Let me go a little further. The Good Book (Matthew 6:21) says that, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be." Luke 12:34 says it a little differently. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." We can tell what is important to us by where we put our money and/or other valuables. This is no less true for state budgets. Put your money where your mouth is.
No matter what we say, budgets tell us where our collective hearts are. Where we spend our money tells us where our hearts are. Where we get the money to spend also tells us where our hearts are. Put your money where your mouth is.
We are experiencing a budgetary crisis in Alabama. We do not have a budget to fund any Alabama state government except for public education. The budget year starts October 1, just two weeks from now. We failed to complete a budget in the regular legislative session. The legislature passed a budget, but the governor vetoed it. Then we failed to pass a general fund budget in the first legislative special session. Now, we are back in the second special session and the situation is dire. Put your money where your mouth is.
To understand where our treasure and therefore our hearts are, we must look at what we expend our money on and from whom we collect our money to spend. I ask you, are our hearts on justice? I answer with an emphatic “no!” We have cut back on funding for the court system so much we cannot even get anyone on the phone in Circuit Clerk’s offices. If you don’t believe me, just try calling most any Circuit Clerk’s office. Our hearts are not on justice. Put your money where your mouth is.
On the other hand, our prison system has expanded and expanded. It is the second largest expenditure in the general fund budget. We will pay to keep people in jail or prison. Alabama has the third highest rate of incarceration in the world and we continue to find ways to increase these numbers. That’s where our hearts are because that’s where we are putting our treasure. Put your money where your mouth is.
Our mental health system has been devastated because it has been virtually defunded. Mental health has been zeroed out in the proposed budget we are considering. Many of the mentally ill end up in jail or prison. The mentally ill are among the least of these. The imprisoned mentally ill are the least of the least. Put your money where your mouth is.
We say we are for jobs and economic development. However, we shun the opportunity to bring 30,000 jobs to Alabama that would impact every county in Alabama. That’s what the expansion of Medicaid would do in addition to saving lives, reducing pain and suffering, saving rural hospitals, adding revenues to the state coffers, etc. However, we pay dearly for other industries to come to Alabama. Put your money where your mouth is.
We say we want to protect our citizens but we have cut the Department of Agriculture so much it cannot even check to see if we are being cheated every time we fill our gas tanks. We simply do not protect our consumers. We say we want to protect our citizens but we will not adequately fund state troopers and law enforcement. We have gutted funding to fight child abuse and neglect. We say we love our children but will not protect them from abuse. Put your money where your mouth is.
Medicaid is the largest item in Alabama's General Fund. However, that’s only because the federal government gives $2 for every $1 the state puts up. We still have the skimpiest funded Medicaid in the country. Without the matching money, we would not put up a dime. We say health is important, but our money says something very different. Put your money where your mouth is.
There are many other budgetary spending examples but it is not just where we spend or refuse to spend our money that tells where our hearts are. Where we collect or fail to collect revenues speaks loudly about where our hearts are. We pay more property taxes on one house than we pay on 500 acres of land. We tax food for human babies but not food for baby farm animals. Our budgets say we value animals more than we value human beings, and we value land more than we value the homes we live in. We tax food at the full rate but we tax autos at half the rate. We value cars over food for humans. From whom we collect revenues tells where our hearts are. What we do speaks so loudly that citizens cannot hear what we say. Put your money where your mouth is.
EPILOGUE – Our values are rarely what we say they are. Our values are nearly always reflected in what we do, especially what we do when others are not watching us. A budget is at once very public and very private. It is very public because it is adopted in the public and anyone can get a copy. It is very private because few really read it and even fewer really understand it. Budgets put our money where our collective hearts really are.
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