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By Sheldon Killpack
Utah State Senator: District 21

As we prepare to convene in special session to deal with budget woes, we are undoubtedly seeing the “hunkering down” to protect each area of the budget by certain groups. Special interest groups are a fury with email, and editorial boards have begun their opining on what we should cut and what we should not cut.

I don’t fault advocates, departments and all who argue for their piece of the pie but the Legislature does not have the luxury of limiting our view to individual silos of money. We have to look at the entire picture and make decisions based on long-term effects to those affected by individual pots of money and to the tax payers in general.

I simply look to our friends at the Federal level, and their inability to recognize the realities of their long-term financial situation and make appropriate cuts, and then the Legislature’s job becomes crystal clear - do our job and balance the budget. Even if it is right before an election.

The easy and irresponsible thing to do would be to simply cut transportation, run to the bonding trough and incur major debt (which we may or may not be able to afford in the future). This should not be our first line of defense. The fact is, right now we can tighten our belt AND avoid major debt. This last session we doled out $776 million dollars. We now know that we have less than that amount to work with ($272 M less, to be exact). Let's not lose sight of the fact that this is still an appropriation of over $500 Million in new money - and some suggest rushing to incur a large debt?

I fully expect the Legislature to be criticized here and there by certain groups and some editorial boards who are unable and unwilling to look at the big picture or who have an agenda to push. That is fine by me so long as we do the right thing for the people of our state and avoid the US Congressional practice of sticking our head in the sand.

Utah isn’t the best fiscally managed state in the nation by mistake, and I appreciate working with gifted colleagues who are determined to keep it that way.

1 Comments:

 Paul Mero said...

I remember well, back in December 1995, a year after the "Gingrich Revolution," that Newt and Bill Clinton went head to head over the budget. Newt, with great momentum from the 94 election and the first 100 days success of the Contract with America, felt like a giant killer. Unfortunately, he ran into a very savvy Bill Clinton buzz-saw.

Clinton, in essence, said fine...let's shut down the government if we can't come to an agreement on the budget. Gingrich, still very smart but very much driven by "the cause," said go for it.

Of course, we remember what Clinton did...closed national parks, monuments, and Social Security offices FIRST! He hit people where they hurt...where the federal government most touches people's lives.

The rest is history. The Gingrich Revolution was never the same again.

Now, here in Utah, we can see the same sort of tactic playing out from state agencies who have preemptively submitted their laundry lists of cuts that all make any self-respecting politician (not statesman) second-guess hard decisions.

Buck up legislators...and CUT, CUT, CUT...just like average people have to do when the going gets tough.

PTM

9/25/2008 10:53 AM  

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