Legislature Sends Budget to Nixon

The Missouri General Assembly passed a roughly $23 billion budget late last week, a document guiding the state's fiscal course into 2012.

Rep. Marsha Haefner, an Oakville Republican who serves on the House Budget Committee, said in her latest Capitol Report that some notable aspects of the budget include:

-          Allocating roughly $8.4 billion for the state’s Medicaid program, which provides health care for the poor and disabled. Haefner said that money will “continue to fund access to healthcare for the neediest Missourians.”

-          Providing funding for ethanol and biodiesel incentives. Haefner said such allocations aim "to continue to move Missouri towards an economy less dependent on foreign oil.”

-          Keeping the state’s foundation formula for K-12 education effectively flat from the previous year, a development Haefner said showed that “in light of recent historical declines in state revenues, the General Assembly was able to again make education the #1 priority.”

-          Bringing about $12 million more for higher education institutions than Gov. Jay Nixon initially recommended.

The budget also includes a 14 percent reduction for the Department of Transportation, a nearly 20 percent spike for the Department of Agriculture and essentially flat funding for the Department of Corrections.

Sen. Jim Lembke – a Lemay Republican whose district encompasses Oakville – voted against nearly all of the bills that make up the state’s budget. In a speech on the Senate floor, Lembke said all members of the General Assembly’s upper chamber should have a chance to be involved in the budget-making process.

“There’s nothing more important that we do in this process of governing than to set the people’s priorities in establishing our budgets every year,” said Lembke, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee who added that more of his colleagues get a chance to serve on the budget-making entity.

Lembke said it would be “a real eye-opener” if all senators served on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“Whether it’s a dollar that’s coming from the federal government, whether it’s a dollar coming from general revenue or whether it’s a dollar that’s come through a dedicated source… those dollars belong to the people,” Lembke said. “They do not belong to government. And it’s incumbent upon us to know what we’re voting yes for.”

“This is the people’s business and I really just think we ought to just take a lot more time,” Lembke said, adding that lawmakers don’t often get a chance to examine what changes were made to the budget near the end of the process. “I know there used to be time in our history where we would do budget in one session and then come back and do legislation the next. I think that we really have to have more input from all the people’s representatives when we decide how to spend the people’s money.”

In a statement, Nixon praised lawmakers “who came together to pass the budget by their constitutional deadline.” He added that “based on the budget passed by the General Assembly and legislation already signed into law, we are projecting a budget gap of at least $30 million.”

“I will analyze this budget in its entirety and make the expenditure restrictions necessary to make it balance,” Nixon said in a statement. “As we move forward, I will continue to make the decisions necessary to keep the state’s fiscal house in order.” 

House Budget Chairman Ryan Silvey, R-Clay County, told the Associated Press that he believed that the budget was balanced and that withholds were not necessary.