2024-05-10 03:23:47
Passing a $ 51.7 billion budget Thursday, the Missouri Senate exceed the constitutional deadline 24 hours after a debate that left Republican leaders exhausted but satisfied.
A 41-hour filibuster halted all work last week – including planned budget debates on a spending plan passed by committees. To meet the deadline, Senate Appropriations Chairman Lincoln Hough began negotiating with House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith last week about what should be removed from the Senate plan, and what the House would accept from it, to get bills passed. which will pass both chambers.
The 17 spending bills passed during Thursday’s eight-hour debate – one for the remainder of the current fiscal year, the rest for the year that begins July 1 – will be voted on in the House on Friday.
But even before the Senate began voting, Gov. Mike Parson said the rush of work meant his budget office didn’t have time to review it. He told reporters he would not leave large unfunded needs for his successor to cover.
The budget should have the money needed for the coming year because he leaves office in January, Parson said.
“We’re not going to do the largest supplemental (budget) in our state’s history,” Parson said. “I’m just not going to do that, because then all you’re doing is just handing it over to the other legislators who are going to come in with the next governor.”
Hough had to navigate a Senate that had been dysfunctional all year because of Republican factional infighting to put the upper chamber’s stamp on a spending plan that came out of the House a week later than normal.
Most of the debate on Thursday was consumed by members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, who argued that the budget overspent, bypassed the regular process and gave lawmakers little time to scrutinize it.
Hough also had to endure criticism that delays in getting the budget to the Senate floor put him in the worst position for negotiations with the House of any recent appropriations chairman.
State Sen. Bill Eigel, left, speaks with Sen. Denny Hoskins as the Missouri Senate debates the state budget. (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent)
“It was a plea by the Senate Appropriations Chairman to the House Speaker to pass a budget to avoid a special session,” said Sen. Bill Eigel, a Weldon Spring Republican and candidate for governor. “The Senate President realized that he had no leverage.”
Hough, a candidate for lieutenant governor, defended the budget he drafted during intense talks with Smith.
“This budget is not built around the mentality that you have, which is just to beat somebody into submission,” he told Eigel.
The total budget is about halfway between the $50.7 billion spending plan passed in the House last month and the $53 billion proposal Hough and the Senate Appropriations Committee approved. It is also about $1 billion less than the budget proposed in January by Parson.
The bills call for spending $15.3 billion in general revenue, with $14.6 billion for agency operations. That’s about $287 million more than Parson proposed and $424 million more than the House-passed budget.
The budget for the current fiscal year, including the supplemental appropriations passed in the Senate, is $53.5 billion, with $15.8 billion in general revenue spending.
The budget includes a 3.2% pay raise for state employees, a 3% boost in funding for state colleges and universities and $727.5 million for improvements to Interstate 44half from general revenue and half from new government debt.
Most of the money Hough added to the budget to boost salaries at agencies that provide support to adults with developmental disabilities did not survive negotiations. Instead of a $325 million boost to those programs to allow agencies to pay $17 an hour, the increase was dropped to $74 million. Whether it would allow any pay raises was unclear in the hours after the Senate voted.
There were seven to nine Republican votes against all but two of the bills. The five members of the Freedom Caucus have often been joined in opposition to the spending bills by Sens. Mary Elizabeth Coleman of Arnold, who is running for secretary of state, Jill Carter of Joplin, who left the Freedom Caucus last week, and Mike Moon of Ash Grove.
That left 15 to 17 members of the Republican majority in favor of the bills, meaning none of the spending bills would have passed without the help of Democrats.
Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, center, speaks to reporters Thursday after the Senate passed a $51.7 billion budget. With Rizzo are, from left, Sens. Karla May, Doug Beck of Affton, Steven Roberts of St. Louis and Lauren Arthur of Kansas City. (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent)
Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo was quick to note that votes from his caucus made the difference.
“They needed our votes on every bill outside of two, and they even voted against the agriculture budget, which was pretty interesting to us,” Rizzo said. “So Ag funding was supported by Democrats this year, so the agricultural community is welcome. Thank you Democrats.”
Before the debate, members of the Freedom Caucus demanded that general revenue spending not exceed projected revenues for the coming year of $13.2 billion. Hough insisted there is enough money in construction and other projects, as well as in agency funding designated as one-time appropriations, to meet that.
The difference between the projected income and the planned expenditure will result from a massive surplus accumulated in the treasury. In all funds that can be spent as general revenue, it is about $6.4 billion.
Eigel said during debate that the surplus should not be used to balance the budget.
“Balance means that the income coming in equals the income going out,” Eigel said. “Cash in your savings account is not an income item.”
The Missouri Constitution makes it clear that accumulated surpluses can be included in the budget plan.
Demanding a budget target regardless of other resources or the needs of the state is an argument designed to score political points, not govern responsibly, Rizzo told reporters after the budget debate.
He said he expects Parson to eventually call a special session to add money so programs can operate year-round.
“Some of the Freedom Caucus members were pretty insistent on getting to a certain number,” Rizzo said, “and I think the way they got to that certain number is probably going to make sure that there’s a special session sometime in the future, perhaps in the fall.”
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