Allen Icet

Ron Richard is The Man With A Plan. Before the legislative spring break, The Speaker told reporters he had a "plan" to "reform government top-to-bottom," but was unwilling to release it. Then Monday, House Budget Chairman Allen Icet said that House Republicans weren't even going to try to make the approximately $500M that will be required for next year's budget.

Some (including yours truly) thought this refusal to detail a full plan and reluctance to pass a reasonable budget meant that Richard was full of hooey.

But I was wrong, because Ron Richard does have a plan for cutting the state budget. In fact, his office has identified a whopping $787,000 in proposed cuts for FY11.  AND, Richard found $55,000 in savings for FY10 by eliminating cell phone reimbursements, and unspecified savings in reduced travel and photocopy costs. Impressive stuff! 

The Party of Personal Responsibility and Self-Righteous Budget Hawks:

The House Budget Committee chairman [Allen Icet] said he will leave it to the Senate and Gov. Jay Nixon to make the roughly $500 million in cuts to next year's budget that were proposed by Nixon last week.

What happened to Ron Richard's "plan" to reform state government and cut the state budget?

The Associated Press writes that House Republicans' messages regarding their use of extended federal stimulus money for next year's budget have been "somewhat confused."

The AP notes that House Speaker Ron Richard said, "We weren't going to put the $300 million in anyway, were we Mr. Chairman?" two days before House Budget Chairman Allen Icet introduced budget bills with $300 million in enhanced Medicaid payments scheduled to be passed by Congress.

Speaker Ron Richard says he needs "line-by-line details" before he can evaluate Governor Nixon's outline for streamlining state government and reducing state spending. "Until we see the governor’s line-by-line details of ways to shrink state government and bridge the $500 million gap in (his) budget, we aren’t confident that he has a plan," his spokesperson said yesterday.

This is the same Ron Richard who one week ago told reporters he had a "plan" to reform state government "top-to-bottom," but couldn't share it with the world just yet.

Ozarks First:

SPEAKER DEFENDS ALLOCATION OF EXPECTED STIMULUS FUNDS

State House Speaker Ron Richard says Republicans in the House did not use $300-million in unappropriated stimulus money to balance the budget.

An instant Ron Richard classic:

On Thursday, House Speaker Ron Richard declared during a press conference that House Republicans didn't use $300 million in federal stimulus dollars that haven't been appropriated by Congress yet.

“We thought that was … on the irresponsible side, and we decided not to do that,” Richard told reporters in front of the GOP caucus.

But the GOP spending plan introduced late Wednesday by House Budget Chairman Allen Icet does include the $300 million.

Politico's Dave Catanese posted a series of interesting tweets on Saturday about Tom Schweich's campaign for State Auditor.  In chronological order:

• 8:38 PM - Bad buzz about Schweich from even those who support him. He's steamed he has a primary when he cut a deal. Ala [Florida Governor Charlie] Crist, welcome to the NFL.
   
• 9:14 PM - GOPer says Schweich needs to learn from @RoyBlunt in approach. Roy takes his licks, but smiles, brushes off like Jay-Z. Schweich gets mad.
   
• 9:32 PM - Schweich should devote a speech to his $500 contrib. to @clairecmc. Say if the GOP wants to b party that excludes indys, it won't prevail.
   
• 9:41 PM - No, @allenicet [primary opponent Allen Icet] doesn't inspire. But Schweich is turning people off. RT @davesmith3: @davecatanese is @alanicet really crushing it THAT much?

I'm concerned some lawmakers and leaders in the Capitol may have spent too much time debating nonbinding resolutions about federal policies, and forgotten that the General Assembly has actual responsibilities regarding appropriating money in Missouri.

Consider, for example, the following passage from Sen. Kevin Engler's most recent constituent newsletter (h/t The Turner Report):

Also this week, we continued to hear about some of the troubling news of budget withholdings and shortfalls that will affect people’s lives and safety. On top of over a $42 million dollar shortfall of this year’s budget for public education, the governor announced a $24 million withhold of the state’s investment in rural broadband and another $29 million that was supposed to go for interoperability of public safety communications systems. While I understand times are tough for the state. Much of these painful, unexpected cuts could have been avoided if a balanced budget were presented by the governor to the general assembly over the past two years.  (emphasis mine).

What, exactly, is Kevin Engler talking about?

Rep. Marilyn Ruestman (R-Joplin) must have been asleep for the entirety of March, April and May 2009.  How else to explain this allegation of fiscal mismanagement by the Nixon Administration in her latest column?

He [Jay Nixon] boasts of strong fiscal policy, but irresponsibly used one-time stimulus funds to balance our budget despite our warnings.

I do remember warnings from Republican leaders early in the year about using one-time federal funds to balance the state budget, even though the federal stimulus package was designed to balance state budgets. 

I also distinctly remember Republican leaders executing a dramatic about-face and using more federal money than the allegedly irresponsible Governor recommended in their budgets.  I also remember House Budget Chair Allen Icet admitting that despite his vows and promises and statements to the contrary, he'd actually written a budget that relied on federal money to pay for ongoing expenses. In fact, as I recall, last year's budget -- drafted and passed by Republican majorities -- relied on "$1.3 billion in federal stimulus money for projects and programs normally funded by state tax dollars."

Yet another story about the exaggerated and manufactured estimates from Missouri Republicans about federal health care reform legislation. The AP:

[Lt. Gov. Peter] Kinder released “an open letter” to Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon last week asserting that Missouri’s cost could be as high as $450 million a year. Kinder chief of staff Rich AuBuchon said later that Kinder got the figure from House Budget Committee Chairman Allen Icet, who got it last fall from the Department of Social Services.

But the agency no longer uses the $450 million estimate. That’s because it was based on a previous version of the federal legislation and assumed states would have to shoulder a greater proportion of the expansion costs than is currently proposed. [...]

Over at the conservative RiteOn blog, conservative activist and website founder Chuck MacNab writes about a meeting at the offices of Sen. Jim Lembke he says he attended on Saturday.  According to MacNab, Lembke was joined by Sen. Jane Cunningham and representatives of numerous other conservative organizations and campaigns to focus on three goals for the 2010 elections.

A dedicated group of experienced conservative leaders met for about 4 hours in State Senator Jim Lembke's office in St. Louis Saturday morning, January 9. RiteOn observed a common view and single mindedness among these area leaders that, if allowed to mature, could spell big trouble for RINOS and liberals and impact the status of many who currently believe they control the Republican Party.

Three objectives emerged from the meeting:

- To replace non-conservative candidates and office holders with conservatives in the August Primary elections.

- To make certain a conservative candidate wins in the General election in November.

- To support conservative sponsored ballot issues and to defeat those issues the group opposes.

House Budget Chair and candidate for State Auditor Allen Icet apparently missed all those audits of the "death panel" falsehood -- Saturday, he said they're real.

Icet also attacked the federal health care bill working its way through Congress: "However you want to put lipstick on this pig, it will destroy our country," Icet said. And, he added, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was right: "We will have what she referred to as death panels."

Palin and Icet, of course, are wrong (very wrong).  But why would a man entrusted by the House GOP with the state budget and seeking a promotion to statewide office be expected to know what he's talking about?

Lt. Governor Peter Kinder wrote state auditor candidate Thomas Schweich a $100,000 check on New Year's Eve -- a sizable donation, especially from a candidate who still showed more than $400,000 in his own campaign debts in his last campaign finance report.

As the Post-Dispatch's Tony Messenger notes in his post about the donation, Kinder's strong support for Schweich (a thank you for not pursuing the US Senate?) puts him at odds with most all of the House Republicans, who have backed House Budget Chair Allen Icet in the GOP primary for auditor.

Rep. Cynthia Davis is no longer running for State Auditor, as she's told the Missouri Ethics Commission.  Instead, she's endorsing House Budget Chair Allen Icet over the insufficiently conservative (in her mind) Thomas Schweich. KY3's Dave Catanese has the details:

"I don't understand how Republican voters could support someone who came out of the bureaucratic morass of Washington, D.C. where Schweich has been for many years before showing up expecting to be anointed to win a statewide office," Davis said.

"Worse, he expects Missouri Republicans to support him, when he donated money to and supported Democrat Claire McCaskill and praised President Obama for choosing what Schweich called 'an all-star cabinet.' Given Schweich's support for the president and Claire McCaskill, he might have been more comfortable filing in the Democratic primary," Davis said.

But then check out this quote at the end of Catanese's story:

"I plan on being a candidate in 2010, but not for Missouri State Auditor," Davis said.

Last week, the Thomas Schweich campaign announced endorsements from five state senators, including Sen. Delbert Scott (R-Lowry City).

There appears to be a small problem with that announcement: Scott says he never actually agreed to endorse Schweich, and he supports Rep. Allen Icet in the GOP primary for State Auditor.

That listing was unauthorized by me," concluding with, "I continue my strong support for Allen Icet for State Auditor."