4-11-25

It was reported yesterday that the Alabama State Senate just set a new record for

proposed spending…..a record $12Billion education budget! …..that’s

huge….that’s light years away from where we were when I was elected in

2010…..$10Billion of that is fixed, and the rest is in the form of supplemental

spending…..but wow!.....and if you’re not familiar the education budget in

Alabama is funded mostly by sales taxes and income taxes….it’s a product of the

teachers union influence that still carries over from the past…..the education

budget gains when people are working and spending….and it would appear that

the Senate Republicans believe that the people are working and spending at a

pretty good pace and that they have a budget surplus at their disposal to

appropriate…..is that good news? Maybe….but consider this…..2 years ago the

legislature passed a great tax cut….no state income tax for overtime pay…..it’s a

great plan….it has worked….folks are working more overtime, businesses are

getting more employees, its growth and it exceeded all forecasts and meant that

the state gave back $300 million to taxpayer…..but now they are doing away with

it….what?! You heard me……they gave back too much money….so they will let the

tax break go so they can spend more……that’s when surplus budgets become a

bad thing…..it means they have too much of your money and they don’t want to

give it back……

You hear about the amount of money in government…..but then sometimes you

get a glimpse of it and it can be both astounding and appalling……and in the midst

of good times….fat times…one of the best and words terms that you can hear in

regard to government is “budget surplus”……One the one hand, you would much

rather know those in charge of your government engaged the appropriations,

spending and revenue collection aspects of their jobs in such a way that the

government doesn’t end up declaring a “budget shortfall”…….never a good thing

to find out that the government didn’t collect enough of our money and now it is

having to cut essential services…..notice that I didn’t say cutting government labor

force, because that rarely ever happens……they cut services…..things that you and

I need……budget shortfall is bad, budget shortfall means lean times are upon us in

some way…..

but then there is that other original term that I named: “Budget surplus”….which

can mean that there’s evidence that an economy is thriving, and that revenues

are up……except that you have to consider that budget processes are first and

foremost based upon projections – they plan the budgets well in advance of the

money coming in…….so that would mean that they should have foreseen the

amount of revenue and budgeted accordingly, and yet they still wound up with

more than they needed….but even the most expert of opinions can go awry and

sometimes in the positive direction…..and suddenly, “Voila!”, extra money!

Budget surplus! Awesome!l…….

but is it possible for a budget surplus to be a bad thing?......short answer

“yes”……basically, when the government has more money than it needed to

operate it means, in essence, that they took too much from the taxpayers……and

when you combine a government surplus with a lean economy and

inflation……well, at that point government begins to look a bit heartless…….we’re

paying more at the store, paying more to the government, keeping less in our

pockets, taking fewer vacations, while government winds up having extra to

spend…….that’s when budget surplus becomes a bad thing…..when its all about

the Benjamins and nothing about the taxpayer……

when I was in the Pentagon I remember coming to the close of a fiscal year and

word came down from the comptroller…… “hey, year-end is on us! We’ve got to

use it or lose it! Please submit your capital expense list asap for approval and get

those acquisitions in the hopper by the right date!”……use it or lose it…..what an

awful asinine concept…… It basically means that the powers that be are going to

be appropriating your next years allocation in the coming budget and if you wind

up with money left over that they might not give you the same amount…..or, God

forbid, they might give you less!......meanwhile the average citizen runs their

household, and their private businesses, just the opposite……in the private world

funds left over at year end equals success, ……..you can issue a shareholder

dividend, take a trip to Disneyworld, or (here’s a novel idea) put it in savings for

possible lean times in the future……..

During my time in the State Senate I chaired the Senate Committee on Fiscal

Responsibility and Economic Development…..a research committee was formed

of which I was a part, and it was designed to review government spending and

various processes related to budgets…..I had recently discovered something that

just chapped me and asked if I could use my time on that committee to do some

research on Alabama governmental departments and their budgeting……..so I

did…..and my Secretary began putting together a notebook that just grew, and

grew, and grew……we nicknamed the notebook “Big Bertha” and left it out in my

office for anyone to come review who wanted to do so……You see, I had

discovered quite accidentally that one department that handled State of Alabama

telecommunications actually billed other departments to handle their all of their

IT and telephone services……one government department billing another! Don’t

we already pay them?!.......so the telecommunications department I had learned

(whose services were not that great by the way) made a good bit of extra money

every year…..I got a copy of their records for the past ten fiscal years and was

shocked to learn that they had a “rollover account” in which they carried their

extra money from one year to the next…..basically, this department appropriated

funds through the budget processes run by the legislature……and then they billed

the other departments while on the taxpayer dime…..and the other departments

just factored that in to the budget requests and could care less……but the

telecommunications department was not breaking even….oh no! they were

profiting and had a running budget surplus in the tens of millions but yet they

kept bellying up to the budget trough to get their next tranche of taxpayers funds

and the self-licking ice cream cone just perpetuated itself……so I decided to find

out how many other departments had funds left over at the end of each

year……and their were a lot of them! Sitting on their budget surpluses and still

asking for more……So I made them all come in for a public hearing and show

cause as to why that should be allowed to continue…..some of them got mad,

some were embarrassed, and others were indifferent….but we were able to shut

down some of it…….

Now listen…..I’m not so libertarian in my views that I don’t believe that

government has a role….it certainly does, essential services like infrastructure,

law enforcement, the national defense, the court system, and a whole lot more,

have a definite place and I know that those things cost money…..I’m also not one

who believes that politicians should work for free……you get what you pay for and

most folks don’t want to go bankrupt in public service, nor should they……but

right now Alabama is sitting on massive budget surpluses unlike anything we’ve

ever experienced in the history of our state……but they are the less seemly kind of

surpluses….the kind that comes from having received too much revenue during

hard times…..the goal should be at that point to be less about the Benjamins and

more about the citizens of this State……

So keep in mind that more money may seem better than less money……but more

money taken from private citizens to fund government action well in excess of

what is needed should never result in a rollover account, or year end

profit….Government should not be in the business of “making a profit” on the

backs of its taxpayers……there should also never be a “use it or lose it” spending

spree……budget surplus should be mandated to result in some form of revenue

sharing tax refund to the citizens of the state…..and I don’t mean a simple one-

time token payment to appease the masses…..I mean reform….I mean stop taking

so much in the first place…..maybe, just maybe we’ll see something one day that

tells us that the government – state and federal - cares more about the people

and less about the Benjamins!

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way