Missouri Representative, 134th District: James Viebrock, Republican

James Viebrock, Republican

Viebrock, of Republic, sits on the board of directors for Southwest Missouri Resource Conservation and Development and the James River Basin Partnership. He has a business background in agriculture.

What is your plan to get the state budget back in line?

"Obviously there is a tremendous problem there. We're experiencing a severe lack of revenue to keep up with the spending programs that have been implemented in the last 10 years or so. The goal is to get us back up close to where the Hancock Amendment limitations are. To do that, we're going to have to make some adjustments."

Missouri is $500 million below the Hancock Amend-ment trigger. The way to bring the budget in line, he said, is to look for wasted money and ill-functioning programs.

Viebrock favors the performance-based budget program advocated by Missouri Senate candidate Republican Norma Champion, but he'd like to add sunset clauses on all government agency programs. The sunset clauses would allow the legislature to review programs on a rotating basis, possibly three to five agencies a year with each agency addressed every five to seven years. "With the sunset clause you have a mechanism for deleting the program completely," he said. "We have some (programs) that have been there for a long time and need to go away." For instance, there has been some talk of returning the Missouri Department of Transportation back to legislative control, he said.

How will you address the rising cost of health insurance and its impact on small business?

Viebrock's suggests tightening the disability and workers' compensation requirements because too many people are taking advantage of the services.

"We need to look at the criteria that makes you eligible for it and start there," he said. "Maybe raising the minimum standards" for disability claims. "Once a person gets onto the welfare system, they're trapped. I would much rather teach a person to fish, than to give them a fish."

Abuse of the workers' compensation and disability programs is a large part of rising health care costs, he said. Decreasing fraudulent claims will minimize costs for small businesses, he said. "We need to close those loopholes, and that will help small business more than anything I can think of."

On the economy:

Viebrock is concerned of the impact the loss of recent local manufacturing jobs will have on Missouri's economy. He thinks the state could have worked harder at preventing such job losses.

"I think the state needs to step in and negotiate to keep these people working in Missouri and keep these dollars coming through Missouri. If you keep families working, you keep the economy rolling."

by Eric Olson

SBJ Reporter