HOLDEN LEAVES AGENCIES HANGING ON BUDGETS

Gov. Bob Holden's aim of being the governor for all the people of Missouri (see editorial below) has the ring of good intentions. But, aside from the passage of women's health initiative legislation he backed during this year's legislative session, the governor has exhibited an uncanny ability to divide Missourians rather than bring them together.

At the heart of Holden's foundering administration is his handling of the budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. More than a month and a half into the new fiscal year, the governor has yet to decide what level of funding most state agencies and programs will receive. Never mind that the legislature adopted a budget nearly three months ago that satisfied concerns being expressed at the time about tighter revenue forecasts.

Since the end of the legislative session in May, the governor has acted inconsistently regarding the budget. He had the option of stopping any spending with a line-item veto to bring the budget in line with anticipated revenue. He chose to cut approximately $30,0000 -- a mere blip on the $19.2 billion state spending plan. Since then, Holden has asked state agencies to recommend spending cuts. But Holden has been unclear about how much will need to be cut. A 15 percent overall cut seems to be a popular guess right now, although some state agencies have heard of reductions potentially as high as 25 percent. State-funded universities and colleges negotiated a 5 percent reduction -- after the governor's staff asked for 15 percent cuts -- in order to avoid huge increases in tuition and fees during the current academic year. What will other state departments be able to negotiate?

Holden has sought support for his system of withholding state funding rather than line-item vetoes from the budget. His reasoning has some merit: Withheld funds can be restored if state revenue takes an upturn, while vetoed funds would be out of the picture for an entire fiscal year. But, in reality, prudent administrators of state departments will have to make drastic decisions if they are asked to withhold spending -- cuts that would have to be made on the assumption the revenue picture won't get better or might even get worse.

The governor's attempts to be everybody's governor has produced rampant indecision among state agencies and programs for far too long. Some programs funded by state grants have already closed their doors, because no commitments could be obtained from state officials that the funding would ever materialize, even at reduced levels.

Even though the state treasurer -- Holden's job for eight years before he became governor -- isn't the official bean counter for the state, it would seem Holden's intimate knowledge of the state's financial affairs would have given him a special budgeting and forecasting advantage. In fact, that appears not to be the case.