Budget chairman directs House to cut deeper

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The House budget chairman is asking lawmakers to cut state spending for next fiscal year by about $300 million more than recommended by Gov. Bob Holden.

But that might be just the start.

Even with those cuts, budget chairman Carl Bearden said Monday that House members would need to find an additional $450 million in cuts or in revenue to balance the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Unlike Holden, who proposed various tax increases to help balance what he described as a roughly $1 billion shortfall for next year, Bearden is starting with the assumption that lawmakers will approve few -- if any -- new taxes.

House members are in the early stages of crafting next year's budget while also grappling with a shortfall in the current budget. Over the past few days, Bearden provided each of the six House appropriations committees with targeted amounts to cut from Holden's budget recommendations.

While giving committees leeway to identify the specific cuts, Bearden said he would make one cut himself by deleting money for family planning grants when he introduces the budget bill for the state health department.

Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, also has suggested eliminating family planning money, which anti-abortion lawmakers for years have unsuccessfully tried to deny to Planned Parenthood through restrictive budget language.

Family planning funds are intended for such things contraceptives, physical examinations and tests for sexually transmitted diseases. The health department awarded grants to Planned Parenthood after determining the organization separated its family planning and abortion services.

Bearden, R-St. Charles, acknowledged that eliminating the state money -- budgeted at $5.1 million this year -- might inflame, not quell, the annual controversy over family planning funding.

But "in dire budget times, we need the millions of dollars that are going into that," Bearden said. The cut would not affect federally mandated family planning funding provided through the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled.

As with the family planning grants, lawmakers might have to eliminate entire programs to close next year's projected budget shortfall, Bearden said.

Some House appropriations committees have asked departments to recommend cuts or prioritize programs. But some department directors say additional cuts could hurt the programs they administer and the people they serve.

"If there's a large amount cut from the budget, we will stop doing some of the things we now do in jobs and business expansion," said Joe Driskill, director of the Department of Economic Development. "Right now, what we are doing is a bare-bones economic development effort."

Bearden has asked for a nearly $7.3 million cut from Holden's recommendations for the Economic Development Department. Driskill said that equals 16 percent of the agency's remaining general revenue funds.