RALEIGH — The executive branch of North Carolina government hosts more than 400 boards and commissions with more than 4,000 appointees. These bodies employ hundreds of full-time and part-time state workers. Over the years, many have become nests of political patronage, overseeing billions of tax dollars every year with scant oversight and almost no accountability. Most serve no legitimate public purpose.

Gov. Bev Perdue seems to realize this. In December, she published a list of 345 boards — 85 percent of the total — asking the General Assembly to consider consolidating, eliminating, or reauthorizing the entire list.

But Perdue’s effort wasn’t serious. Her recent budget proposal did not eliminate a single board or commission. Moreover, her December list excluded nearly every economic development board — where much of the patronage and cronyism find a home.

The new Republican leaders in the General Assembly have said they’ll take Perdue up on her initial offer. But since the governor decided to punt on the matter, I’ll be happy to make a few suggestions, based on my experience covering government in three other states.

* Eliminate every economic development board and corporate grant-making commission, such as Golden LEAF. For decades, these boards have been sources of corporate welfare (at best) or political slush funds (at worst). The state’s economic development program should be simple: Design a tax structure and regulatory code that encourages growth and treats all businesses with fairness and neutrality.

* Get rid of every legislative appointment. On roughly half the boards, the General Assembly picks all or most of the members. This is crazy — and it’s an insult to anyone who values limited, constitutional government and separation of powers. Unfortunately, it’s the legacy of a state with the tradition of a weak governor and a legislative branch dominated for a century by a single political party.

Executive branch boards with members picked by legislators aren’t accountable to anyone other than the three people — the governor, the speaker of the House, or the Senate president pro tem — who appointed them. It’s a recipe for inefficiency, abuse, and potentially corruption.

Why not slash the size of most policy-making boards, have the governor choose the members, and allow legislators to vet and approve the appointments? The N.C. Utilities Commission is a good model: seven members, appointed by the governor, confirmed by the General Assembly. The legislature could make this change at any time to dozens of other boards.

* Hold elections for the members of two boards governed by the state constitution: the State Board of Education and the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. Everyday citizens should have significant input to the public education system, and yet the current structure is dominated by political insiders.

The State Board of Education has 13 members: the lieutenant governor, the treasurer, eight appointed members each representing a geographic district, and three appointed at-large members. The UNC Board of Governors has a whopping 32 appointees — half picked by the governor, and eight each by the House speaker and Senate president pro tem.

A much more manageable (and democratic) system would have each board elected by the people, with members serving staggered terms of office. A 15-member UNC Board of Governors, for example, could have one member elected from each U.S. congressional district and two members representing the entire state.

This would make the boards directly accountable to their constituents. And it would be a worthy change to the state constitution.

But wait. There’s more. Most occupational licensing boards could go on the chopping block. (Why do locksmiths, landscapers, and athletic trainers need permission from Raleigh to ply their wares?) I also would privatize the ABC system and fold the State Board of Elections into either the Department of Justice or the Department of State, making one statewide elected official who’s not the governor accountable for policing elections.

You get the idea. For too long, the General Assembly has created boards and commissions to perform duties that were not essential functions of government or as a landing place for campaign donors and other political cronies. Let’s ditch most of these boards and make sure the rest serve legitimate public purposes openly and accountably.

Rick Henderson is managing editor of Carolina Journal.