New State Budget Much Like Yours, Just A Whole Lot Larger

Grab up the spiral notebook, sharpen up a couple of No. 2 pencils and see if you can find the little calculator -- you know the one with the tiny roll of print-out paper -- it is budget time - in Arkansas.

We are going to need all of those tools of budgeting along with some common sense as budget season is upon us in the Natural State.

This past week, Gov. Asa Hutchinson laid out his proposed 2019-2020 budget which begins July 1, 2018.

And already, most of the three million Arkansans have forgotten most of the budget hype, if not the proposed numbers that have crunched for the last six-to-nine months by the Hutchinson administration.

Examining and planning the state budget isn't much different than honing up on your budget process at home, you see.

There is projected income and projected expenses and then, good golly, those things that jump up in daily life and lay ruin to a well-conceived financial plan.

So, say you and the wife both work -- that's a pretty good revenue stream. No doubt one of you carries the other on a health insurance plan -- nice. Now mix in three kids -- one in college, another in high school and yes, a younger child just breaking into junior high.

There are two automobiles -- neither new, but none ready for the clunker pile. There is a three bedroom home, mortgage, some smattering of insurance to cover all the above and yes, a tiny, but needed 401K for those golden years -- which are somewhere down in the next 30 years.

Sounds like planning the state of Arkansas' next budget to me.

Now in your personal budget, you worried about such things as car crashes, tornadoes, a fire or two and yes, possibly a downturn in the economy which might result in a two-income family for a short period of time, becoming a one-income family.

But you are resilient. Your budget is flexible.

Mostly it is decisions you and the spouse make on behalf of the family of five (three kids remember) and then you have to stop and consider that extended family of -- let's say -- your mom, stepdad and of course the in-laws in another city within the state.

I think you get the idea.

This past week, Gov. Hutchinson proposed a $5.63 billion -- yes, that is the dollar amount with a "B" for billion -- to the Joint Budget Committee, a large legislative committee made up of state House and state Senate members.

Now the Joint Budget Committee members -- those who attend almost every Tuesday when the House and Senate are not in session -- know the numbers. They know the needs and they too, agonize over the needs, requests and wants of the three million Arkansans.

Of course, few, if any Arkansans, themselves, ever come before the Joint Budget Committee for help. That is why we elected state House and state Senate members.

So the local state House and state Senate members seeing needs from local agencies, local schools and cities and counties, come asking for more state help or better help in ways already funded.

Finding the cash to cover these requests -- well, that is the job of the Governor and the Joint Budget Committee, state agencies and yes the taxpayers of Arkansas.

The proposed budget, submitted by Hutchinson, as a plan -- a plan that can be changed by votes of the legislature -- is always given a good going over by solons.

Some want changes. Some want more. And in today's political climate a few will clamor for less.

Less services, less state employees, less expected from the state for the three million citizens. People just ought to do more for them, these few legislators will say.

Just how people are going to do more for them, is always an unknown.

That is sort of like your home budget -- can't you squeeze in ballet lessons and a new truck in this next year?

Sometimes it might happen. Other years not so much.

More on the state budget next week.

MAYLON RICE IS A FORMER JOURNALIST WHO WORKED FOR SEVERAL NORTHWEST ARKANSAS PUBLICATIONS. HE CAN BE REACHED VIA EMAIL AT [email protected]. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR.

General News on 01/17/2018