By Rep. Jason Murphey
Readers may have noticed my sparsest of references to the recently concluded legislative session. During the recent month I have given the events of this year deliberative thought and have been hesitant to speak out too quickly. I thought it best to think over the events of the year before writing too much about them. Now that some time has passed I want to share some of my views on what occurred.
There is good and bad in every legislative session.
That said, at the start of this year, I thought there would be less bad legislation because the state’s budget shortfall would eliminate the viability of bad proposals such as corporate welfare giveaways, inappropriate spending proposals, and more.
I thought: “I probably won’t be making as many ‘No’ votes because the state simply can’t afford bad legislation this year and legislative leaders won’t be able to advance as many bad ideas.”
I was wrong.
As the session drew to a close, I started to suspect that something was wrong. It seemed that I was hitting my red “No” voting button with a higher degree of propensity than ever before.
Finally, out of curiosity, in mid April, I ran an analysis of voting trends.
The analysis confirmed my suspicions. It showed that I was the most prolific “No” voter in the majority caucus and that there were only a handful of other legislators from the minority caucus who were voting against legislation with more regularity.
As of April I had cast a higher percentage of “No” votes this year than in any other prior session.
I don’t believe my criteria for voting “No” has changed. I still vote according to the same principles that I have used in the past.
As inexplicable as it may seem, in complete defiance of common sense, legislators and special interest groups continued to advance fiscally irresponsible bills even during the revenue down cycle.
Legislators incurred massive amounts of unnecessary new debt, renewed a wasteful pork giveaway, tripled the terrible concept of funding ongoing expenses with one-time revenues, greatly increased the size of their own legislative budget, and more.
It is hard to fathom the fact that policy makers could actually do this much fiscal damage to future state budgets.
There is a bit of a consolation.
The Legislature is resetting.
Next year provides legislators with an opportunity for a new start. New leadership will come to power in both legislative chambers.
It will be the responsibility of these new leaders to reconnect their respective legislative chambers with the important and defining principle of fiscal responsibility. I remain optimistic that they can accomplish this vital task.
