The numbers just do not add up

by Rep. David Klindt 660- 425-6876

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year’s weekend. It has been hard to remember which day it is. The new session of the Missouri Legislature opens on Wednesday.

Wednesday will begin with a swearing-in ceremony and then an election of House officers. There is still some rumors that the presumptive Speaker of the House, Representative Jim Kreider, does not have the votes necessary to win the election. If that is the case, Wednesday could be a very interesting day. Otherwise, the Legislative week will virtually come to an end upon the election of the House leadership.

On Monday, January 8th, the Governor’s Inauguration will take place. The events begin that morning with a parade and conclude that evening with the Governor’s Inaugural Ball. All of the events are open to the public. If you are interested in any or all of these events, please call my office and we will help you make arrangements.

Last week, Governor-Elect Bob Holden announced that he will postpone until the end of January the State-of-the-State Address. I expect that he is finding out that the prognosis for the State is not as rosy as it was portrayed during the campaign by himself and others. Based on preliminary budget numbers that I have seen, the Governor and the Legislature are going to have to make tough decisions this year.

One school of thought would be to stay the course. Continue to create new programs and use every bit of tax revenue that the State receives to feed the constant expansion. This has been the course over the last eight years. While the State’s budget continued to explode at a rate of nearly $1 billion annually, the former administration did everything possible to spend every bit the law allowed. Unfortunately, much of the expenditures were on new programs rather than on critical core functions like building roads and bridges.

There are many new costs that the State will have to deal with as well. For instance, Medicaid pharmaceutical costs are expected to increase from $725 million this year to more than $2 billion in just 5 years. Other smaller entitlement programs are also expanding at an alarming rate. Missouri’s early childhood special education program is expected to grow from $57 million this year to more than $80 million. The Grandparents as Foster Parents program has grown from a $1 million program this year to an expected $23 million next. Additionally, Missouri’s personal care assistance program is expected to expand more than $20 million this year. Moreover, the bureaucracy has grown accustomed to this sort of growth and has requested more than $1.3 billion in new growth this year. At the same time, the Governor’s office is expecting a mere $263 million in new general revenue. It does not take any complicated math to figure out that the numbers just do not add up.