Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is becoming more familiar with southwest Missouri these days.
I was preparing to write this column about the debatable travel patterns of Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon when we began to learn details about the Leap Day Storm – an appropriate coining, I must say. The events, and the governor’s response, shifted my focus just a bit.
Just days after Springfield Business Journal published “When Nixon Knocks,” reporter Brian Brown’s detailed look at the governor’s extensive travel around the state, Nixon again knocked on the door of a Springfield company. He visited and toured stainless steel manufacturer Custom Metalcraft. Sounds harmless, right? And as Brown’s story discussed, Nixon’s stops bring welcome attention to area companies and their work.
The problem is not in the governor’s mere presence. It’s in the point of his presence and the use of taxpayer dollars to make the point.
At Custom Metalcraft on Feb. 21, Nixon touted Missouri’s record exports of $14.1 billion in 2011. Custom Metalcraft is an exporter on a growth curve, so it’s a natural fit.
However, did Nixon forget that his office made the same announcement on Feb. 10? That’s 11-day-old news to us, and ultimately answered the question, “Should we send someone to cover Nixon’s visit this time?” We opted to work on other stories of the day.
It served as a perfect example of what his critics have called excessive spending on travel.
Then, last week, he made a worthwhile, cost-effective move. On news of the tornado touching down in Branson, Nixon added a Branson stop to his scheduled appearance in Nixa to celebrate an educational system award. He also used the Nixa stop to announce $5 million in additional education funding.
While in Branson, Nixon assessed the damage, held a news conference outside the damaged Branson Mall and offered encouraging words to support a region all-too-familiar with the effects of these high-powered storms. It’s not yet been a year since we were jolted by the damaging marks a tornado left in our sister city of Joplin. By the way, I believe the governor has been spot-on in his handling of appearances in Joplin.
But given the criticism the governor has faced for his spending on travel around the state – roughly $200,000 each year in office – to promote job creation packages, I’m glad to see Nixon’s recent wise use of his travel time and budget.
The criticism came to a head last year as legislators from both parties enacted budget rules that prohibit state agencies from paying for travel or staffing costs of the governor’s office or for other statewide officials. The rule changes came after Nixon spent nearly $400,000 on flights around the state during his first two years as governor, according to the state Office of Administration. He covered some of those costs by dipping into the budgets of various state agencies, according to Brown’s reporting.
A good example of Nixon’s loose travel spending was his 2010 appearances in Kansas City, St. Louis and Columbia to announce a proposal to cut $1 billion from the state’s budget and slash the per diem on travel for state employees. A simple news release would have sufficed and been more consistent with the message.
It seems the message has been received, as Nixon’s proposed 2013 budget pins travel expenses at $132,000, well below his typical spending patterns. Considering this is an election year, and Nixon is running for re-election, travel expenses really could have gotten out of hand – and possibly not strictly for the business of the office.
Certainly, there is business news to be celebrated throughout the state.
Missouri added 21,100 jobs in January to bring down the state’s unemployment rate to 7.5 percent, the lowest monthly level since November 2008, the month Nixon took office. With recent upticks in nonfarm payroll employment, the state’s unemployment rate has now fallen by 2.2 percent since a January 2010 peak of 9.7 percent, according to Missouri Department of Economic Development officials. Meanwhile, the U.S. unemployment rate held at 8.3 percent in January.
That is reason for optimism in Missouri. But do we need the governor on hand at every turn?
Counting the two February stops, the governor has visited the Springfield area more than a dozen times in the last year. Nixon organized news conferences at Paul Mueller Co. in October, to announce the addition of nearly 300 jobs within three years, and Custom Powder Systems in January, to promote a state job training program that last year awarded the Springfield manufacturer with $31,000 in training assistance. He also accepted an invitation by John Deere Reman to attend the November groundbreaking ceremony of its $14 million 270,000-square-foot plant in Strafford.
Job creation has rightly been a priority of Nixon since Day 1 in office. We’ll take the jobs, just not necessarily the glad-handing.
Springfield Business Journal Editor Eric Olson can be reached at eolson@sbj.net.
