Progress is nonpartisan activity

KENNETT, Mo. -- Response to a recent observation in this space concerning the delivery of state services was anything but calm from some Missouri Democrats serving in official positions in Jefferson City, and I won't say their criticism was unexpected.

To be frank, I would have been disappointed had they not accused me of cozying up to the new Republican majorities in both legislative chambers, since blatant partisanship has enjoyed a long, long tenure in the capital city and where public interests usually seem to take a back seat to blatant partisanship.

Despite the fear and confusion created by revenue shortfalls that approach $1 billion, I believe it is both timely and proper that budget considerations fall within the domain of more than a handful of elected officials in the Capitol, as well as time for state government to adopt a much more businesslike manner in approving public money for more carefully prioritized public programs.

In other words, if a reversal of party control, with all of its ramifications, was needed to install a more businesslike state spending plan, then all Missourians, Democrats and Republicans alike, will benefit in the long run. But more importantly, those more closely related to state beneficence, namely the hundreds of thousands of Missourians dependent on public programs, will be the real winners.

Who are these hundreds of thousands? Well, chances are some of them live under the same roof as you, for this list includes every schoolchild in the state receiving a public education, as well as thousands of children whose parents have neither employer-sponsored health insurance nor individual medical coverage that provides for long-term doctor and hospital bills. The list includes as well the rapidly growing number of young children who need some form of counseling as a result of the changing patterns of family life in America and whose sense of worth has been diminished by uncaring or drug-challenged parents. The roster includes those whose lifelong tradition of earning a full paycheck each week has been weakened by a threatening economy that promises to implode in hundreds of more Missouri homes in the weeks ahead. It includes both juvenile and adult drug and alcohol abusers, as well as racial underachievers who go through life without experiencing any sense of stability or potential.

I'm sure those who have exercised sufficient energy to seek a seat in our state legislature are aware of these problems, even if they seem to have been assigned a seat in the back of the bus over a longer period of time than anyone is willing to admit. Balancing the constitutionally required state budget is important, even vital, but making expenditures match revenue is too often seen as the end, not the means of meeting the needs of common, ordinary, everyday citizens. Instead, the emphasis in overly politicized venues is the enhancement of political figures and political parties anxious to claim credit for tasks not even mentioned in lists of official duties.

The new Republican leaders in both legislative chambers have been telling us what they want to accomplish in this session, and while the workload for the next four and a half months is important, changing committee names or drawing partisan lines in the sand seem almost frivolous, certainly not essential to meeting the entire state's aspirations for genuine legislative achievements. Some of the remarks of these newly liberated leaders imply a lack of confidence in the public to support some difficult decisions that should be made between now and the end of May, while still others seem to forget that despite the political disdain for taxes, Missourians celebrate "Tax Freedom Day" earlier than any of their neighbors and the state ranks among the bottom one-fourth in per-capita tax payments.

In recent columns I have tried to identify areas of real concern in state government and its programs that were either nonessential or were downright frivolous. But in any critical spending list, what appears to stand out most boldly is the lack of departmental accountability in meeting funded programs, and this list is both disappointing in its size and maddening in its wealth of absent leadership and direction. Such departments, overseeing scores of public-service programs, are where state funds are wasted, where special interests have held sway and where indifference in how well the public is being served seems to be no more than an after-thought.

The public is not served by any of the 16 state departments that too often seem interested only in gaining as much funding as possible from the General Assembly or maintaining a status quo that guarantees 12 more months of casual, often unaudited, expenditures. Perhaps it would come as a shock to these agencies that the most important person in the annual appropriations bill is not the political buddy in the next cubicle or office but the average Missouri citizen who needs and deserves the most efficient state service possible.

Audit after audit has shown an indifference to executive oversight in conducting an agency's business: There are too many unused cars in the state garage, there are too many overpayments for undelivered goods, there are no required bids for many agency purchases, there is a budget-busting number of employees assigned to non-essential work, there is a glaring lack of frugality in managing state services, there are promised programs that are years behind estimated completion dates.

The list goes on and on -- and so does the public's money. Missouri can do better; its public officials can do better; newly installed legislators can do better. Whatever else is accomplished in the Capitol this year, let it be said that 2003 marked the era of serving citizens, not partisan goals.

Jack Stapleton is the editor of Missouri News & Editorial Service.