Fiscal follow-up

For a good while now, any bills in the Missouri Legislature that propose new expenses for the state are required to include a fiscal note that estimates what the annual cost will be.

Certain pieces of legislation also make estimates of how much revenue will be generated by projects that get state funding.

The fiscal notes alert legislators and taxpayers to costs that will have to be funded year after year. Revenue estimates give legislators and taxpayers some notion of a payback on investing tax dollars in public projects.

For the most part, fiscal notes and revenue estimates are rarely revisited. Once bills are passed, little is done to monitor those cost and revenue projections. This was the finding of a recent state audit. And State Auditor Claire McCaskill suggests it doesn't have to be that way.

Those fiscal notes and revenue estimates don't come out of thin air. They are generated by the Oversight Division of the Joint Committee on Legislative Research. From McCaskill's perspective, the oversight division is only doing half the job. Director Mickey Wilson says the division hasn't followed up to see how accurate its projections are because legislators haven't requested such verification.

They should.

The staff is already in place. Most of the documentation needed for follow-up verification should be available from other state agencies.

It would serve Missouri's taxpayers well to know that they are getting the results forecast when legislators adopt new programs or invest in public facilities.