Nieves: Recommendations for Improving our State’s Budget and Education

On Jan. 19, Gov. Jay Nixon delivered his State of the State speech and presented his budget recommendations to the General Assembly. Based on the governor’s speech and his submitted budget, it looks like the House and Senate will need to be the ones who will need to look more closely at this year’s budget, as the governor continues to rely on one-time federal funds and phantom savings to balance his budget.

Many families in the 26^th District have had to tighten their belts over the last few years. We need to make our state government do the same. Many of the difficult decisions were made in the last few years; however, there are many more tough choices that must be made within our government. Using federal funds as “overdraft protection” is not the way to get there. It wouldn’t work in your house, and it won’t work in Jefferson City.

I do agree with the governor on one point: we cannot ask taxpayers to shoulder any more of the burden! Any tax increase would fall heavily on those who can least afford to pay, and would negatively impact the small businesses that we need to help drive us out of these tough economic times.

The governor also talked about job creation in his address. Missouri’s unemployment rate has not significantly improved over the last year. More than 280,000 Missourians have been out of work for a year and a half. While the governor hops around the state taking credit for new jobs, Missouri has actually lost more than 103,940 jobs since June of 2008. It is time we focus on getting government out of the way so our great Missouri entrepreneurs can do what they do best — tackle opportunities and create jobs!

Of course, while we protect taxpayers today, we must also focus on our future. As vice-chair of the Senate Education Committee and father of three public school kids, I look at the education of our children as a top priority. Using education funds as a political hammer is unacceptable — our children matter too much. Our public education system must be adequately funded, but perhaps even more important is HOW we educate our kids! I will be working closely with educators who teach in public school classrooms, as well as those who educate their children at home so, together, we can figure out the difficult question, “How do we best educate our children?”

With the governor’s State of the State speech behind us and the Legislature moving in to full swing, it’s about to get exciting at our State Capitol! I hope many of you will come visit us, and if and when you do, please come by my office in Room 433 on the third floor of the Capitol. I would be pleased to speak with you, and as always, my legislative staff and I are happy to assist you.