How many legislative committees does it take to change a light bulb? At least one more, it appears. Republican House Speaker Allan G. Bense and Speakers-in-Waiting Marco Rubio of Miami and Ray Sansom of Destin have teamed up to propose new "sunset" legislation. It would eliminate any state agency that didn't survive a legislative review and win reauthorization every eight years. The legislation comes complete with a joint legislative committee with 10 legislators and a couple of outsiders to oversee the review.

"It's an opportunity to further the accountability that the governor has created," Sansom says. He adds later in an interview, "The governor has embraced this because he is a strong believer in accountability."

Besides, Texas likes it. Texas created a sunset commission in 1977 and since then has merged 11 agencies and saved $737 million, Sansom says. Sounds like a lot, until you realize that the Texas budget is about a third bigger than Florida's, and the whole amount after 28 years is about 1% of the current Texas budget.

Under the concept put forward by the speaker and the speakers-in-waiting, the joint commission would go through every state agency, in a rotation to be established by law, and ask, in Bense's words, "Is this agency really doing what the people want us to do? Are we fulfilling a mission that was given to us when our agency was created?"

But we're getting to the point of holding the bulb and turning the ladder. Every government agency in Florida already responds to at least four legislative committees -- a policy committee and an appropriations committee in each house. A joint sunset committee would make five.

In addition, the Legislature has an Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, whose analyses are more removed from political pressures. But Sansom led an unsuccessful effort in 2003 to get rid of OPPAGA, a goal shared by Gov. Jeb Bush, who didn't like some of the analysts' conclusions about Bush programs. At the time, OPPAGA claimed about $443 million in savings over its nine years of existence and said another $1 billion in savings had not been adopted by the Legislature.

Through the years, the Legislature has tried zero-based and performance-based budgeting. We have management by objectives. The governor's own budget office puts agencies through their paces every year. We have a "sunrise" law, requiring special reviews whenever the Legislature wants to regulate some new area (not that it happens much). We even had multiyear budgeting, something Senate President Tom Lee has talked about resurrecting.

But every year the Legislature passes a budget that looks very much like the previous one, except for the mad scramble to maximize the political effect of new tax revenue and federal grants.

'Pet food for lobbyists'

The idea of "sunsetting" first arrived in Florida three decades ago as a way of attacking outdated regulation. Then-Rep. George Sheldon, a Democrat from Tampa who is now associate dean of students at St. Thomas University law school in Miami, seized an earlier "sunset" law to abolish regulation over in-state trucking. His Regulated Industries Committee also turned to regulated professions. A lot of anti-consumer rules were eliminated, but most professions were still regulated. "Only four watchmakers showed up, so we courageously eliminated the watch makers board," Sheldon recalls.

The technique was then applied to the huge number of state advisory boards and councils, but most of them endured. Since the early 1980s, we have had reviews every five years of exceptions to Florida's open-records and open-meetings laws and even passed a constitutional amendment to preserve open government, but we have more exceptions now than ever.

The sun rarely sets in Florida.

But the exercise is a big payday for well-connected lobbyists, who get hired by constituencies of agencies up for review, and generates campaign contributions for well-placed legislators.

Although we have never had a sunset law aimed at agencies themselves, it is not at all obvious that this variation will actually eliminate agencies any more than it eliminated professional regulation. In fact, the speaker and the two speakers-in-waiting more or less acknowledge that the law is really designed to focus bureaucrats' attention on a need for change and responsiveness. Sansom, for example, says it wouldn't mean the abolition of the Department of Education or the prison system or other "vital" agencies, but the commission would make recommendations for improvements.

But why not consider the abolition of the Department of Education? The only thing "vital" in education is a comfortable and nicely equipped classroom, a good teacher, a challenging curriculum and a grading system. That's simplistic, but if you start with a blank sheet and focus on what you need instead of starting with a gaudy office building full of people, you have an interesting way of thinking about education spending. But big agencies with big constituencies quickly become sacred cows in the sunset process and are "improved," not eliminated.

Why isn't this the governor's job, anyway? He's the one responsible for carrying out the laws efficiently. In fact, the very appointment of department heads under a new government is the first step in carrying out that responsibility. Sansom, however, argues that the Legislature should take on this kind of review because "the Legislature is responsible for all the agencies." And Bush press secretary Russell Schweiss says Bush feels "the Legislature creates and funds state agencies and should regularly review them to determine that they are still relevant."

You don't need a joint sunset committee to eliminate government functions, though. Jeb Bush had hardly warmed his chair in 1999 before he zapped the bullet train. It just takes the willingness to make a decision and take the heat.

Speaker Bense could tell every House committee to identify one function of government to get rid of. Any legislative committee could, without further legislation, summon a department head to justify this program or that. Bense could even direct them to do that. Maybe we could use tools we already have and avoid a new committee.

We'll see if that light bulb works.You can reach Neil Skene at tallytrend@floridatrend.com