Slowing Down Spending
This morning the Wyoming Legislative Joint Committees for both Appropriations and Revenue met via televideo across the state. I do not sit on either of those committees, but I took the time to go and attend a portion of the meeting, since it was being done by teleconference over at the Center for the Arts, so I wouldn't have to travel other than the one block walk from my office. Rep. Jorgensen, my colleague from the House that represents Teton County also, is on Appropriations and was present. The discussion centered around different ideas on how to limit state spending. Many of the legislators came very well prepared and walked the committees through many of their ideas. I actually think the teleconference format was a better format than actually all being in the same room. For whatever reason, everyone was more willing to brainstorm ideas rather than just state opinions. I think it had something to do with the more casual nature of a teleconference than a formal "in person" committee meeting. Also, Senator Nicholas runs a tight ship as the chairman and kept the conversation moving efficiently. It was an important meeting to observe, because it showed the legislature process working as it was intended. Ideas were being proposed and intelligent questions were being asked.
The problem that the state is experiencing is that because we have had such good revenue for the last few years, the State Legislature has been willing to expand programs and create new programs. The problem is that we have grown state government by a large amount in only a few short years. If, and when, the boom ends, it would be difficult to maintain the level of government services that we have reached. Rep. Lubnau suggested that we get hard facts and data as to how much of state government is discretionary and how much is pretty well written in stone, so then we have an actual picture of what we are discussing. Senator Nicholas talked about having a target number each year, so we know when we have hit the target number and more importantly we know when we have gone beyond what is fiscally responsible. There was some discussion of a TABOR amendment, which didn't seem to have any support.
There was some support for going to zero based budgeting, but as it was pointed out, this is always difficult because every program has a constinuency and then it becomes impossible if there is not the political will, to end a program. Once a program gets approved it becomes almost impossible to get rid of a program, even if it is not effective anymore. I have tried in the past to remove funding and it is almost impossible. We only seem to be able to go up, but never down. Especially in these times of lots of revenue, it is hard to argue to reduce spending, because the money is there. But, as it was expressed over and over again this morning, the boom will end, and we need to be ready for a plan as to how we are going to continue to fund the state at the high levels that we have increased funding to in just the past few years.