State Operating Budget Receives Final Approval

One day ahead of the constitutional deadline, the House and Senate agreed to a state spending plan for the next fiscal year. The 13 bills that make up the state operating budget for Fiscal Year 2014 contain nearly $25 billion in funding and represent a fiscally responsible approach to using your tax dollars.

 

One of the most exciting developments with the budget is that it contains the largest level of funding for K-12 education in our state’s history. We reach that record level by providing an additional $66 million to the foundation formula that provides funding to public schools around the state. These additional dollars will make a huge difference for the schools in our area, as well as all public schools in Missouri.

 

Higher education also is a big winner in the budget we approved. Our four-year universities and colleges will see a funding increase of $25 million. These additional funds will be distributed to schools in accordance with a new performance-based model. We also increased funding by $1 million for our Access Missouri Scholarship Program and by $2.4 million for the Bright Flight Scholarship Program. Both increases will help even more Missouri young people achieve the dream of obtaining a college degree.

The budget we approved also reflects our disappointment with the way the state revenue department has handled the controversy surrounding its new document scanning and sharing policy. Our spending plan cuts funding for the department’s Division of Motor Vehicles by 33 percent, which will allow the division to operate as normal for 8 months. Our plan is to revisit the issue in January of next year and appropriate the additional funding for the department if it has changed its policies to prohibit the scanning and sharing of Missourians’ personal information.

 

Other funding highlights in this year’s budget include:

- $1m increase in tourism funding.

- $750k for STL prisoner re-entry program that reduces recidivism rates and violent crimes.

- $8.9m for developmentally disabled provider rate restructuring in Department of Mental Health.

- The first provider rate increases in years for nursing homes, mental health services and home and community-based   services.

- $10m for expanded medical school at the University of Missouri in cooperation with Springfield hospitals.

All 13 appropriations bills now move to the governor’s desk to be signed into law. The governor does have line item veto power with budget bills. Our hope is that he will support our funding decisions with few, if any, changes.