MISSOURI WATCH: IT'S TIME TO REDUCE STATE EXPENSES

This moment in Missouri history would seem to be an inappropriate time to suggest that state government in Jefferson City should be downsized and its payrolls purged of all but the most essential workers. Dozens of state employees are in the throes of attempting to deal with the ultimatum that is inherent in the recent congressionally approved budget resolutions, which provide for a large number of block grants that, when added together, fail to match the total funds now coming from Washington for a wide assortment of programs.

Some of the present problem can be traced not to Speaker Newt Gingrich's Contract with America goals but to the states themselves. For at least two decades, state governors and legislators have begged Washington to uncomplicate the federal guidelines which critics have charged serve only to bolster the total expense of needed social service and health programs. Now that a majority in Congress is willing to take state leaders at their word, a loud gnashing of teeth can be heard throughout the land, particularly in view of the fact that projected annual increases in many of these programs will not be fully funded by a suddenly deficit-conscious Congress.

The states' pleading for more flexibility in handling a myriad of programs, ranging from welfare assistance to public health to care for the developmentally disabled to Medicaid, is unquestionably an example of the age-old syndrome known as Don't-ask-because-you-might-get-your-wish.

Now confronted with the very kind of flexibility they have long requested, state officials would appear to be in the extremely untenable position of needing every worker, every seasoned employee and expert they now have on their payrolls, plus many, many more.

The problem is that public, as well as private, workforces expand to fill a vacuum, and this has been occurring for years. State government in Missouri has reached the point of bureaucratic refinement that is the result of years of political indifference. Jefferson City now has more computers than it had state employees during the Forrest Smith administration, and several offices have more computers than workers. Far too many workers have cellular telephones, yet their duties are routine and demand no facilities for immediate communication, particularly since the advent of pay telephones.

Entire programs in state government have been financed primarily by federal funds that now are not only in danger of being reduced but eliminated. Sizable portions of welfare assistance and Medicaid programs are funded by Washington, although until two decades ago the state resisted many of these projects out of fear of what is occurring today.

Virtually all of the state's anti-drug and anti-alcoholism programs, including not only prevention programs but treatment clinics, are financed by federal funds. In recent years, the Department of Mental Health has continued to rely more and more on federal money to fund previously state-financed care and treatment programs for thousands of mentally retarded and developmentally disabled children. Many of the prevention programs of the Department of Health can trace their primary source of funding back to Washington.

The point is, the state is soon going to have to rely on its resources to maintain programs that the public now expects and even demands. It can't possibly accomplish this feat unless all possible unnecessary expenses, particularly salaries, are eliminated. This requires a gigantic belt-tightening exercise that is neither pleasant nor profitable for top officials in the executive and legislative branches of government.

When he first took office, Gov. Carnahan established a Commission on Management and Productivity that was designed to make Jefferson City more efficient and more productive. The results of that report, aside from eliminating a few totally non-productive commissions, were recommendations for creating a more computerized, more permanent workforce, not in reducing its size. Addressed not at all were the ever-growing bureaucratic layers of workers in far too many departments in state government. As just one example, the Department of Mental Health has made minimal reductions in its payroll even as the number of its patients has been greatly reduced by utilization of far more expensive private-care facilities.

Missouri quickly needs a cost-cutting task force to meet the coming shortfall of federal funds for priority programs.

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of the Missouri News and Editorial Service.