Earlier this week Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop and the Senate Republican caucus announced a package of government reform bills that could result in potential savings of more than $2 billion.
Senator Bishop called 2010 the “Year of Reform”. We at SBAM welcome the package. This fits in with what we have been working to achieve for most of the past 6 months. The Senate’s reform package encompasses many of the reforms that we have been calling for.
The state faces a $1.8 billion deficit for the coming fiscal year. Passage of these reforms will help achieve our goals of reforming government and passing a budget that does not include tax hikes.
The 10 Senate Republican initiatives cover six key reform areas for an estimated total savings of $2.24-2.6 billion:
- Public employee health care ($615 million in savings);
- Local police and fire ($70-118 million);
- K-12 school spending ($363-663 million);
- Medicaid spending ($160-500 million);
- Government efficiency (indeterminate); and
- Public employee compensation ($1.2 billion).
SBAM looks forward to working with both the House and Senate to see these proposals become law.