Business approach results in significant savings for Senate

Can any aspect of government be run, in the cliche of aspiring politicians, "more like a business"? Herewith, a tale of success.

On Feb. 5, 2001, a Republican majority took office in the Missouri Senate as a result of special elections held in late January of last year. It was the first majority for Republicans since 1948. This writer, became the first GOP Senate president pro tem since Jim Talent's uncle had the job. For 22 months, we operated with a slim 18-16 majority, since swollen by the Nov. 5 election to 20- 14.

Having watched the budget for Senate operations balloon under the previous, 53-year regime, we came in pledging to cut our budget for operating the Senate by 10 percent. This we did in our first year in office. In government, though, there's the budget -- essentially a planning document looking ahead -- and then there's what we call the "actual spend" amount.

In our case, the actual-spend figure for our first full year in the majority came in at $300,000 below spending for the last full year before we took control (see graph).

As a glance at the graph reveals, this put us, in 2002, operating at roughly the spending levels prevailing in 1999. The inexorable upward spiral of over-spending the public's hard-earned tax money has been broken.

For the current budget year, our plan is to reduce spending again, in spite of the increased transition costs associated with the largest freshman class of senators in modern history, over one-third of the body. With just under half the budget year that began last July 1 under our belts, I can report that we are on track to do just that. The fiscal year 2004 operating budget we will present in a few weeks will reflect an additional 5 percent reduction in spending. All this, and the Senate staff has maintained its level of services provided to members while addressing deferred maintenance and making needed investments in our infrastructure.

How did we do it? A half-dozen employees were let go in March 2001. Others have since departed owing to retirement or the taking of other jobs. We are 21 full-time-equivalent employees below the Senate staffing levels that prevailed when we took over, a reduction of almost 20 percent. It's called attrition. A recently approved retirement incentive program offered to eligible employees promises still more six- figure savings for our operating budget.

We have instituted inventory controls -- bar-coding and other simple innovations long common in the private sector -- where essentially none existed before. More effective purchasing practices have been instituted. Longtime vendors now have to bid competitively against others. Imagine that.

We called in St. Louis entrepreneur Jay Boggeman, a veteran of the Young President's Organization, who spent months looking at bloated Senate operations and recommended changes such as the ones outlined here. Missourians owe Jay a tremendous vote of thanks for his service to us all, rendered as a public service at $1 a year. Thanks, Jay.

We followed Boggeman's invaluable consulting stint with the hiring of a new Senate administrator, Dexter business executive Mike Keathley. Mike's straightforward, what-you-see-is-what-you-get thoroughness and disarming openness have won over nearly all who deal with him and have yielded a host of savings and improvements in operations. We were extraordinarily lucky to be able to get a person of Mike's quality in this crucial role. Thanks, Mike.

I hope that we have effected permanent change in Senate operations that can be sustained for years to come, delivering better services to Missourians without breaking the bank. This is the vision of the newly expanded majority and one to which we remain committed.

All this was even before the action we took in early February to zero out the $80,000 line item for out-of-state travel by senators.

Peter Kinder is the assistant to the chairman of Rust Communications and president pro tem of the Missouri Senate.