efficiencies in state government and improve the delivery of important services to the citizens of the Commonwealth by:

1) Combining the State Office of Minority and Women Business Assistance and the Affirmative Market Program within the Operational Services Division to create a single point of access through which minority and women-owned businesses can seek certification, technical assistance and capacity-building services.  The new office that will be created by this merger will be called the Supplier Diversity Office.  This office will create and support access and opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses and thereby strengthen the state’s ability to help this important sector of the Massachusetts economy.

2) Transferring the Office of Geographic and Environmental Information (MassGIS) from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs to the Information Technology Division within the Executive Office for Administration and Finance.  By moving MassGIS to the Information Technology Division, agency that is focused mainly on information technology infrastructure, the state can achieve economies of scale and efficiencies by eliminating duplicative state services.  In addition, the change will make these valuable services more readily available and accessible to all state agencies, provide for a technologically more reliable GIS system and help establish a more consistent and sustainable funding source for the GIS program.

3) Eliminating the Fiscal Affairs Division as a separate state agency.  This change recognizes a reorganization already implemented in practice and makes the budget office a fully integrated part of the Executive Office for Administration and Finance.

We the undersigned members of the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Affairs recommend that the reorganization plan, House 4541, ought to be approved.