By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

A review committee is recommending the elimination or consolidation of 43% of state boards, commissions and advisory groups — slightly fewer than were listed in the committee’s initial report. The temporary review panel was established by the state government reorganization law Governor Kim Reynolds signed this spring and its report will be forwarded to state lawmakers, who’ll make the final decisions.

“We searched and could not find a single other instance in our state’s history where there’s been a global conversation about boards and commissions,” said Iowa Department of Management director Kraig Paulsen, who led the review committee.

The review panel is recommending the consolidation or elimination of 111 state boards or commissions. “I realize some struggle to conceive of a situation where government is smaller and less intrusive,” Paulsen said, “but everyday Iowans can conceive of that.”

State Senator Tony Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, said he’s concerned by the recommendation to get rid of the so-called gender balance requirement that men and women be represented equally on state boards and commissions. “My concern has always been that we reflect who Iowa is when we put these boards and commissions together,” Bisignano said.

The committee’s final report will be publicly released later this week. The panel met this morning at the statehouse and approved about two dozen changes to its initial recommendations.

Iowa’s membership in the Midwest Higher Education Compact is no longer in doubt, after the group learned the compact saves the state millions through group purchasing. The Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service had also been targeted for elimination in the review committee’s initial report, but that endangered $32 million in federal funds for seven-thousand AmeriCorps volunteers who do community service work.