Missouri to restructure government

Not only is Missouri being bankrupted by unfunded federal mandates, they are facing depression era losses in revenue:

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (KTVI-FOX2now.com) - Money troubles are likely to force Missouri politicians to re-structure state government. Governor Jay Nixon expects he'll have to find half billion dollars worth of cuts to balance revenue and expenditures. A dramatic drop in state revenue collections is forcing the cutbacks as lawmakers work to complete a budget for the fiscal year 2011 beginning July 1, 2010.

Nixon met with legislative leaders from both parties this week and expects to release more specific plans late next week, but tax hikes will not be part of that agenda. "We are gonna have to resize, reshape and restructure some portions of state government," he said Friday. Political leaders need to reach a new "consensus" on revenue estimates before they start revising budget documents released in January.

"We just have a number of efficiencies we can pick up in government whether it is the fact that four separate agencies have labs to do tests in Jeff City and you can merge those into one or the fact that we have more state holidays than any other state in the country," Nixon explained. Nixon also mentioned reducing the number of state vehicles. But none of the plans discussed publicly so far would cover the half billion dollar shortfall.

The major cause? Crowding out by Congress, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

Federal policies were a major cause of the severe fiscal crisis Missouri has experienced over the past few years. The cost to the state of federal policies over the past four years — fiscal years 2002 through 2005 — has been $3.6 billion, an amount that exceeded the $2.3 billion state budget deficit Missouri experienced over that period. Most of these federal policies represent an ongoing problem and will continue to hamper Missouri’s efforts to recover from the crisis and provide an adequate level of government services to its residents. Federal policies are likely to continue to cost the state more than $1 billion a year over the next several years.

Since the passage of Obamacare, all the state budgets are going to get a lot worse, very quickly.