Local Resident Testifies in Appropriations Committee

The Appropriations Committee for Health, Mental Health, and Social Services had its first meeting two weeks ago. The Committee heard public testimony mostly from various non-profits and other actors that would be directly affected by these appropriations.

However, the first testimony we heard was from a constituent of the 92nd – Dan Amsden.

Mr. Amsden is a private sector businessman that has offered to assist the legislature in any way that he can. To use his words, he is “fed up” with the way our government is run on both the state and national levels. He has worked closely with Rep. Tom Flanigan - chair of the Appropriations Committee on Health, Mental Health, and Social Services - and me to help our committee.

Mr. Amsden read through the budget proposal of the Department of Social Services and gave the committee a few recommendations. His recommendations were largely procedural. In his opinion, the budget books provided by the department gave zero justification for any expenditure. There wasn’t any performance related data to suggest why certain amounts of money are needed to achieve certain outcomes.

According to Mr. Amsden, these practices are very out-of-touch with efficient private sector norms and practices.

His testimony echoed in great detail a problem that I have seen with the state budget for far too long. There is very little accountability or merit in awarding funds.

The Appropriations Committee on Health, Mental Health, and Social Services has already taken steps to bring more accountability to the process. We have graphed the trend of each line-item expenditure over the past 5 years. We are going to ask questions about those trends and look for outcome related data to justify why trends, up or down, should or should not continue.

This is something other appropriations committees will hopefully adopt in the future.

I thank Dan Amsden for offering his help and coming down to Jefferson City to testify with this important message. I encourage other citizens to get involved in the community and partake in the government that serves you.