Administrative Reorganization and the University of Minnesota

Extract

Those who have followed the progress of administrative reorganization in Minnesota will recall that the reorganization act in that state established a commission on administration and finance similar to the commission with the same name in Massachusetts. Large powers of supervision over the financial affairs of the state are conferred. Among them is a provision that the state auditor may approve no warrant upon the state treasurer for an expenditure from an appropriation unless the object of the disbursement is one which has been approved by the commission. Every department, officer, agency, and institution is required to present for the commission's approval, each three months, an estimate of its needs for the following quarter.

The regents of the University of Minnesota, pursuant to the requirements of the act, had submitted to the commission for its approval in one of their quarterly estimates a request for authority to expend $40,000 to provide group insurance for the faculty and employees of the university. The commission declined to approve the item, on the ground that it might be taken as a precedent upon which to base demands for similar insurance for the employees of other state agencies. The regents were advised to apply to the legislature for specific authority. This they declined to do, as they claimed to have control of sufficient funds aside from legislative appropriations to carry the project through. The regents employed actuaries to prepare a preliminary report on the form of insurance contract to be used.