Budget concerns bring out emotions in lawmakers

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- On paper, Missouri's budget is a series of hard, cold numbers. Sen. Harry Wiggins is trying to look beyond the numbers, as are some of his colleagues.

In an emotional speech on the chamber floor last week, the veteran budget writer from Kansas City pleaded with colleagues to consider the most needy Missourians in their deliberations.

"We have a crisis. We are short of money," said Wiggins, a Democrat who has served on the Senate Appropriations Committee throughout his 28 years in the Legislature.

"It is more and more apparent that those who will suffer the most are those who are least equipped to help themselves or defend their needs: children, the sick, the elderly, the disabled," he said.

He added a political pitch, urging colleagues to support the use of money from the state's reserve account -- known as the Rainy Day Fund -- to fill holes in the budget and avert proposed cuts.

Wiggins' speech was applauded by fellow senators, and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman John Russell was the first to respond to his remarks.

"We are struggling with some difficult decisions that have to be made," Russell, R-Lebanon, said calmly. "There are some that will take some reductions, but we hope it's not those who can least afford it."

Two-thirds of both the House and Senate must approve the use of money from the Rainy Day Fund. Russell noted that an attempt to tap the account failed in the House, but said it was still among several possibilities for finding additional state money.

"Let's not fool ourselves. The people at the other end of this Capitol have turned it down," Russell said. "Time is fleeting. We've got to get this budget going."

'There are solutions'

This week, the emotional level in the Senate is expected to peak as the budget debate begins on the floor.

Sen. Ken Jacob, D-Columbia, said there are ways to avoid cuts to some programs.

Along with use of the Rainy Day Fund, Jacob has a proposal pending in the Senate that would allow the state to issue bonds against the state's future tobacco settlement revenues.

"There are solutions to these problems," Jacob said. "It is ridiculous to make people suffer because the legislature can't resolve these issues."

Jacob said he plans to offer several amendments to the budget bills, and he hinted at what may lie ahead.

"When this budget comes up here next week, it's going to be a sight we've never seen before," Jacob said.

Emotions are also running high in the House, which sent the Senate a budget estimated to be $53 million short of balancing.

House Speaker Jim Kreider, D-Nixa, blasted the Senate's work on the budget so far. As sent to the full Senate from Russell's Appropriations Committee, Kreider said, the budget does not adequately fund education, his self-described top priority.