House budget writers heavy on responsibility, light on experience

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The reins of the legislature's most powerful committee have changed hands since term limits began altering the face of state government -- shifting budgetary control from grizzled veterans to relative newbies, some of whom say just understanding the budget is a big enough challenge.

Until term limits kicked in and began forcing lawmakers out of office in 2002, it was the rare House member who got a spot on the Budget Committee before being re-elected twice.

Now, almost half the members plus the chairman of the committee are in only the middle of their second term -- and they have first crack at the state's nearly $21 billion budget.

In theory, more experienced members have a better understanding of state government and how to stretch state dollars, but the willingness to try new tactics and accept new ideas also can tend to decrease among more experienced lawmakers.

Budget Committee chairman Allen Icet said the turnover on the committee is a challenge and has been one of the downsides of the eight-year term limits that began with the 1994 election.

"Most new committee members spend a lot more time listening and trying to understand than really doing anything, because there is a steep learning curve," Icet, R-Wildwood, said.

By law, Missouri's annual budget must begin in the House before progressing to the Senate, where a separate appropriations committee often tweaks or rewrites it.

House Budget Committee member Jim Whorton said the potential for term limits to lead to misspending and mismanaging increases as the level of institutional knowledge drops.

"As a result of that, we need to be extremely cautious with the actions we take," said Whorton, D-Trenton. "It may appear that [budget decisions] are entirely harmless and exactly the right thing to do, but we have limited exposure -- there's no one that's been here 15 years who can say, 'We did this one time, folks, and it got us into a real pickle."'

Icet said understanding the complexity of the budget requires time -- which term limits really don't allow for -- and that even he sometimes needs help understanding the budget. As a result, he said, lawmakers are relying increasingly on the nonpartisan state employees who help lawmakers with questions about the budget.

In 1989, House Budget Committee members had spent an average of 12 years in the House, with Rep. James Russell and his 27 years in the legislature the most senior member. This year, the average tenure on the committee has dropped to just under five years, with Reps. Lanie Black, Amber Boykins, Barbara Fraser and Peter Myers -- each with eight years in the House -- the most senior members.

Whorton, who has been in the House slightly longer than most other budget committee members, said even the veterans are uncertain about the long-term implications of budget decisions, and that has given the executive branch too much power in writing the budget.

"The committee in its entirety, I think, is abdicating to the executive branch," he said. "We put too much value into various departments that come forward on behalf of the governor, and since we may feel inexperienced ... we maybe feel like, 'Who am I to challenge the specialist or the experts that come forward?"'

The tenure on the budget committee dropped from an average of nine years in 2001 to just under four years in 2003 -- swayed by the weight of the 2002 legislative class, the first elected after term limits forced a turnover of about half the House.

Former Budget Committee Chairman Brad Lager was the second-ranking Republican on the committee as a freshman in 2003 and took over the committee in 2005 before being replaced right before the start of the 2006 session after a disagreement about state spending with House Speaker Rod Jetton.

Lager, R-Maryville, said although there are some benefits to experience and institutional memory, too much of it can lead to entrenchment and the stifling of new ideas.

"We're more open to out-of-the-box thinking, so we're more apt to try things than folks who were around here when the program was developed," he said

Lager is part of a carousel that has seen three budget chairmen over the last three years. In comparison, from 1981 to 1999, there were only five different chairmen -- each of whom had been in the House an average of 17 years before being elevated to the chairmanship.

Icet said experience is important for a budget chairman, and that whenever you are constantly putting in new people, the instability bring challenges.

"There has been a learning curve in the budget chairman's office this year -- it's like: 'Oh, I didn't know I needed to do that,"' he said. "Next year, I'm going to remember that I had to do it last year, and so I can improve from year to year."

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Capitol reporter Chris Blank covers Missouri government and politics for The Associated Press.