Joe Smith: House Cuts the Governor’s Budget by $50 Million, Fully Funds K-12 Education

Lack of Leadership by the Governor in a Fragile Economic Environment

Each year, the governor is constitutionally obligated to present a budget to the General Assembly, taking state expenses and programs line by line and giving his recommendations.  This year, the governor did, in fact, present us with a budget – but his budget relied on "funny money" from the federal government and didn't include the tough cuts needed to keep our state financially stable.

For months, House leaders expressed concern with the upcoming budget and asked the governor to meet with us in a bi-partisan fashion to make these tough decisions together so that there were no political strings, only positive results for our citizens.  The governor refused these meetings.  This was extremely concerning because we are fully aware of the economic situation that we are facing.  The governor waited until this week – just two days before the House introduced our budget legislation -- to agree to a meeting. Even then, he told us he didn't have a plan.  How can the leader of our state have no plan for the most vital parts of what makes our state work smoothly on a day to day basis?  The livelihoods of our citizens are at stake, and the governor simply can't rely on others to make these decisions for him.  It's his job.

Republicans in the House of Representatives can't do the governor's job for him, but we took the lead in effort to get him started by introducing 50 million dollars in cutbacks of the state budget.  We did this while fully funding K-12 Education and the Foundation Formula. As this process continues, I will keep you up to date on the decisions made and how we are handling the governor's lack of leadership on this sensitive issue.

(THE TAKEAWAY HERE IS THAT WE ARE ACTIVE AND DOING WORK ON THE BUDGET, BUT WE'RE WAITING FOR THE GOVERNOR'S PLAN AND HIS LEADERSHIP)