House Budget

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.

The Ron Richard Roller Coaster continues:  

[House Speaker Ron] Richard also said Friday that House Republicans would not support a tax hike to help supplement the state’s shrinking revenues. In fact, he favors the opposite.

"We’d like to do a small tax cut — something to help businesses in this tough economy," he said, in discussing a wide range of issues on the table in the current session.

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.

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."

Sen. Gary Nodler (R-Joplin) announced yesterday that he'll step down from his Chairmanship of the Senate Budget Committee before the 2010 legislation session to "avoid any appearance of conflicts of interest" while he raises money for his bid for Congress.

I am leaving the committee before the work for the next session begins so there can not be even the appearance of political considerations compromising the integrity of our budget process.

Read Nodler's full statement at The Turner Report.

Meanwhile, Allen Icet has refused to step down as Chair of the House Budget Committee, seemingly comfortable with the situation Nodler says should be avoided.

With memories of the chaotic, disorganized, disjointed, extreme House session still fresh in our minds, Allen Icet is asking for a promotion. 

From the Arch City Chronicle:

State Representative Allen Icet (R-Wildwood), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, announced today his intention to run for Missouri State Auditor...

Under Icet's leadership Missouri enjoyed unprecedented budget surpluses by focusing on fiscal restraint and accountability while continuing to meet critical healthcare needs, improve transportation and increase education funding without a single tax increase.  Representative Icet said, "We forced state government to live within its means just as every Missouri family must do.  That effort put Missouri in better fiscal shape than almost any other state in the nation."

With a few weeks to reflect on the craziness that was the House Budget process, I'm still impressed by the dramatic shifts in direction and willingness to spend millions on pet projects, while simultaneously refusing to budge on a bipartisan plan to help 35,000 working poor parents gain access to health care (without costing the state a dime).

As the session wrapped up, I spoke with a number of House members to get their takes on the legislature's recent work. In most all of the discussions, the revised stimulus spending bill (HB22) came up as key example of the dangerous and foolish ideological stands by House leaders, the shameless violations of House rules to push through bad legislation, and inconsistent and confusing leadership from Speaker Ron Richard and Floor Leader Steve Tilley. 

Imagine: it's the end of session, and you're a House Republican trying to finalize your budget. You've done all the ground work. First, you talked a good game on rejecting federal dollars and not using money for ongoing expenses. When that turned out to be a fraud, you decided to spend like crazy. Then you introduced all sorts of impractical, contradictory, half-baked plans for overhauling the state's tax system that were completely divorced from reality.

The good news is that no one takes your promises and commitments seriously anymore, so you can just go ahead and approve a budget that does exactly what you said you would never, ever, ever do.  Of course, you have to show some sort of fiscal conservatism, so you might as well stick it to poor people who don't have health care (even though providing health care for said poor folks wouldn't cost the state a dime). 

Here it is, the big finish!

Page Three from Speaker Richard's Playbook.

To budget like a Republican, you've got to know how to play like a Republican. And that means pivots, rebounds, misdirections and flagrant fouls -- and doing it without shame. Here are the key plays so far:

• Play 1: Promise you're going to have a tough, conservative budget that doesn't use federal dollars for ongoing expenses (or use them at all).
   
• Play 2: Spend like crazy.
   
• Play 3: Distract and confuse your own players (and the public) with all sorts of tax policies!

In April we saw tax policies from House Republicans that were all of over the map -- sales tax increases, sales tax holidays, temporary income tax cuts, permanent income tax cuts, permanent income tax eliminations. There were revolts, refusals, belly-flops and back-flips. And all in the course of a few weeks.

Page Two from Speaker Richard's Playbook.

To budget like a Republican, you've got to know how to play like a Republican. And that means pivots, rebounds, misdirections and flagrant fouls -- and doing it without shame. This is Part Two in our series of How to Budget Like a Republican. Part One is here, and the full timeline is here.

• Step 1: Promise you're going to have a tough, conservative budget that doesn't use federal dollars for ongoing expenses (or use them at all).
   
• Step 2: Spend like crazy.

Once you feel like you've developed sufficient credibility as a budget hawk, you should feel entitled to go back on all of those promises and spend on all of the programs you see fit.  Of course, you're going to have to keep talking a good game (No money for the lazy poor!  No money for slavery!)  Because the goal isn't to be intellectually consistent -- it's just to give you cover to do all the things you said you wouldn't.

A Page Out of Speaker Richard's Playbook.

To budget like a Republican, you've got to know how to play like a Republican. And that means pivots, rebounds, misdirections and flagrant fouls -- and doing it without shame.

Keeping track of the always-changing fiscal philosophies of House Republicans has been a challenge this year, even for the most seasoned of Capitol observers. For your handy reference, we've been compiling a timeline of leaders' many budget plays -- it's a sight to behold. Where appropriate, we've included details from key Senate leaders and the Lieutenant Governor. 

No matter how you come down on how the state should be crafting budgets, or what should be done to kick-start the economy, chances are, you agreed with House leaders at some point in the past couple of months.