JEFFERSON CITY • The look of disbelief on Republican Sen. Kurt Schaefer’s face grew more apparent as Linda Luebbering, Gov. Jay Nixon’s budget director, ticked off the items on Nixon’s fiscal year 2015 proposed budget.
More than $490 million for increased education at all levels.
Nearly $200 million in bonds to build a new state mental hospital to replace an antiquated one in Fulton.
About $37 million to implement a 3 percent increase in state employee salaries by January 2015.
As Luebbering concluded her presentation Wednesday to the Senate Appropriations Committee, Committee Chairman Schaefer’s displeasure became verbal.
“I have tremendous respect for you ... (but) I will tell you this budget is an absolute political fiction,” Schaefer, R-Columbia, said.
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Schaefer said he was particularly “astounded” because the government had been fiscally conservative in the past.
For the budget year beginning July 1, Nixon, a Democrat, is counting on 5.2 percent growth in general revenue, the main pot of tax money the GOP-led Legislature controls. House and Senate budget leaders project growth at 4.2 percent.
The different revenue estimates — along with Nixon’s inclusion of projected savings from shifting costs to the federal government by expanding Medicaid — result in a huge budget gulf between the governor and the Legislature.
Legislators will have to cut $214.5 million from his spending blueprint if they stick to their lower growth estimate, according to figures provided by Luebbering on Tuesday.
They also would have to cut $94 million that Nixon’s budget spends as a result of shifting some health care costs to the federal government through Medicaid expansion.
When asked about the different revenue estimates, Luebbering said “ultimately we believed the revenue would do better than the House and the Senate.”
House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream, R-Kirkwood, said Tuesday that the governor’s budget was not “dead on arrival” but that it was subject to serious review. He added that the Legislature would hold to its revenue estimate.
“Education funding is extremely important to this caucus,” Stream said. “I think it is appropriate to fund education as best we can with the money we think we’re going to have.”
Schaefer agreed that funding education was very important but said Nixon’s numbers were unrealistic. In particular, $278 million for the foundation formula is much too high, Schaefer said. Some money will be provided to the foundation formula, he said, but it’s too early to say how much.
It’s unclear how the Legislature will go about balancing the budget, but Schaefer said lawmakers would do their due diligence.
“Why does (the governor) think there will be that money when no one else does?” Schaefer said.
Alex Stuckey covers Missouri politics and state government for the Post-Dispatch. Follow her on Twitter at @alexdstuckey.
