By Mike Thayer
WANTED: State GOP Senators and Representatives with a backbone.
Well, the state has a fiscal 2012 budget now and the four months of regular session plus two months of extended legislative session has finally been gaveled closed. A government shutdown has been averted and the new budget kicks in on schedule tomorrow, July 1, 2011.
The positive: The budget spends less than the state is expected to take in. The budget is $5.99 billion and the state is projected to bring in $6 billion. Let's hope the projections hold true.
The negative: The GOP caved on two critical issues; property tax reform and school funding.
Why is it that the GOP is always the party to cave? The guys we have in Des Moines are too nice. This wasn't a time to compromise out of fear for political fallout, it was a time for the GOP leadership to stick to their guns and do what's right. It's what they were elected to do. How to handle government spending is a primary reason why the GOP won the majority in the House and came very close to doing so in the Senate.
But when push came to shove on the budget, the Democrats got the last push, they won out, the GOP caved. GOP leadership lacks a backbone.
Property tax reform
There's no way anyone can justify taxing commercial property at 100% of its value, and yet there's no reform in this budget. The GOP promised property tax reform during campaign season. There was a real opportunity to get something done on this issue here. But Republicans didn't push back against the Democrat desire to continue spending the high tax "revenue" from this source. Republicans failed to stand up straight with some real backbone and demand that the state get in line and more competitive with neighboring states and their respective commercial property tax rates. GOP leadership caved on property taxes years ago letting it get set at 100%, and they caved today in failing to bring that rate down. This hurts job growth and fails to curb excessive government spending and outright abuse of this funding source. We're talking millions and millions of dollars that belong in property owners' hands, not government hands. This is a HUGE FAIL by the GOP. And any claims that legislators will be able to piece meal reform in future legislation.... Pipe dream.
School Funding
Democrats got the $59 million they wanted in spending on preschool programs, well above the $35 million Republicans had pushed. Pushed..... HA! The state paying for the babysitting of 3 and 4 year-olds.... Goodness. There is absolutely no credible evidence demonstrating that government funded preschool gives children an edge in later school years. Where is the GOP leadership standing up and saying, "This spending of any amount is nonsense!" Further, K-12 schools were fully funded by the state for the next two years, but the GOP caved to Democrats in agreeing to a 2 percent increase in spending in the second year. Funding for schools needs some serious reform, and the GOP said, "OK" to throwing more money at our schools that continue to have problems by conducting business as usual.
In November, voters said they wanted less government, lower taxes, smarter government.
Did we get that with this new budget? As it stands right now, we got one out of three, but even that one is a wait and see.
The budget is smarter than Culver year budgets, there's your one. But what we didn't get is lower taxes and less government.
So the scorecard is: Government 2 - the people 1.
Not exactly the kind of scorecard the people voted for. And to be fair, change at this level isn't going to happen overnight, but the frustration remains and it's a glaring one. In these budget talks it became about politics for the GOP, not the mission. When push came to shove, the GOP wimped out.... The same 'ol, same 'ol. Voters sent more Republicans to Des Moines last election to push liberal mentality out of the state capital, not to appease it, or compromise with it.
The Democrats and RINOs won't understand until their shortsighted selfish stupid policies make their little tummies hungry. Meanwhile they will insistently be sacrificing everyone else.
Posted by: randy crawford | July 01, 2011 at 06:20 PM