Paid Election Letter: Cutting office budget

In a time of ever-tightening state budgets, it's important that Missouri's elected officials make every effort to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. Last week as part of my 2013 budget request, which calls for no increase in funding, I decided to return my official state vehicle in an effort to continue to cuts costs.

Since 2009, the lieutenant governor's office budget has decreased 9.7 percent, from $451,361 to $407,557 (see graph, above). During that span of shrinking budgets I still returned to the state an average of 7.5 percent in unspent funds, including almost 10 percent ($39,811) returned last year. This continues a trend I started when I was elected president pro tem of the Missouri Senate in 2001 and trimmed the Senate budget the following year by almost 10 percent.

I take seriously my responsibility to be a good steward of Missouri taxpayers' dollars, and I pledge to continue to make every effort to cut expenses in my office, specifically, and in state government overall.

LT. GOV. PETER KINDER

Paid for by Friends of Peter Kinder, P.O. Box 712, Jefferson City, MO 65102