In the editorial “Too much talk over Career Ladder” (Oct. 10), the Globe suggests that the Career Ladder issue should be discussed and resolved privately rather than publicly. That’s an interesting point of view from a source that has been such a loud advocate for the Sunshine Law and openness in public policy.
The fact is that this proposal was discussed privately with the governor. I first proposed the idea of resolving the Career Ladder issue with a supplemental budget request in a meeting with Gov. Jay Nixon in his office Sept. 16. Appropriations Vice Chairman Rob Mayer and the governor’s chief of staff John Watson were also present.
Nixon indicated to me that he would consider the proposal. I asked him at the time what his intentions were regarding the Career Ladder program, and he indicated that he had made no decision on it.
In the following days I raised the issue again with Budget Director Linda Luebbering on three separate occasions. I asked her specifically what the governor’s intentions were regarding Career Ladder and she said each time that she did not know, but she pointed out the size of the budget shortfall and the difficulty that finding $37 million would represent in the current fiscal environment.
As late as Thursday morning, a few hours before my press conference, I presented the proposal to Watson yet again, and he gave me no indication that the governor would oppose my proposal. I asked him to tell me what Nixon’s intentions were regarding funding the ongoing Career Ladder activities, and he told me that he did not know, but he reminded me again of the budget shortfall.
The payment-in-arrears problem is no technicality but a serious breach of the budget process. The fact is that each year this program is operated with no appropriation authority, in the hope that it will be reimbursed by an action of a future legislature.
This out-of-sequence funding scheme occurred as a result of a one-year withholding of the funds in 1991. It is not a technicality that the teachers’ and schools’ funding is threatened; it is a fact.
The threat does not come from a disagreement between the political parties about the worth of the program. It comes from the shortage of revenues. The governor could have told me at any time from the September meeting on that he was opposed to a supplemental budget request to put the program back on schedule, but he did not.
The Globe also read more into Jack Cardetti’s statement than was there. Cardetti said that the governor funded Career Ladder in last year’s budget and would put money for it in this year’s budget as well. He did not say how much money the governor planned to put in.
The whole point of my proposal is not to tie the governor’s hand or bind him to any specific dollar commitment. It is that once the consensus revenue estimate is arrived at, the governor will be in a position to know how much he can commit to this program.
The funds could be allocated in a supplemental budget request, or if the decision was to not fund the program or to only partially fund it, that could be communicated to the education community in January. By putting the program back on schedule, schools and teachers would have certainty.
To put funds in next year’s budget in arrears, whether it is the full amount or a partial funding, would force school districts again to make this program a gamble. Funding can never be certain until the appropriation is passed and signed by the governor.
This is a serious funding issue. There is no certainty that this year’s program will be fully funded. That is not a technicality, but a serious problem for Missouri public education.
Sen. Gary Nodler represents District 32 in the Missouri Senate and is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
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