Engler: Rebooting Government & Saving State Dollars

The Missouri General Assembly finished our work on the budget this week.  I commend our Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman, who has worked hard to create a fiscally sustainable budget during very complex and difficult financial times.  I am also pleased that we were able to finish our budgeting a week earlier than the constitutional deadline. A major reason for this was the lack of partisan bickering over the decisions and reductions that were made.

I would like to thank all of you that submitted ideas about how the state can save money, as several of these ideas were included in the coming year's budget.  Also, I would like to thank all of you and all the churches that have included the Legislature in their prayers over the past few weeks as we have debated and worked on this difficult budget. I believe the amount of progress that we made during this difficult year was somehow made possible by your support.

Throughout the past several weeks, I have talked a lot about the budget and ways for the state to save money.  This tough budget year and a disparaging future for revenue in the state have made it necessary for us to look at ways to save state tax dollars.  This week, we dealt with an issue that has been a priority of mine for years—saving money by no longer printing the state manual.

The official state manual is commonly called the "Blue Book." Every other year, the state prints the state manual, which contains information on local, state and federal governments.  The information is valuable, but the cost of producing these books is significant.  Current law calls for the state to print 40,000 copies of the Blue Book every two years.  Lawmakers get copies to give to constituents with senators getting 200 copies and House members receiving 150 copies. The remaining books are available to the public from the Secretary of State's office.  I chose not to receive copies of the Blue Book this year, and I did not have any constituent requests for them.

A provision to stop printing the Blue Books and offer them online only was added to House Bill 1965.  The bill also saves money by posting the Missouri Revised Statutes online only.  Currently, these must be reprinted every 10 years.  This measure will save the state about $500,000 on the statute books and $600,000 on the Blue Books.

We have had to make some tough decisions this year, including cutting jobs.  The money saved through these measures would be the equivalent of creating or savings almost 30 jobs at $40,000/year.  This information will still be available online to those interested, but the state will save these valuable dollars in a year when we have been forced to make more than $400 million in cuts.

In these final weeks of session, I have no doubt that the pace will be a quick one as we work on several pieces of legislation addressing major issues.  We will continue to work to complete these priorities through the final day of the legislative session on May 14.