JEFFERSON CITY, MO - This week in the Missouri State Capitol, the Senate sent the House of Representatives a bill based largely upon legislation originally drafted by Senator John Cauthorn requiring the state to utilize performance-based budgeting practices. Senate Bill 299 would initiate the development and implementation of a system establishing fiscal goals and objectives. The system would also provide detailed measures of program performance against projected outcomes, and provide for ongoing program evaluation.

The act would require every state department and agency to conduct a performance-based budget review at least once every five years beginning in 2005.

House passage of the Senate's budget accountability measure would allow the bill to become law.

"We have a budget shortfall of $350 million this year and over $1 billion dollars next year," Cauthorn said. "What we have here in this bill is a series of checks and balances that may well prevent Missouri from ever sliding this deeply into the hole again."

Also this week, Sen. Cauthorn introduced a measure in the Senate that would allow voters to decide every four years whether or not to extend the state Conservation Department's 1/8-cent sales tax. As Cauthorn's measure, SJR 21, would alter the state's constitution, the measure itself would go to the voters for final approval.

"As it is now, there's no sunset clause to this tax and I think voters have the right to say whether the sun continues to shine on this tax or not," Cauthorn said. "I don't have a particular problem with the tax, or the projects it funds my issue is with the taxation process, and this bill makes things right by giving Missourians a voice."

Among the dozens of meetings Cauthorn took part in this week, two notable gatherings included a group of home school advocates and a senior transportation advocacy group.

"I met at length with home schooled children and their parents," Cauthorn said. "I'm convinced that home schooling is a viable alternative to traditional, offsite education environments and I will continue to work to expand home school opportunities for any family seeking to educate in the home. The litmus test for me is, 'are they learning?' And so long as they are, I'm not all that concerned about whether they're at a desk or a kitchen table."

The senior transportation delegates met with Cauthorn on behalf of OATS, a Mid-Missouri-based public transit system specializing in para-transit services in rural and non-rural communities.

"Organizations like OATS are often what make the difference between shut-ins languishing for want of proper medical attention because they can't drive a car; and productive, healthy people enjoying their lives to the fullest," Cauthorn said. "Everyone knows the budget is tight at the national, state and local levels, but properly funding public transportation is a priority for me and the vast majority of Missouri lawmakers."

Of all the responsibilities Missouri's senators and representatives are charged with, the single most challenging one is developing and passing a state budget. Missouri's Constitution places the job of creating the budget squarely on the legislature. It also prohibits deficit spending, so the budget, which runs from July first to June 30th of each year, must be a balanced one.

This week, Senator Cauthorn and his Senate colleagues spent a great deal of time on the Senate floor debating, amending and ultimately approving a bill that would cover a sizable portion of the estimated $350 million deficit in the current budget year, which ends June 30.

Built on a House proposal, which is itself based on an earlier Senate plan, the bill would allow for the issuance of $397 million in revenue bonds, with up to $150 million usable for the current shortfall.

The Senate's budget plan makes a significant change from earlier proposals by employing revenue bonds repaid over time from the state's general revenue fund. Earlier versions relied on bonds repaid over time with tobacco settlement payments. The move to revenue bonds includes a shortened payoff schedule (25 years, rather than 37) and a heightened bond rating as the issuance would not be backed by tobacco money, which many believe to be an unreliable funding stream.

These two aspects of the Senate plan stand to save the state some $200 million in principal and interest costs. Senator Cauthorn and his peers sent the measure to the House with an emergency clause, which allows for use of the money in the current fiscal year. The House approved the measure late last week giving the bill joint passage, or "Truly Agreed To" status, which allows the bill to become law. Distributed as the current plan calls for, the bond funds, coupled with a series of state expense reductions agreed to by the legislature and the governor, still leave a budget hole of about $80 million.

"The governor has said often and loudly that he will fill that hole with cuts to public school funding," Cauthorn said. "But using our school children as fiscal pawns is unacceptable to me and to the vast majority of lawmakers who believe the budget should be developed based on reason, not politics."

Cauthorn noted that as of this writing, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are developing various proposals to balance the budget in a rational way "that makes sense for today, and that makes sense for Missouri's future."