Let's mingle the secular and the sacred on the budget today, shall we?
HB 1230 comes before Senate State Affairs this morning. This bill permanently diverts 22% of the contractors' excise tax to corporate welfare, handouts to wealthy businesses that don't need the state's help. The "incentives" Governor Daugaard wants to fund via HB 1230 don't help rural communities.
Additionally, the South Dakota Budget and Policy Project calculates that the Governor's plan diverts 275% more from the general fund than the excise tax refund program it reconfigures. Had Governor Janklow implemented Daugaard's plan 15 years ago, the general fund would by now have lost $189 million rather than the $69 million handed out to corporations under the current refund program.
Meanwhile, progressive Christian group Sojourners takes out a full-page ad in Politico to remind us that "a budget is a moral document." These good Christians call on legislators to defend various programs from their budget-cutting ideology:
- Critical child health and family nutrition programs
- Proven work and income supports that lift families out of poverty
- Support for education, especially in low-income communities
Low-income communities... in South Dakota, that's a whole lot of folks.
Sojourners' Jim Wallis makes a moral call that is as relevant to Pierre as to Washington:
The deficit is indeed a moral issue, and we must not bankrupt our nation, nor leave a world of debt for our children. But how we reduce the deficit is also a moral issue. Our budget should not be balanced on the backs of poor and vulnerable people. We ask our legislators to consider "what would Jesus cut?" [Jim Wallis, quoted in Cathy Lynn Grossman, "National Debt Choices: Hurt Children Today or Tomorrow?" USA Today: Faith & Reason, 2011.02.28]
I suspect there's something to be said here about "the least of these brothers and sisters of mine." Let's hope Matthew 25:40 rings a bell with Senate State Affairs today, and that they keep that 22% of the excise tax in the general fund where it can help the students, old folks, and others South Dakotans who really need it rather than pouring more wine in the golden cup of those already at the king's table.
Cory,
I realize that the resident theologian in your household comes from a tradition founded by a man who considers the following passage to be from an epistle of straw; still, the irony and the accuracy abound. One needs only replace the word "judges" with "legislators."
James Chapter 2:1-7 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,†but say to the poor man, “You stand there†or “Sit on the floor by my feet,†4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
Interesting you post this - I woke up early today to prepare a post on a similar theme in response to comments yesterday on my blog - who would Jesus tax? who would Jesus cut? I was unable to complete it with the time I had but as you can imagine I have a lot to say about the morality of ecomonics. Stay tuned.
Pastor Steve, guessing you've been a little busy. But could you post before church on Sunday?