Recently I told a friend that I enjoyed the election
season so much that I recorded the last month’s campaign
ads so that I could replay them and enjoy them all year.
The next thing I knew I was being carted away in a straight
jacket. Seriously, aren’t you thankful the voting
is over, and we don’t have to suffer through another
for a couple of years? One of the issues that received
much discussion and debate was Amendment 423. It was proposed
to force a state spending lid into the constitution. It
was defeated. However, a point that proponents of the measure
made needs to be explored by our governor and legislature.
What can be done to reduce state spending? Here is a modest
proposal to address this.
First of all, it is important to note that until the costs
of Medicare and Medicaid are controlled, it will be nearly
impossible to bring state spending to the consumer inflation
rate without devastating other essential services. This expense
makes up about one third of the state budget and is going
up at about 15 percent or more per year. It is also important
to remember that this is a matching expense. We loose federal
reimbursement in this area if we do not spend as required.
Like health care in general, a way must be found to make
Medicare and Medicaid cost increases reasonable, or our whole
state (and national) economy will suffer.
A process that could be considered for the state budget as
a whole is to look at all the state budget areas and determine
how much is spent per capita on that area. From there, compare
the cost with the national per capita average in each category.
Those zones that are above the national average should be
audited to see what could be done to reduce expenditures.
They would be required to cut the expenditures in line with
the audit’s findings.
The problem with this “modest proposal” is that
it may force legislators and the governor to require changes
that are not popular with certain constituencies. For example
it may require more cooperative agreements between school
districts or between county governments (sometimes called
consolidations). Instead of seeing this as cooperation, many
Nebraskans see this as a loss of autonomy. Do our law makers
have the courage to stand up to the pressure they might feel
in this area and others as they look for reasonable ways
to save money without cutting essential services?
This is the question that needs to be asked as we await the
next legislative session and the new economic plan of our
governor. Will they have the courage to act on what is best
for the state overall? Will they be willing to risk causing
the displeasure of a pocket of constituents who do not want
to discard practices of the past that are no longer cost-effective
(or sensible) today? One thing is for sure if we continue
doing what we have always done, we will not get better results.
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