The Missouri Senate passed 13 budget bills last week. All told, these measures authorize the state to spend $29.75 billion in 2020. That’s $4,850 for every man, woman and child in Missouri.
It took the Senate less than eight hours to approve its version of the state budget. In truth, the process actually began weeks ago in the House of Representatives, which holds the constitutional responsibility of drafting the state’s budget.
With deference to the governor’s requests, the House presents its budget recommendations to the upper legislative body in 13 spending proposals. These bills address repayment of bonding obligations, state employee payroll and benefits and anticipated expenses for each state agency and department.
The Senate Appropriations Committee reviews the House proposals, accepts some and revises others. Finally, the full Senate votes on the committee’s substitute bills. The differences between the two budgets must be sorted out by a conference committee and finally passed prior to May 10.
The good news is that revenues are meeting projections this year. There was some question whether Missouri’s taxpayers would come through with all the money lawmakers expected for 2019, but initial analysis of state tax returns show that revenue is on track. That could easily turn the other direction in the future and Missouri could find itself in a revenue hole. If that happens, another process kicks in – governor withholds.
The 2020 budget of $30 billion surpasses the previous year’s spending by one billion dollars. Likewise, one year ago, the Legislature outspent the previous budget by another billion dollars. Do we sense a pattern? Clearly, whatever amount of money the state gets, we will spend.
Nearly 40 percent of the state budget is spent by the departments of Social Services, Health and Senior Services and Mental Health. These three agencies administer the various parts of MO HealthNet, Missouri’s version of Medicaid. An ever-increasing share of Missouri’s budget is simply redistribution of citizens’ income from one group to another. We have built an ever-increasing constituency of dependents.
I was especially disappointed in the Senate substitute for House Bill 2, the $6.2 billion budget for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Included in DESE’s budget is more than $3.5 billion to fully fund the School Foundation Formula. This represents a $61 million increase in the cost of K-12 education, and follows a $100 million jump last year and a sizable increase the year before.
During floor debate on the DESE budget, our Appropriations Committee chairman was asked what information the department provided to show positive outcomes from the ever-increasing spending. Surely, there are studies or statistics to show lawmakers that bigger education budgets equate to improved student performance. The chairman replied that no such evidence was provided.
I can’t help but think that there would be a different expectation in the private sector. When budget requests are made in industry and business, you must explain how the money will be spent and then follow up with a report of your successes. That doesn’t happen in public education. In the future, I would hope that the Appropriations Committee will ask departments (especially the Department of Education) to demonstrate that their efforts are working.
This year, a number of bills have been introduced in the Senate that would equip parents to demand accountability for education spending. Measures to expand charter schools or allow the creation of education savings accounts could provide parents flexibility in how their tax dollars are spent. If they’re not satisfied with the traditional schools in their area, they could choose an alternative.
It’s not clear that any of these bills will make it through the legislative process because the status quo is so vigorously opposed to the competition. It’s somewhat of a tradition for state agencies to submit perpetually larger funding requests annually without offering justification. As long as the Legislature continues to accept these increases as inevitable, the drain on Missouri taxpayers will continue.
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Randy Turner's book Let Teachers Teach is available in paperback and e-book formats from Amazon.com
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