Ideas for the future of the Washington Department of Agriculture
Washington Ag Today October 12, 2009 The Office of Financial Management and the state’s natural resource agencies recently submitted to Governor Chris Gregoire a list of ways to potentially improve services and reduce costs. The report to the governor emphasizes that it is only presenting ideas, not recommendations. The ideas for the Washington State Department of Agriculture are to merge it with other agencies; merge the Conservation Commission into the Department of Agriculture; and leave WSDA essentially as it is. Dan Newhouse, Director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture, was part of the group that worked on the reform project. Newhouse: “Not all the recommendations are necessarily good ones. And maybe I would be less enthusiastic about some than others. I think following the spirit of what the governor charged us with doing, everything is on the table. There are no sacred cows in this. If the Department of Agriculture can in fact service and provide service to our industry better in another form I am certain open to looking at that. I don‘t have a kingdom that I am trying to protect. My goal is to make sure we spend those limited tax dollars as best as possible.” The public is invited to make comments on the reform ideas through October 28th. You can do so at resource
I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network. ?
