Balanced Budget Amendment offered
Jan 14, 2004 | Opinion |
Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, has introduced a resolution to place a balanced budget amendment to the Missouri Constitution before the voters of the state. “The people of Missouri deserve an honest representation of our state finances and the budgets proposed to fund them,” Kinder said. “This amendment gives voters the chance to enact a balanced budget amendment in the Missouri Constitution.”
Under current state laws, Missouri cannot deficit spend, but budgets requested or approved don’t have to necessarily balance. To avoid deficit spending, the constitution now requires the governor to withhold funds appropriated to agencies until revenues are received.
This practice, in which governors can make requests based on tax increases that have not been sent to voters, or legislatures pass budgets authorizing expenditures beyond revenues actually projected, creates havoc for state agencies, schools and colleges, as well as confusion in an already complex fiscal process.
“We can and should be honest and straightforward about our budget requests and the way in which those requests are made and processed,” Kinder said. “This proposal will increase the effectiveness of our budget processes and make it more fair for citizens and for the schools, colleges and programs that depend on the budget for their revenue.”
Under Kinder’s plan, voters would be asked to amend the constitution in Article IV, Sec. 24 by deleting a phrase that allows the governor to propose potential revenue sources to meet expenditures the governor has requested in his budget message.
The would require any governor to submit a budget that is based on actual revenue the state of Missouri can expect to legally collect under current law,” Kinder said. “In effect, it would require our budget be based on real, rather than imaginary, revenue.”
Kinder stressed that this change would not restrict any governor from making any proposal to increase revenue. It would simply prevent governors from basing budgets on revenues that had not yet been approved by lawmakers or the voters.
“This is a positive proposal that will make our budget process more realistic and more reasonable,” Kinder said. “It will give the people of Missouri a direct voice in assuring that our state has a truly balanced budget.
