Gov. Bryan Presents Governmental
Plan to Supersede Code System
Governor Charles W. Bryan on February 20
presented his forty-four bills composing a com
plete governmental plan to supersede the code
system, to both branches of the Nebraska legis
lature. The house of representatives and senate
met in joint session to receive the bills and hear
the governor's message.
Governor Bryan’s message follows:
To the Members of the Forty-second Session
of the Nebraska State^Legislature.
Gentlemen:
I submit to you and introduce herewith forty
four bills which are companion bills to the bill
that wras introduced to repeal the civil adminis
trative code and establish an executive council,
and identified,as House Roll No. 315. These
bills are attached hereto and are listed by titles.
Taken together as a whole, these bills compose
a complete governmental plan to supersede the
code system and put the state government back
on a simplified and direct business basis.
The supplementary budget which is before you
makes provision for conducting the state’s busi
ness affairs during the coming two years at a
total cost of $21,987,554.41. This represents a
reduction of $5,680,662.45 from the appropria
tions made to cover the cost of the state gov
ernment during the past two years. This great
reduction in the taxes to the people of this state
cannot be made unless a number of activities of
the state are reduced and large number of the
state’s employes are dropped from the pay rolls.
These numerous activities cannot be discon
tinued and the number of state employes greatly
reduced unless the code bill is repealed that pro
vides for these numerous activities and which is
responsible for the great increase in the number
of state employes during the past four years.
CUT OUT DUPLICATION
These bills which I am introducingjprovide for
cutting out the duplications in the state’s activi
ties. They provide for removing the overlap
pings between the departments. These bills pro
vide for dispensing with the services of a large
number of inspectors* which are now annoying
the public, increasing the cost of living, impos
ing upon the taxpayers and interfering with the
orderly business of the state. The taxpayers de
manded a reduction of taxes, a reduction in the
state’s activities, a reduction in the number of
state employes, such as inspectors, etc., and
these bills which I have introduced are drawn
in accord with the wishes of the people as ex
pressed at the polls in November.
These bills are drafted to comply with the
plan outlined in my supplementary budget mes
sage, and they, together with the recommenda
tions in the budget message, will, if enacted into
law, reduce the cost of the state government for
the next two years about $9,000,000, which rep
resents a thirty per cent reduction from what
the state government has cost the taxpayers dur
ing the past two years.
The bills presented herewith are drawn by
clipping from the statutes and pasting them up
in such a way that it may be-seen at a glance
just what changes are made in the present laws.
No change has been made in the substance of
any law, and such changes that are made, are
made in the way of interlineations to bring the
administration of a statute under the new plan
which these bills provide for. All of the unnec
essary governmental activities, all the duplica
tions, all the overlappings, are dropped and only
such statutes reenacted as are needed to conduct
the state’s business on a strict business basis.
Under the plan provided in these bills, and
which was outlined in my budget message, the
finance department is abolished. These bills pro
vide that the accounting work will be trans
ferred to the state auditor’s department. The
department of purchase and supplies is trans
ferred to the commissioner of public lands and
buildings, and the budget department will be di
rectly under the governor but will be prepared
by the tax commissioner. This change should
eliminate eight employes that are now on the
Pay roll. It should make a saving of about
$45,000 for the biennium, and by placing the
purchase and supplies in tho hands of one of the
constitutional officers, it would make a large ad
ditional saving to the state on the cost of sup
plies.
ABOLISH SECURITIES BUREAU
These bills contemplate the abolishment of
the bureau of securities so that there will be no
more fake securities unloaded on innocent pur
chasers of the state under the belief that the
state has endorsed or recommended such secur
ities to the investor.
The bills provide that the banking depart
ment shall be placed directly under the governor
as it formerly was and made a department by it
self where the banking business of the state can
be supervised through a deputy bank commis
sioner with the decision of the policies relating
to the banking business placed in the hands of
the executive council composed of state officers.
If this plan had been in effect during the past
year, it is not likely that the Holdrege bank
matter would have become so complicated or
that the supervision of the banking business of
the state would have proven so unsatisfactory or
a demand at this time be made for new banking
laws to put the supervision of the banking busi
ness on a strict business basis.
These bills provide for making the insurance
department a separate department, administered
by the governor as it formerly was, through a
deputy insurance commissioner with the execu
tive council acting as a board of review to de
termine the policies to be pursued.
The hail insurance department is placed under
the deputy insurance commissioner, and the fire
warden’s department is dissolved and the fire in
spection part of it placed under the department
of inspection. By the abolishment of the de
partment of trade and commerce, including the
secretary and the changes provided in these bills,
probably seventeen of the employes in this de
partment can be dropped from the pay rolls and
thousands of dollars saved to the taxpayers, as
well as the investors of the state.
DEPARTMENT OF INSPECTION
These bills provide that a department of in
spection be established under the direct super
vision of the governor. This enables all of the
present state inspections to be consolidated in
one department where all duplications are elimi
nated and where one inspector, while he is in a
town, can make possibly seven inspections in
place of having seven different inspectors annoy
the business men. This department of inspec
tion will also provide for inspections at their
source, in place of waiting for goods to be dis
tributed throughout the state before inspections
are undertaken. This inspection department will
also enable inspections to be made before the
goods that are to be inspected have been sold
and consumed and thus prevent the inspection
farce which is now practiced throughout the
state.
These bills provide mai an oi me inspections
now in the department of agriculture, with the
exception of the bovine tuberculosis, seeds and
dairy cow inspection, will be placed in the de
partment of inspections. Inspection of dairy
herds and inspection of seeds will be placed in
the state agricultural farm, where the work is
already duplicated.
The bureau of markets and marketing, dU
vision of market news and publicity, which in
cludes radio, are abolished as being of no real
value to the farmers, and the work is also being
duplicated and paid for by taxpayers at the state
agricultural farm.
These bills provide that the department of ag
ricultural statistics, which has been operated for
the past two years in the department of agricul
ture at an expense of $12,000, although the law
was repealed two years ago, is placed by these
bills in the state board of agriculture, where it
was handled for many years prior to its being
operated in the code department without any au
thority of law.
The game and fish department, including the
state hatcheries, etc., is made a separate depart
ment and placed under the direct control of the
governor where they formerly were, and the de
partment of athletics is also consolidated with
the game and fish department under the depart
ment of game, fish and athletics.
This dissolution of the department ot agri
culture will separate over fifty employes from
the pay roll and bring a saving to the taxpayers
of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
These bills provide for the dissolution of the
public welfare department
The department of health will be brought di
rectly under the supervision of the governor
where it formerly was, without any change in
the substance of the laws governing health mat
ters.
The bills provide that the child hygiene and
child welfare departments be placed under the
direction of the superintendent of public Instruc
tion, where the work Is being duplicated, where
the original laws intended these departments to
be, and where theso departments are handled
by almost every other state throughout the coun
try. This dissolution of the department of pub
lic welfare, besides cutting out a large amount
of duplication in educational work which has
been done by other state institutions, will elimi
nate about eighteen employes besides making a
large saving to the taxpayers.
These bills provide that the automobile li
cense plates will be handled by the secretary of
state where they formerly were and where they
can be handled for considerable less expense
than they are now costing.
PUBLIC WORKS REORGANIZATION
The department of public works is brought
back directly under the governor with the title
of state engineer. When those laws are enacted,
the material yards can be d scontinued. The us
ing of automobile license tax money to build
federal highways under the head of maintenance
will be stopped and the cost of road building,
maintenance,-etc., be kept within the appropria
tions provided by the legislature. The reorgani
zation of the public works department as out
lined should eliminate the expense of probably
seventy-five persons who have been on the pay
roll in this department.
These bills provide that the labor department
will be placed directly under the governor, where
it formerly was, and be operated through a dep
uty, where it can be done with a saving of con
siderable expense as outlined in the budget mes
sage.
Under the code bill as now operated, the gov
ernor has authority to appoint all the officers
and employes, and during the month of last
July there were on the payrolls in the code de
partments alone three-hundred and Beventy-nine
persons. In addition to the present code law
giving the governor the authority to appoint this
army of employes, a great many of whom dupli
cate the work of other departments and of other
institutions, the governor is given the authority
and power to determine all the policies of these
departments, as well as being given authority to
administer and execute the laws relative to these
departments.
These forty-four bills Introduced herewith
take from the governor power he now has, and
none of them increase any of the power that the
governor now has. All of these appointments
which the governor now has under the code sys
tem are intended as political appointments, and
all of these places have been filled in the past
foui years as political appointments at the will
of the governor.
The bills which I present nerewitn anonsn
practically one hundred and fifty positions, or in
other words, if enacted into law, cut off one hun
dred and fifty political appointments from the
governor that he now has authority to make and
is expected to make, and will save the taxpayers
thousands of dollars.
These bills also take out from under the gov
ernor’s authority the department of purchase
and suppl es, which is given to the commissioner
of public lands and buildings.
The accounting department, which is now un
der the governor, is to be given to the state audi
tor.
The automobile license plate departments now
under the governor is to be given by these bills
to the secretary ot state.
CURTAIL POWER OF GOVERNOR
Other departments, as enumerated above, are
to be given to the state agricultural college, the
state university, the state superintendent of pub
ic instruction and to the attorney general. All
of these changes lessen the ..number of appoint
ments that the overnor now has. and all of them
curtail the powers and duties that the governor
now possesses. Not one of the bills submitted
herewith gives to the governor one particle of
power which he does not now have, and not one
of them give to him the power to appoint a
single appointee that he does not now have au
thority to do. These bills, in addition to taking
out from under the governor more than one hun
dred and fifty political appointees, takes from M
the governor the power to determine the policies ■
