by Joe Calomino

Created on: March 20, 2009   Last Updated: March 26, 2009

As the state director of Americans for Prosperity, I was encouraged that the governor spoke of stimulating the economy by cutting taxes for middle-class families and some businesses. I also support trimming wasteful spending from the budget and reducing government spending by 3 percent from all departments except health, safety, and education.

However, the governor failed to address how he will reform the states antiquated budgeting process. There should be no rush to pass a tax and spend budget until a process in place that provides a review of how every tax dollar is being spent and to justify those expenditures in a transparent forum.

The following recommendations are provided to the governor on much needed changes to the state's budget going forward:

No New Programs - Stop creating new spending programs and expanding existing ones until we can afford it.
Stop the Pork - No more wasteful spending on pet projects. Millions of dollars have been spent on pork/member initiative projects over the past several years.
Spend Education Dollars Wisely - Stop throwing new dollars into our education system without imposing additional reform and accountability measures to ensure the students are benefiting from those additional investments.
Make Medicaid More Efficient - Medicaid spending has increased dramatically in the last six years and grows at twice the rate of state revenues. Recommendations for efficiency gains include:

Managed Care, which would cut down on unnecessary utilization Requiring stricter guidelines to prove income levels and requiring proof of residency status
Don't Use One-Time Revenue to pay for Ongoing Spending - Stop funding new base spending with one-time revenues.
Reform Pensions Most major reforms can only be applicable to future employees. Some possibilities for reform include:

For newly hired employees, raise the retirement age to 65.
For newly hired employees, limit COLA increases on pension benefits. .
For newly hired employees, create a defined contribution pension plan
Cap pensions from state funded systems at a certain level such as $100,000.
For current employees, increase the employee contribution to pension systems.
Greater Transparency in State Budgeting

The Seven Days of Sunshine Proposal which would require all budget bills to be on file and available online for at least seven days before enactment. This would eliminate the last minute passage of huge budget bills that members are asked to vote on before they know everything that is in them.
Enhanced online databases for the public to monitor state spending.

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