Jefferson City, MO - This week in the Missouri Senate, Senator John Cauthorn, R-Mexico, met with veterans from all over the state. Cauthorn listened to the group's concerns, which largely centered on veterans health care issues, particularly the quality and affordability of healthcare provided by veteran homes.

"Missouri's war veterans willingly gave up life as they knew it to defend America's freedoms and liberties," Cauthorn said. "Many gave the supreme sacrifice, never again to return home. Our veterans deserve access to quality healthcare for as long as they live in this great country of ours. I challenge anyone to say veterans deserve any less and I will continue to work for their hard-fought rights."

As a member of the Senate's Transportation Committee, Cauthorn this week worked with fellow panel members on a far-reaching bill that would reform the state's transportation department starting with the very top before even thinking of another road tax proposal.

"I think voters were pretty clear on how they feel about MoDOT's ability to get the job done the way things stand now," Cauthorn said. "Among a host of managerial and operational reforms under development, we're looking at making MoDOT's director directly accountable to the governor, instead of to a commission and ending diversion of transportation dollars that should be spent on road construction and is wasted on more government bureaucracy."

The Senate's Education Committee this week heard testimony on a Cauthorn proposal giving signing bonuses to teachers joining rural schools. Cauthorn's education act (SB 41) creates a program offering an annual $2,000 signing bonus for up to five consecutive years for new-hire teachers choosing to apply their skills in rural districts.

"For some reason, we seem to pay teachers woefully less than they deserve," Cauthorn said. "The problem is exacerbated in rural districts that often can't begin to compete with their urban colleagues. This signing bonus program should at least help level the playing field."

As chairman of the Senate's Government Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Committee, Cauthorn will lead a hearing next week on his legislation requiring performance-based budget reviews of every department, division or agency of state government at least once every five years.

"I don't know of any business not reviewing every fiscal element of their operation at least once a year," Cauthorn said. "Families take the same care in balancing their checkbooks, and that same scrutiny and diligence is warranted by state departments charged with serving the people."

Should Cauthorn's budget accountability act (SB 40) earn committee approval as he expects, the bill faces a final vote in the Senate before the House could take up the measure. House passage would send Cauthorn's budget accountability act to the governor's desk.

"This bill installs a comprehensive set of fiscal checks and balances and has already built up strong support," Cauthorn said. "It's especially timely as we in the Senate face budget constrictions not seen since the Second World War. A big part of the staggering billion-dollar-budget deficit traces directly back to the unfettered, unsubstantiated and unwarranted spending of taxpayers' money. Basing department appropriations on a set of performance benchmarks mirrors what's been done in the private sector since day one it's time for state government to catch up."