State Senate panel balks at cuts, restores 538 jobs

Southeast Missourian

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Senate committee will likely reinstate some, if not most, of the 538 state jobs the House of Representatives endorsed eliminating last week.

Several members of the Senate Appropriations Committee said Monday that the scope of job cuts at three departments -- mental health, health and senior services, and social services -- would impede the ability of those agencies to efficiently and effectively deliver programs.

State Sen. Bill Foster, R-Poplar Bluff, said the cuts are too deep to stand.

"With these kind of cuts you are just gutting several departments to the point where they won't be able to function," Foster said. "They would all be so crippled I'm not sure we would get any real services for our constituents."

State Sen. Wayne Goode, D-Normandy, said the House struck positions with "no real coordination with reality."

"This is just kind of a meat ax approach to governing as I see it," Goode said.

The House proposed cutting 259 mental health jobs, 124 health and senior services positions and 155 social services employees under revised spending bills needed to replace those vetoed by Gov. Bob Holden. The savings was used to reinstate department programs cut from the original state budget approved last month.

State Sen. Chuck Gross, R-St. Charles, said the House had the right idea but perhaps fell short in implementation.

"Philosophically I agree with the House's administrative cuts, but I'm not sure they cut the right jobs," Gross said.

The legislature, which is controlled by Republicans, is meeting in a special session to redo four appropriations bills covering five departments rejected by Holden, a Democrat. Holden said the original $19 billion budget was underfunded and out of balance. The House changes would add $95.4 million in overall spending, well short of the $354 million sought by the governor.

In addition to the departments facing job reductions, the vetoed bills also include spending for elementary and secondary education and higher education, both of which would get some restoration of funding.

During House debate last week, state Rep. Carl Bearden, R-St. Charles, said he and a few other GOP members of the House Budget Committee, which he chairs, chose the positions to eliminate based on their job descriptions. The intent was to reduce the number of superfluous middle managers in between department decision makers and front-line employees who actually deliver services.

However, department officials, who said they weren't consulted on the cuts, told the Senate committee that job descriptions in many cases are overly broad and don't accurately indicate what a person does.

For example, Department of Mental Health director Dorn Schuffman said one "project manager" targeted for elimination is actually a psychiatrist who works directly with patients. Other cuts positions included "information officers" who are the workers that maintain medical records.

"There are a lot of anomalies like that," Schuffman said.

The jobs cut by the House would be in addition to the combined 262 positions eliminated at the three departments under the original budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The Senate committee made no changes to the House proposal during Monday's three-hour hearing. Members are expected to offer changes today.

State Sen. John Russell, R-Lebanon and committee chairman, said some of the roughly $300 million in new federal money left unallocated by the House to cover a potential budget shortfall would likely be used to restore some of the targeted jobs.

In addition to redoing key portions of the budget, Holden also asked lawmakers to consider raising taxes on smokers, casino operators and wealthier Missourians plus other proposals to boost state revenue.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee was slated Monday to consider seven revenue-raising bills, some of which would require voter approval. The hearing was postponed until later this week after the daughter of committee chairman Carl Vogel of Jefferson City was seriously injured in a weekend car accident.

Though Senate support for some type of revenue package is stronger than in the House, passage is considered unlikely.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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