Here’s the list of boards and commissions slated for elimination or reconsideration.

In a press conference, Gregoire talked about needing to “de-layer state government” and make it more nimble and relevant to Washingtonians’ needs.

The 154 boards and commissions she’s ending (or recommending that lawmakers do) are part of a massive network of advisory groups that “were created over decades of the best of intentions,” she said. But too often, she said, there’s little to show for the effort except “lot of paper and per diem payments.”

She also said she plans to introduce legislation to revamp the state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development, which Gregoire said has morphed into a catch-all agency when no one can figure out where to put a particular mission or function. She wants to split off those duties and return CTED to its core mission as a (renamed) state Department of Commerce. It’s mission: bringing and keeping businesses and attracting family-wage jobs.

She’s also looking at moving the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s enforcement jobs to the State Patrol.

“We need to re-tool how we serve Washingtonians,” Gregoire said. “We need to reboot.”

For too long, government has been afraid to rock the boat too much, she said.

“It’s past time for us to do exactly that: mess with the status quo,” she said.

Gregoire also said that future reforms might include a call for combining emergency response efforts, particularly in rural Eastern Washington.

“Do we really need 25 separate call centers for 9-1-1?” she said. “I’m not sure that we do.”

Some things were clearly too important to do away with, she said, such as the commissions that regulate doctors, dentists and other health professionals. But she said many of the groups were formed to consider a particular problem, and then were never disbanded.

“Some of these boards and commissions report to no one,” Gregoire said. “To no one. And no one knows what they do. That out to be a red flag right there.”

Gov. Chris Gregoire, who has repeatedly vowed to “blow past the bureaucracy,” today proposed blowing parts of it away.

Gregoire wants to eliminating 154 of the state’s 470 boards and advisory commissions. Among those on the chopping block:

• Interagency Task Force on Milfoil Control,

• Acupuncture Ad Hoc Consulting Group,

• Migratory Waterfowl Art Commission,

• Oversight Committee on Moral Guidance,

• and, something called the Board of Registration for the Onsite Advisory Committee.

Gregoire also wants to consolidate several state agencies, including merging the state’s health coverage agency with its system for retirees. The state archaeology department would become part of State Parks.

“All Washington employers public and private will emerge from this recession forever changed, Gregoire said in a written statement. “And so will state government.”

Locally, Gregoire is pushing ahead with her call to merge the historical societies that oversee the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture with the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma. Officials at both institutions question whether the merger would save the expected $500,000 a year. Dennis Hession, the MAC’s interim CEO, has warned that local donations might drop.

With nearly half of car license tabs being now renewed online, Gregoire wants to close some offices but expand online services. The state Department of Licensing, for example, plans to soon let you renew your driver’s license, apply for a personalized license plate, or schedule a driving test online.

The plan also calls, however, for gradually closing more than two dozen driver-licensing offices around the state. Part-time offices in Newport, Republic, Chelan and Coulee Dam, for example, would be closed in the summer of 2009. The state would instead have a licensing van that travels to smaller communities on a regular schedule.

She wants more online courses through community and technical colleges, for example. She also wants to make it easier to use credit- and debit cards to pay state fees.

Gregoire said more changes are coming.

“What we’re launching today is significant,” she said, “but it is also just the beginning. This is not about short-term thinking it is about changing the way we do business for the long term.”

In Tuesday morning’s paper:

OLYMPIA _ Trying to launch a big boat in rough waters, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers on Monday began making the case for a sweeping overhaul of Washington’s education system.

“All in all, we think this is the first comprehensive reform of the public education system in at least three decades,” said Sen. Fred Jarrett, D-Mercer Island.

Lawmakers began a full-court press for the bill Monday, with the first of several hearings.

Mary Jean Ryan, chairwoman of the state board of education, called Senate Bill 5444 landmark legislation that “offers a way out of the cellar of national education statistics in which we find ourselves.”

The plan, hashed out in many hearings last year, would:
-more broadly define basic education and commit the state to paying for it,
-dramatically rewrite how teachers are paid and trained,
-boost from 19 to 24 the number of credits needed for high school graduation,
-boost the number of state-paid classes in high school from 5 a day to 6,
-and add help for low-income schools and students learning English.

Supporters say the changes would mean higher pay for teachers, billions of dollars more for schools, and the state – instead of local school district taxpayers — covering far more of the cost of education. Ultimately, they estimate, the proposal would mean about 50 percent more money for Washington’s schools. But many of the changes wouldn’t start until 2011, and even then, would be phased in over six years.

“Getting the structural changes in place is much more important than getting a specific (budget) number this year,” said Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina. The state, he said, can start adding money as the economy improves. “You’re not trying to just put more money into the system. You’re trying to change how the system works.”

Trying to boost school spending 50 percent during a deep recession, said, Sen. Cheryl Pflug, R-Maple Valley, “doesn’t meet the straight face test.”

The proposal faces stiff competition from a competing plan backed by the associations representing school principles, teachers, administrators, non-teaching school staffers, and school