Ladies and gentlemen, brace yourselves. The onslaught of poor mouthing is about to crank up to full blabber mode.

One by one the groups march to Jackson, take their seats before the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and begin evangelizing their cause.

Education, health, you name it and it&8217;s likely to be brought up for discussion before the influential committee that gathers information in the fall in preparation for the 2007 Legislature.

After the fact-finding work, the committee will make spending suggestions to lawmakers.

Generally, each group comes forth with lots of information, brings a thorough public relations plan and pleads their case in earnest.

&8220;Only an extra million or two and everything in

will be great,&8221; they say.

Unfortunately, a million here and a million there and the dollars begin racking up quickly.

Committee members and ultimately all state lawmakers must be the ultimate judge, the ultimate steward of taxpayer money. The problem is our funding system is broken &8212; or never worked in the first place.

No matter how hard government tries, it ultimately winds up becoming an animal that simply must have more cash &8212; even if only to stay alive.

What we need is a system in which capitalism, not self-perpetuation, becomes a motivator. Incentives for agency leaders who reduce spending and increase efficiency would be a good place to start. Completely rethinking how we appropriate spending would be the ultimate goal.

Government managed more like a business could save millions and cut out lots of poor mouthing.