Pioneer Press, July 16, 2009

Balanced Approach to Budget Needed

It is difficult to describe a thoughtful legislative position on a controversial issue in a five-word sexy headline, which is why several Pioneer Press headlines the week of July 9 seemed misleading. I would like to provide a more nuanced description of my state budget position than that recently reported in this paper.

My position has been to push for belt-tightening and reforms before we consider an income tax increase. I recognize the need for a tax increase. However, I did not tell the Pioneer Press reporter I will support one. There is a difference. I want to make sure the promised cuts are carried out by the Governor, the new revenues actually are used for needed services for the developmentally disabled, foster children, mentally ill and frail elderly, and accountability is ensured.

Throughout this legislative session, I have advocated for reform and fiscal responsibility. With regard to the budget process, that meant that I could not support an income tax increase until we made progress on ethics reform and cut state spending. For these reasons, I voted against the tax increase in May. We had not proven our case to the people that we deserved more taxpayer dollars.

However, the situation has changed significantly since then. On the savings side, I have been calling for spending cuts and some progress has been made: a proposed $2.2 billion will be cut. The state will lay off 2,600 employees and require the rest to take 12 furlough days (about a 5% reduction in salary). Managed care procedures will be instituted for Medicaid patients and most grant programs will be cut 10 percent. State employee and retiree health insurance are scheduled to be reduced, as are $372 million for the college scholarship program.

But while we have made progress in cutting government waste, the current proposed “doomsday” budgets slash funding to human services too much. The proposed cuts will dismantle our safety network for the most vulnerable of our citizens. I am upset that we are not protecting these programs’grants while we work to resolve our overall budget problems. We must finalize the budget, but unconscionably, people who need our help the most are being hurt in the process. This cannot continue. While I am pushing for more belt-tightening, I am open to a tax increase if we can guarantee it will be spent wisely on human services.

Former Republican Governor Jim Edgar stated this summer that we need both an increase in the income tax rate and budget cuts to solve the state’s fiscal problems. GOP leaders in Springfield acknowledged early in this legislative session that we could not simply cut our way out of the state’s present budget mess.

In addition to pushing for spending cuts, I have been strongly advocating for reform. The Collins Commission offered many good ideas, but not all of its ideas were sufficient. For example, it could not agree on recall and did not suggest abolishing the compensation review board so that legislators have to openly and directly vote on their salary increases, both measures I supported. I was the only Democrat in the House to vote against the weak campaign contribution limit bill because I had been pushing for much lower limits, but overall, we did make progress.

Rome wasn't built in a day and we have to continue our work for campaign contribution reform. Politics is the art of compromise and the final solution has not yet been reached. We must work diligently in a bipartisan fashion to that end. Despite the premature speculation by Pioneer Press, I reserve my vote on further revenues until I’m assured of fiscal responsibility to our taxpayers and social responsibility to our disabled, mentally ill, seniors and children. I think we can -- and must -- achieve both.

--State Representative Karen May