A balanced budget without any new job-killing taxes

When the legislative session opened in January, some warned election-year politics would block progress on key bills. The gloomy forecasts were mistaken. I have received many important bills and a fiscally responsible budget that puts children and taxpayers first.

For the fourth year in a row, we balanced the state's budget without job-killing new taxes. If you want to list "winners" and "losers," a staple of media coverage, Missouri taxpayers are clear winners.

We also kept our promise to make education our highest priority in the state budget. The legislature again answered my call to increase funding for education. There will be a $121 million increase for elementary and secondary schools, a $43 million funding gain for colleges and universities, and $23 million in new money to nearly quadruple needs-based scholarships to almost $100 million over these four years.

The past four years have been a remarkable transformation for education funding from the state. We ended education cuts and withholdings. We increased education funding by $1.2 billion over four years, the largest such increase without new taxes in Missouri history.

To support students and teachers, we enacted a new law allowing experienced professionals to teach through alternative certification. We also kept our pledge of $31 million for construction, renovation and improvement of the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center at the University of Missouri and $15 million for the Pharmacy and Nursing Building at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Throughout the legislative session, I said there were two priorities the legislature should address, or I would call a special session. These are protection from runaway local property taxes and fighting illegal immigration. Lawmakers delivered on both issues.

State government does not set local property tax rates, but we took action to reform the system that increases taxes automatically, merely on reassessment. The leadership of state Sen. Mike Gibbons secured passage for mandatory levy rollbacks and truth in taxation by ending back-door tax increases.

We pushed forward with some of the nation's toughest laws to crack down on illegal immigration, including making permanent my law enforcement directives. Lawmakers approved new penalties for helping procure a driver's license by fraud, banned "sanctuary cities," made it a crime to transport any illegal immigrant for exploitive purposes including illegal labor and, in a vital step, enacted new protections to bar welfare for illegal immigrants.

The legislature also approved many anti-crime initiatives that I outlined. These include forcing repeat drunken driving offenders to modify their vehicles with ignition interlocks before they can regain a driver's license, giving law enforcement some of the strongest tools in the country to fight metal and copper theft, providing critical funding for anti-meth task forces and creating a real-time tracking system for the purchase of key meth ingredients.

Legislators also passed laws to protect Missouri children, including requiring sex offenders to include their e-mail addresses and other online identifiers in the sex offender registry, and new protections against cyberbullying recommended by the Internet Harassment Task Force I created after Megan Meier's tragic death.

Protecting the sanctity of life has been a priority for me each year of my term. My budget delivers an additional $620,000 to support the state's Alternatives to Abortion program, made permanent last year to help expectant parents choose life.

To protect the environment and improve energy efficiency, the legislature approved my proposal to create a Show-Me Green tax holiday. This ends the sales tax on Energy-Star certified appliances for one week every year. To protect homebuyers, the legislature approved new laws I recommended to fight mortgage fraud.

We continued our commitment to ensuring that families facing the challenges of autism have the resources needed for early diagnosis and treatment. The legislature approved more than $17 million in new funds for autism service, on top of the significant increases last year.

One reason America is such a great country is that pessimists are usually mistaken. When matched with clear principles and specific goals, "Can do!" is a better bet than "Can't happen."

The positive changes achieved in this session, and its three predecessors, are making Missouri an even better place to live, work and raise a family. Change is working for Missourians.

Matt Blunt is the governor of Missouri.