We're 58 days into a new fiscal year with no approved state budget except for funding to pay the salaries of most state workers and all venders. The question I have is this: does anybody care that we have no budget? I sure haven't been affected by the lack of one; have you? And that begs the question: what is the role of state government? Having worked in the state Senate for many years, I've come to the conclusion that the first and foremost responsibility our legislators have is to adequately fund the needs of state government agencies, boards, commissions and departments. Those needs are first prioritized by the governor during a January/February budget message, followed by House and Senate Appropriations Committee budget hearings, and finalized by the crafting of a bill to fulfill those needs. When the executive and legislative branches are controlled by one party the passage of a state budget is fairly easy and usually done by June 30th. However, when the legislative branch is split as we have today, you get exactly what we have - stalemate! From my "centerist" point of view, my heart is with the governor and House Democrats when they say that we must temporarily increase spending during rough economic times to help those individuals, groups and governmental entities with unmet needs. However, my mind is with the Senate Republicans who say that we shouldn't increase taxes during difficult economic times and either cut or hold the line on spending until better fiscal times emerge. So, where does that leave us relative to the passage of a state budget? Absent sufficient outside pressure to pass one, it leaves us in a state of limbo. But, there's one budget line item - ESBE - that will most likely cause a compromise. The Equalized Subsidy for Basic Education is the largest single budget line item and is the driver of state taxed dollars back to the 501 school districts. As the new school year begins, there's no reimbursement checks heading to them. And the pain will be great as programs will be curtailed, layoffs will begin and/or taxes will have to be increased on the local level to adequately fund their budgets. Then you will hear a louder cry to "get it done!"
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ReplyDeleteHere are some very solid, common sense ideas that should serve to limit the cost of the bloated state government.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/docs/SpendingTips2008.pdf
Questions to answered regarding every spending bill:
Does this bill weaken communities by assuming responsibilities that are best left to families, charities, or private enterprise?
Does it strengthen parents’ ability to rear, educate, and provide for their children?
Does it encourage personal responsibility and independence? Or, does it institutionalize government entitlement over self-reliance?
Does this bill reduce the tax burden on individuals, families, and job creators?
Does it benefit all citizens and businesses? Or, does it just take wealth from one and redistribute it to another?
Does this bill limit government’s scope and influence in our private lives?
Does it expand opportunity for individuals and groups? And, can they engage in voluntary exchanges and associations without excessive government regulation and interference?
Spending Tips 2008 considered currently existing programs and identified those that would have failed to pass the Q&A test above by applying the following principles:
Government spending should be limited to core functions of government (i.e. providing for the safety of citizens, protecting individual rights, and providing public goods—those which clearly benefit all citizens, such as law enforcement and general infrastructure).
Government spending should not target or benefit a select few businesses or individuals at the expense of the many.
Government spending should encourage voluntary activities, personal responsibility, and private entrepreneurship, and not “crowd out” such private, non-political efforts.
Government spending and taxes should be as low as possible so as to least distort or undermine the decisions of individuals, families, and businesses, which are the real engines of social and economic prosperity.
All government spending should be accountable to taxpayers and open for critical review by anyone.
Thomas Jefferson said in his First Inaugural Address in 1801 that “...a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”
Spending Tips 2008 is part of the Commonwealth Foundation’s efforts to restore a wise, frugal, and good government in Pennsylvania. Spending Tips 2008 identified $6.7 billion in spending cuts—$1.2 billion from the state General Fund Budget, $1.2 billion from other operating funds, and $4.2 billion from the capital budget and off-budget programs. If eliminated and returned to the taxpayers, the average family of four in Pennsylvania would realize a $2,100 reduction in their share of the cost of state government. These spending reductions are organized into four spending categories:
Corporate Welfare. These programs award tax dollars to individual companies at the expense of all taxpayers, empowering government officials to pick and choose winners and losers in the marketplace.
Private Goods. These programs and services are activities that only benefit a handful of individuals or groups rather than the general public, compete with the private sector, and would be better left to the free market.
Paternalism. These programs represent a paternalistic belief that state government must care for the public like children, depraving citizens of personal responsibility.
Perverse Incentives. These programs are for the benefit of government officials, not the general public, and they encourage additional government waste and extravagance. Brad