Tim Jones: Nixon decision to target education was unnecessary

In a portion of his latest newsletter, Speaker of the House Tim Jones, R-Eureka, criticizes Gov. Jay Nixon for budgetary moves that Jones says will damage Missouri education.

If you look back just a few months ago to the governor’s State of the State Address you will see that he placed a heavy emphasis on prioritizing education funding in our state budget. In fact, in his speech in the House Chamber in January he said to us, "On the campaign trail, I'll bet almost all of us made a promise to invest in our students and our schools. Well, you know what? It's time to put our budgets where our campaign brochures are. Now it's time to decide whether we're merely going to talk about public education, or whether we're going to fund it.”

His words made for some rousing rhetoric, but if you look at his actual actions you see he has no desire to make good on the promise to invest in our students. That is in stark contrast to those of us in the legislature who worked diligently this year to craft a budget that makes a record investment in education. We in fact did put our budget where our promises have been only to see the governor go back on his own promises and cut the funding we approved.

The truth is the governor is in a position where he has to withhold some funding. Because of his lack of leadership and support for our economic development efforts, our economy is not growing at the overly optimistic pace he predicted before the budget process began. Despite the fact we budgeted at a more realistic level, the need to cut back on some of the funding is necessary to prevent a budget shortfall. This is something we knew may happen, but we hoped that the governor would not once again make our children the victims of his budget cuts.

If you look at the facts, you can clearly see his decision to target education was completely unnecessary. The governor blames a variety of factors for his withholds, but two in particular don’t stand up under any kind of scrutiny. First, he claims we based our budget on the passage of tax amnesty legislation that did not make it across the finish line. The governor claims the failure to pass the bill puts a nearly $52 million hole in the budget. The problem is that his claims are completely untrue. We in fact did not base part of our budget on the passage of this legislation.

The second issue stems from his false interpretation of a bill we passed that would require the Department of Revenue to notify business owners of sales tax law changes. This is a change that was necessary because the Nixon administration has continued to overreach and expand the taxation authority of the revenue department. Our goal with the bill we passed was to protect our businesses from being nickeled and dimed to death by an administration that has an insatiable thirst for their tax dollars. Our analysis of the bill that requires the department to notify businesses when tax collection policies change shows that it will cost somewhere in the range of $100,000. The Nixon administration countered with an unjustifiable, astronomical cost of $100 million.

Take these two items that added up to slightly more than $150 million and you have enough to cover the education funds the governor needlessly withheld. The point is that the governor did not have to make education suffer again this year as he has in every other year he has been in office. Yes, some withholds were necessary this year because of declining revenues, but keep in mind this governor also withheld education funding in a year when our state experienced revenue growth in excess of 10 percent. The bottom line is that this governor likes to withhold funding regardless of our economic situation, and he particularly likes to withhold it from what he claims is his top priority.

I hope the people of our state can see that this governor is no friend of education. He has said one thing and done another enough times now to have established a pattern and a history that cannot be denied. In contrast this General Assembly has continued to work to fund education at record levels year after year even during the most trying of economic times. Going forward we need this governor to break from his tradition of using school funding as a hostage in his political games and instead work with us in good faith to make an investment in the future of our young people. It is time for the governor to start putting his budget where his promises have been, just as we have year after year.