It’s hard to believe I have only four months left to serve as state representative for the 120th district. It seems like only yesterday that I had the honor of first being elected by the good people of this area with the purpose of going to Jefferson City to change the way our government does business. At the time I had a clear vision of what I wanted to accomplish, but given the fact I entered service as a member of the minority party it certainly seemed like the deck was stacked against me. But as all Missourians know, hard work and persistence eventually pay off. I was blessed to be part of a group of committed individuals who believed we could change this state for the better. Now, almost eight years later we close this chapter of our lives knowing we accomplished the bulk of what we set out to do, and with a long list of achievements in which we can take great pride.

My first term in office was all about learning the ropes and seeing just how broken our system truly was at the time. We had a government afflicted with waste, fraud and abuse; a budget that was far from being fiscally responsible; and a state filled with hard-working people whose best interests were not being served. Those two years spent in the minority gave me the opportunity to learn how our legislative process works, and even more importantly, how it oftentimes failed to be effective. It was a hard lesson but one that gave me perspective on what needed to be done if the things I believed in were ever to be accomplished.

In 2002 we saw an enormous freshman class of legislators make their way to the State Capitol and my party had its first majority in decades. With that we began the business of implementing the ideas the people of this state believed in and sent us to Jefferson City to accomplish. Our first target was the budget that was plagued by out of control spending that had resulted in a billion dollar shortfall. We took a fiscally conservative approach and found the areas where our taxpayer money was being squandered, and we eliminated that wasteful spending. Of course, our top priority was to turn this state’s economic situation around without increasing the tax burden for hard-working Missourians who deserve to keep as much of their paychecks as possible.

We implemented a performance-based budgeting plan that emphasized funding programs that work and put an end to those that were not adequately serving Missouri taxpayers. We also found ways to improve and streamline the way our government works in order to save millions of dollars. I was proud to play a central role in that process as I sponsored a piece of legislation that improved the way our Department of Revenue operated and, as a result, gave us an additional $100 million without any sort of tax increase. I also had the privilege of handling another piece of legislation that swept various state departments’ slush funds and allowed us to free up additional dollars we then used to increase funding to education. With changes like these, we were able to pull this state out of a financial crisis and replace budget shortfalls and funding withholdings with surpluses and increased funding to the areas that needed it most.

Every session, the legislative surveys returned to me that I sent out for your input were extremely important and helpful to me to evaluate what was important to the district and the state. We worked hard to address issues that our district felt needed attention and fixing. I will discuss more of these issues that resulted in legislation being passed, in my next report.

As always, I encourage you to contact me with your suggestions or ideas. I can be reached at my Capitol office (573) 751-1484, or by e-mail at shannon.cooper@house.mo.gov. My mailing address is: Room 310, State Capitol Building, Jefferson City, MO 65101.