By Jason Tolbert

One of Mike Huckabee’s major platforms during his tenure as governor received a lot of bipartisan praise. Faced with a health crisis in 2002, he went on a dramatic lifestyle change that resulted in losing over 100 pounds. He used himself as a real life example and became an advocate for the benefits of a healthy diet and exercise. About three years ago, I read his book “Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork” and followed the advice to lose about fifty pounds myself.

A lot of people are now concerned about a different kind of obesity problem — one affecting our growing government.

One conservative group in Arkansas has turned its attention to the state budget. The Arkansas Chapter of Americans for Prosperity released an “Arkansas Five Year Budget Report” two weeks ago that diagnosed the state with chronic obesity, to paraphrase.

“For too many years elected officials have used the ‘we have a balanced budget’ logic to divert attention away from the fact that Arkansas has a spending problem,” said Teresa Crossland-Oelke, state director of the Americans for Prosperity. “Our state is on an unsustainable spending path and will face some tough budget decisions in the very near future if we continue on this course.”

You may have heard brief mention of this report if you follow state legislative news closely. A minor controversy broke out when Oelke asked to have the report distributed to state representatives by the House staff. At first, Oelke was told the report was too political in nature but when pressed by several legislators, they relented and passed it out.

The report finds that state government has in fact grown over the last five years by an average of about 7 percent with some years growing more than others. The biggest year of growth was for fiscal year 2005 when the state budget grew by 10.88 percent. The report admits that the Lake View school funding issue played a role, but it blames the Legislature for that and not the Supreme Court. This is a point long debated in conservative circles, but the fact is that the court all but forced the Legislature to increase spending on public schools.

So what is the prescription offered? Oelke’s group starts with spending constraints that are tied to inflation and population growth. Following that formula would have saved the state budget $5.9 billion over the last five years, by their figures. They also suggest a hiring freeze on new employees and moving away from the old pension system and toward a defined contribution plan like most businesses in the private sector currently use. Another proposal is to outsource some state functions to the private sector or move certain jobs to rural areas where labor is cheaper.

Overall, they certainly have a point that the state budget continues to grow. However, like most things, the devil is in the details on this one. It is easy to talk about cutting programs and reducing jobs in general terms, until it becomes your own child’s after-school program that gets the ax or your neighbor is the one laid off.

Oh, and a note about that healthy lifestyle change I undertook a few years ago; I since have put that 50 pounds back on, plus about 10 more.

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Jason Tolbert is an accountant and conservative political blogger. His blog — The Tolbert Report — is linked at ArkansasNews.com. His e-mail is jason@TolbertReport.com