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Earmarks are back!!!

Some of you may be under the impression that because of the “fiscal cliff” the state was facing in the upcoming fiscal year that NGOs (Non Governmental Agencies) would not funded. In fact, you may have even read that in the media.

If you are of that impression allow me to correct it.

Not only were NGOs funded during the just-ended lege session, but the state will borrow hundreds of millions of dollars in order to provide the money.

The NGOs are found in House Bill No. 2 of the 2011 Regular Session.

HB 2 is the state Capital Outlay Budget. That means all projects are supposed to be for “brick and mortar” projects or planning for such projects as opposed to funding operations.

Most of the projects (all of the NGOs) in the HB 2 will be funded by issuing state General Obligation Bonds for periods ranging 20 to 30 years.

Lege priorities

The list of projects in the HB 2 is approximately 122 pages long. Of the 122 pages, 84 pages contain projects strictly for local government and NGO projects.

In other words, the state will borrow money to be paid back with interest by us taxpayers to build things that are solely the responsibility of local governments and private entities.

NGO list

I prepared a list of some of the NGOs. In doing so, I only pulled out the most obvious non-governmental agencies and those for which funding will definitely be made available during the 2011-12 Fiscal Year, i.e., Priority 1.

Depending on the state’s borrowing ability other NGO and local entities’ projects in Priority 2 will also receive money this year.

See list here.

The projects are listed in the order in which they appear in HB 2 and are not in alphabetical order.

PLEASE DON’T ASK ME FOR DETAILS ABOUT THE NGOS OR THE PROJECTS.

The details of where the projects are located, what the money is for, etc., can be found in HB 2. ( See HB 2 here.)

Also, I have no way of knowing which lege requested each project.  To learn more about the NGOs go here.

If you are unhappy that something like state and federal highways, state hospitals, colleges, universities, etc., are not being funded this year simply look at what is a higher priority to the leges in the 84 pages.

C.B.

1 CB 8:00 am

State fiscal cliff?

As I read House Speaker Jim Tucker’s comments in Sunday’s newspaper, I began to wonder what happened to the calamity the state was facing as it was about to run off the long anticipated fiscal “cliff.”

Tucker commenting on the state’s Operating Budget, even with a $1.6 Billion dollar revenue shortfall, said it is in “pretty good shape.” Sunday Advocate, June 19, 2011.

Based on Tucker’s comment, instead of a session ending budget showdown between the Senate and the more “fiscally conservative” House, it appears that the House, despite the Senate having added $200 Million to the budget, is poised to sign-off on it as approved by the Senate.

What didn’t happen

No prisons or colleges will be closed. No colleges will be consolidated or reduced from 4-year institutions to 2-year ones.

No state-run hospitals will be closed. No dialysis machines will be turned off.

The poor, the elderly and children will not go without necessary medications.

The thousands of state employee layoffs that we were told would come from the massive revenue shortfall failed to occur. There are still thousands of vacant positions budgeted for the upcoming fiscal year.

The Senate Finance Committee defeated State Treasurer John Kennedy’s proposal to reduce the state payroll by 5,000 employees per year simply through attrition (nobody would lose their job).

The same committee “gutted” (Now, accomplishes nothing.) Kennedy’s proposal to reduce by 10% the billion plus dollars in state consulting contracts let each year for things like teaching children how to get more out of recess, etc.

“Cliff” or crack?

Funny, I don’t feel a bit worse off from having the state plunge from this massive fiscal “cliff” that we have been warned of for almost 3 years.

Instead of going over a “cliff,” what we have experience is more like bumping over one of those expansion joints (pictured above) in our Interstate Highways that make a clicking sound as one’s tires roll over it.

Was the “cliff” real or was it just another political scare tactic?

I don’t doubt that the state now has $1.6 Billion less in revenues than it had in the current fiscal year. However, there was clearly enough excessive expenditures to address the shortfall without causing us citizens any major inconvenience.

If, in the next few years, we go over a few more billion dollar “cliffs,” we might actually reduce the amount of per capita state spending to the “Southern Average.”

C.B.

1 CB 12:20 pm