Often constituents contact me with the message that state spending should match the revenues on hand. Not only do I agree, but that’s required. We must and do develop a balanced budget. And we include a reserve or rainy day fund.

It is worth noting that our state’s population has increased by nearly a million people over the last 10 years. Despite that, state spending per capita, revenues per capita and state spending relative to the state economy have all declined during that same period.

So when you hear that state spending has increased, please remember we didn’t spend any more money per person than we did 10 years ago.

We spent more money because we have more people and we needed to make critical investments in the people of our state and in our state’s future.

Nearly half of increased investments have gone toward education and higher education- including smaller class sizes, learning assistance for low-income schools, levy equalization for property-poor districts, special education programs, free and reduced breakfast and lunch, extra assistance for kids not on track to graduate, early learning programs, all day kindergarten, more than 20,000 additional slots at our colleges and universities, broader eligibility for state financial aid, more college scholarships, and fair and adequate teacher pay.

Nearly twenty percent of increased investments have gone toward health care- including covering more adults on the Basic Health Plan, adult dental care, public health clinics, Medicare prescription drug co-pays, Apple Health for Kids to cover all children by 2010, childhood immunizations, adult family homes and home care, nursing home support, the WIC Farmers’ Market nutrition program, and mental health treatment, prevention and integration programs.

Nearly ten percent of increased investments have gone toward keeping our neighborhoods safe- including sex offender address verification, additional law enforcement academies, meth prevention efforts, juvenile rehabilitation, domestic violence grants, crime victim services, integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment, offender re-entry protections, and parole services.

Add to that the fact that state revenues experienced negative growth in 2009 for the first time in years. Our state’s three largest quarterly declines in taxable revenue sales on record all came during 2009 – and fourth quarter data isn’t even available yet.

This has led to the current budget situation.

During the last session we cut and cut and cut and quite frankly, I don’t believe that we can continue on that path.

We cut $4 billion dollars from these programs a year ago, that doesn’t reduce the number of people that need them.

Good budgeting and good governing reflect and respond to the real needs of the citizens we represent, which grow and develop and change over time.