State Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Ellisville) visited the Laurel Lions Club Thursday afternoon, addressing such issues as the state budget, voter ID legislation and education.

Calling the budget “very disappointing,” McDaniel said tax collections in October were down $28.6 million or 6.7 percent year-to-date.

“For the fiscal year, it could be upwards of $400 to $500 million,” he said. “That’s a lot of money.”

McDaniel said legislators are now looking at the so-called “rainy day” fund, which has nearly $300 million in it for critical use. He said he’s not for dipping into that fund just yet because “things will probably get worse.”

“I believe 2010 will be the worst part of the downfall,” he said. “Economies grow and expand and then there’s a recessionary period. Ultimately, we’ll come out of it. I believe by the last quarter of next year, but the recovery will be very slow. It will be very gradual.”

McDaniel was quick to point out that he does not support a tax increase.

“Not during these times,” he added. “People need to keep more of their hard earned money.”

McDaniel said a key cause of the recession is that people are uncertain of the future and scared to spend their money.

“A new America is rising up that is different than when we were children,” he said. “We have a $11.6 trillion debt which has been accrued since the inception of our republic 200 years ago. Under the current administration’s policies, we will double that debt in the next 10 years. We can’t afford the government we have and what’s being proposed in Washington, D.C.”

McDaniel said federal government promises would equal a 140 percent tax increase and a 51 percent decrease in service by 2050.

“That’s less money we have to create, invest and hire people,” he said. “When did capitalism become a dirty word? Even the poor in our country are the wealthiest poor in the world.”

McDaniel said a fine place to start cutbacks on a state level would be the government, noting he favors fewer senators and congressmen if that is required.

“It’s a fine place to start,” he said. “When the people are suffering, the government should not prosper. We should make more of an effort to be more lean and have a more respectable level of spending.

“Now is the time to go find the budget, find any waste, fraud or abuse and eliminate it once and for all,” McDaniel added. “We could have a deficit the likes we haven’t seen since the (Gov. Ronnie) Musgrove administration.”

McDaniel said one of the key issues he supports is voter ID, where only those presenting a driver’s license would be allowed to vote.

“To rent a video, you have to show ID,” he said. “To board an airplane or even use a credit card, you have to show ID. There are too many that are willing to commit fraud, and there’s no system in place to stop it. But, it has to be a pure bill.”

McDaniel said the issue has been debated for over a decade on the state level, but a bill always dies in the House of Representatives.

“They’ve been looking at voter ID since I left junior college,” he said. “They’re playing games.”

McDaniel said a number of things were added to the most recent bill including 20 day early voting, exempting anyone over the age of 65 from even showing ID, expunging the record of felons to allow them to vote and late registration up to three days prior to the election.

McDaniel noted the part about voter ID (Section 19) included a number of exceptions including those in a state-licensed care facility, those with religious objections to being photographed and an age restriction that “included 25 to 30 percent of the electorate.”

“It was a disingenuous attempt,” he said. “With a bill designed to prevent fraud, you don’t need loopholes or exceptions.”

McDaniel said there is currently a petition to put the issue on state ballots that carries about 60,000 signatures.

“If we have 90,000 signatures by February, we will take it out of the hands of politicians and finally get a pure voter ID bill,” he said.

McDaniel said another issue he follows closely is that of eminent domain, which allows the government to take a private citizen’s property for public use as long as that person is compensated fairly.

“I fought very hard during the last session to protect private property rights,” he said.

Instead of public use such as highways and schools, McDaniel said the federal government now believes they can take away your property if they believe another person can use it better and provide more tax revenue.

McDaniel said House Bill 803, which protected private property rights, was vetoed by Governor Barbour after being passed in the House and Senate.

“We did our best to override the veto,” he said. “I think the governor is a great man, but we disagreed on this issue. Your property is your property. You shouldn’t have to sell it by force. I believe in an arm’s length transaction that lets you negotiate a price and then sell it.”

McDaniel said he did support the Children’s First Act, which allows the state to take over underperforming schools after two years to correct those problems. However, he noted that “local education concerns are usually best handled locally.”

Noting recent budget cuts, McDaniel said the state needs to find a way to keep schools properly funded.

“(The cuts) may even be as high as seven to 10 percent,” he said. “The last thing we should be cutting is instruction. Schools are the economic development engine of a community. There has been a lot of talk about consolidation, but we should wait and see how much it is going to cost. It might even raise the cost.”