Don't blame us: Legislature passes the buck while passing the bucks

The budget deal is done, and nearly every state agency is receiving another round of funding reductions. That leaves an important question: what programs will be cut to make up the loss? How cuts are distributed will have a huge effect on state services, but the Legislature seems to be abandoning its responsibility to make these hard decisions.

In previous years, the Legislature would approve budget limit bills directing agencies on how to spend state dollars. Although each agency’s budget bills looked a little different, sections typically included:

That changed last year, when leadership chose not to run budget limit bills for most agencies. This year there are less than a handful.

The argument for doing away with budget limit bills is that, especially at a time of ongoing and worsening budget shortfalls, agencies deserve greater discretion and flexibility to manage their budgets as they see fit, rather than being subject to legislative mandates.  However, by so doing, the Legislature is also trying to absolve itself of  responsibility – and accountability – unless forced by popular outrage to intervene..

In FY ’11, this appropriation was reduced to $419.8 million, but there was no guidance on how to distribute the $38.8 million cut. After it emerged that the Department planned to eliminate $10 million for early childhood education, Governor Henry issued an Executive Order instructing them instead to reduce all line items by a proportionate amount. The Department ultimately adopted its own plan, which kept early childhood education at $10 million and increased funding for employee health benefit allowances by $22.2 million, but did not fully fund the teachers retirement credit, and eliminated or substantially cut funding for such programs as staff development, mentor teacher stipends, and drivers’ ed. The Department’s decisions were strongly criticized but were not formally challenged.

A slightly different example involves the Department of Human Services, which raised the ire of many legislators last year when it opted to address shortfalls by cutting funding for senior nutrition services. Although DHS is taking a smaller cut next year than most agencies – just 1.1 percent – it claims to be facing a shortfall of up to $39 million due to the loss of federal funds and one-time revenues and increased program operating expenses. In this case, the Legislature has approved HB 2183, which spells out legislative intent that the Department not cut various programs and services for seniors and persons with disabilities – but without specifying what can or should be cut.

Without legislative direction, the Department of Education, DHS and other agencies will largely be left on their own to figure out where and what to cut. When legislators hear from displeased constituents, they may try to shift blame to agencies and claim they never intended to cut funding for teachers’ retirement benefits, state troopers, child abuse prevention programs or state parks.

However, the Legislature made the choice to reduce funding. They may hand off the hard decisions about implementing the budget, but they are still the ones that must be held responsible for the results.