The Mad Dash to the Finish: How to Budget like a House Republican, Part 4
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!
| Step 4: Completely abandon game plan. Borrow and spend. |
April 16 |
Constitutional amendment to issue $700 million in bonds for Missouri colleges and universities sails through House without opposition. The bill passes by a margin of about 100 votes. A month earlier, Ron Richard promised to "keep Missouri's future out of debt." |
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| April 29 | Senate Appropriations Committee approves bonding plan | ||
| May 6 | Bond package is filibustered in Senate | ||
| Step 5: Finish strong, spend more than the Librul Governor |
May 4 | House reverses course and approves HB22, voted down the previous week. | |
| May 7 | House and Senate approve state budget, using about $1.17 billion in federal stimulus money. | ||
| Gov. Jay Nixon had proposed using $809 million of federal aid to balance the budget and expand programs for the 2010 fiscal year, beginning July 1. | |||
| Step 6:Self-Congratulation | May 8 | Speaker Ron Richard: "When session began, I promised you that we would pass a conservative budget – on time. And that, friends, is exactly what we have done." | |
| May 14 | House Floor Leader Steve Tilley: "We passed a balanced budget and addressed the major issues facing the state." | ||
| May 15 | Speaker Pro Tem Bryan Pratt: "The good news is, we passed a balanced budget, without a tax increase." | ||
| May 15 | Richard declares the session a success and says people "weren't paying attention" if they thought significant bills weren't approved. |
Confused?! We are too. Our full timeline of all the twists, turns, pivots, lies and broken promises is here.
It doesn't explain why things were so confusing and inconsistent, however. Check it out anyway.
