By John Sharp
Constitutional Amendment 5 approved by the General Assembly this year would remove the National Guard from the Department of Public Safety and makes it a stand-alone department.
Proponents point out that in most states the National Guard is an independent cabinet level department, but have been unable to demonstrate the practical improvements such a change in the state government organization chart would accomplish or any problems the current organizational structure has caused.
The ballot language estimates this change would result in an additional ongoing cost to the state of $132,000 annually, although the original official fiscal analysis of the measure’s fiscal impact on the state said the cost could exceed $150,000.