When Zero is a Good Number

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, April 8, 2011
By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Good morning, Jim. When Senator David Shafer introduced S.B. 33 on February 1st, he was trying again to make the state budget process more realistic. Most people don’t know that 90 percent of the budget is automatically “continued” each year with no investigation into where the money went or whether it accomplished its purpose. Continuation budgets are never cut, but usually increase every year, so agencies can spend more on whatever they’re doing.

The State Senate has tried repeatedly to establish zero-based budgeting to require programs supported with taxes to begin at zero and justify every dollar they ask for. In fact, zero-based budget bills have been approved four times in the last eight years, including S.B. 1 that passed the General Assembly unanimously in 2010, but was vetoed by former Governor Perdue.

After the Senate overrode his veto early this session, Senator Shafer introduced S.B. 33 and said, “[It] will give the General Assembly valuable tools to identify and eliminate wasteful spending [and] help us be better stewards of the budget.” The Senate unanimously approved S.B. 33 March 1st and it’s now in Representative Meadows’ House Rules Committee.

But there’s a House bill that does the same thing. On January 12th Representative Allison introduced H.B. 33, also a zero-based budgeting bill. It passed the House March 14th and is now in Senator Jack Hill’s Senate Appropriations Committee. If it passes his committee, it must pass the Senate Rules Committee before it can go to the full Senate for a vote.

Both bills create zero-based budgeting of state revenue, but S.B. 33 is one step closer to passage than the House bill. The General Assembly took Spring Break this week and reconvenes next Monday, Tuesday and Thursday for the last three days of the session. Georgia needs zero-based budgeting to pass on one of those days. So, please call Representative Meadows at 404 656-5141* and ask him to pass S.B. 33 out of committee, immediately. Otherwise, it won’t pass this session and the 90-percent continuation budget will be the basis for the budget process again in 2012. For Georgia insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.