Missouri General Assembly passes the state budget, just hours before the deadline

Against all odds, the Missouri General Assembly passed the $51.7 billion state budget, which will fund operations across the state in the upcoming fiscal year.

Despite beginning the Senate floor debate on the budget bills at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, with just more than 32 hours to complete the process, the Missouri Senate passed each of the budget bills by 6 p.m. that evening.

"Despite having to start later than usual, the Senate was able to craft a conservative, balanced budget that reflects our state’s values and ensures our tax dollars are spent responsibly," said Sen. Lincoln Hough, who serves as the Senate Appropriations Committee Chair. "I’m very proud of the work we have done to meet the needs of our citizens and our state."

The Missouri House took up debate on the budget bills as 10 a.m. on Friday, finishing work on the legislation just before 3 p.m. The appropriations bills will now be sent to Gov. Mike Parson for final consideration. Parson has the ability to veto any part of the bills, if he chooses to do so.

Some members of both chambers bemoaned the fact that the appropriations bills didn’t receive enough floor time or consideration in a budget conference to discuss and deliberate each item.

Missouri House Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St. Louis, like several other Democratic House members, indicated that, although this was not something he has frequently done in the past, he would be voting no on the budget bills on Friday for that reason.

“I think it's really important to make as clear as possible that this should not be the new normal,” Meredith said. “Over my last five or six years especially we've seen the budget process get worse and worse. We've put in less hours each year.”

House Budget Chair Cody Smith, R-Carthage, referenced these feelings in later discussion on the legislation, saying that some members of the chamber on the other side of the aisle were “grumpy” on Friday.

In the Missouri Senate, members of the conservative Missouri Freedom Caucus also voted against the budget bills, but said that they were pleased that around $2 billion had been cut from the original budget plan.

“It's still not a balanced budget. We're still dipping into reserves from the feds,” said state Sen. Rick Brattin. “We would like to continue to see more chipping away, and we'll continue to work on that.”

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Earlier in the week, as the budget still hadn’t been brought to the Senate for consideration, some members wondered if a special session would be needed to pass the appropriations bills.

However, state Sen. Mike Moon referred to a provision in the Missouri Constitution that said that budget bills were not eligible for consideration in a special session, meaning that legislators had to finish all work on the budget by 6 p.m. on Friday.

Some notable items included in the budget are $727.5 million in funding to improve parts of Interstate 44 in certain areas of the state and a 3% increase in state college funding. The budget provides funding for each of the state departments, such as MODOT, the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Social Services.

On Thursday evening, following the completion of the budget bills, the Missouri Senate finally passed the federal reimbursement allowance, which accounts for $4.5 billion of the state budget’s Medicaid funding.

According to an analysis from the Missouri Budget Project, the state would have had to fill a $1.5 billion hole in the budget each year, if this legislation had not been passed.

Passing the legislation was a matter of some concern last week, when Missouri Freedom Caucus members held up the state Senate with a 41-hour filibuster, threatening to hold up the bill until their demands had been met.

They wanted Gov. Mike Parson to sign the bill defunding Planned Parenthood, which he signed on Thursday, and they wanted the Missouri Senate to pass legislation that, if approved by voters, would raise the threshold to pass initiative petitions.

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The Missouri Senate briefly took up debate on that bill Thursday, after passing the appropriations bills and the federal reimbursement allowance legislation, but that debate ended after Democrats began their expected resistance to that measure.

Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo indicated that this legislation would face the same resistance when it is brought back before the Senate next week, since the House added back in provisions dubbed “ballot candy,” referring to items added to entice voters to approve the measure such as saying that noncitizens can’t vote. Noncitizens already are barred from voting by state statute.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri General Assembly approves state budget, sends it to governor