Bush administration reacts to state budget crises by hiding embarrassing data

By any reasonable measure, a majority of states are facing their most serious fiscal problems in recent memory. Ray Scheppach, the executive director of the National Governors Association, recently told David Broder the situation represents “the worst crisis in state finances since World War II.”

From coast to coast, the consequences of these budget crunches are enormous.

Wisconsin is reducing enrollment in state universities. In Kansas, almost 30,000 elderly poor are getting cut from a state program that had been offering them free meals. Missouri will no longer help cover health care costs for 36,000 low-income parents. In Oregon, public schools are losing five weeks off the school year because the state can’t afford to keep them open. Minnesota is considering closing rest stops and bathrooms along state highways. Several other states, including Virginia, Michigan, Colorado, and Kentucky, are deciding that they will either stop prosecuting criminals who commit misdemeanors, commuting sentences for low-level felons, or both.

Governors of both parties are looking to the federal government, and President Bush in particular, for help and leadership. For some reason, the feds haven’t been returning their phone calls.

It’s not like the federal government isn’t aware of the dire situation. After all, there’s an annual report called “Budget Information for States” published to provide details on federal expenditures to each state.

Yesterday there was a major announcement on how the Bush administration will deal with this situation. More money for the states? Fewer tax cuts for millionaires? No, they’re going to stop publishing “Budget Information for States.”

The Washington Post reported today that the White House’s Office of Management and Budget is discontinuing the federal document, produced annually for many years, which is the primary — and some say, the only — source for comprehensive data on state funding from the federal government.

In a way, this is brilliant. The data says we’re not doing enough to help states in need? Then let’s stop printing the embarrassing data! That Karl Rove sure is clever.

An administration spokesperson explained that the information will continue to be available “in a different mode,” though he didn’t say exactly what that mode will be. He went on to explain that the official reason for discontinuing the report is to — get this — save money on paper and printing. Presumably, the spokesperson said this with a straight face, but I’m not sure.

This isn’t the first time the administration has played this game. On Christmas Eve 2002, when they hoped no one would be looking, the White House announced that the Bureau of Labor Statistics will no longer publish information about factory closings in the U.S. This was, of course, the same exact stunt. The administration was embarrassed by the data showing higher unemployment and increased factory closings, so instead of creating an economic policy that produced more jobs, it stopped printing the unpleasant data.

The National Association of State Work Force Agencies and several state employment offices complained that the data was valuable in helping the unemployed find new jobs in growing industries. Nevertheless, the White House said it wouldn’t produce the document anymore. I guess it was foreshadowing for how the administration would be “helping” states in the future.