Missouri lawmakers advance budget proposal

But the proposed spending plan also places significant pressure on the state agency that oversees driver’s licenses in an attempt to resolve the ongoing controversy over the handling of private information.

The Legislature has until Friday to adopt a state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The proposal still needs another round of approval in the state House and Senate, but leaders from both say they expect to meet that deadline.

An agreement House and Senate negotiators reached on Tuesday represents a stark contrast from recent years in which lawmakers – facing budget constraints - had to consider cuts to programs.

“This is the first year we haven’t really had to do that,” said Senate Appropriations Chair Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia.

State revenues are outpacing expectations for the year, prompting lawmakers to fast-track legislation that would spend $121 million of the state’s anticipated surplus on facility improvements at the Missouri Capitol, the state mental hospital at Fulton, state parks and other projects.

Under the budget outlined Tuesday, the K-12 education foundation formula – the basic aid for elementary and secondary schools – would get a $65.8 million boost from the current fiscal year. Missouri’s public colleges and universities would get several million more, distributed through a performance funding model.

Additionally, the budget plan includes $10 million for the expansion of the University of Missouri-Columbia Medical School.

Despite a big push from Democrats, including Gov. Jay Nixon, lawmakers have not approved federal funding to expand Missouri’s Medicaid program under an optional provision of the federal Affordable Care Act. Republicans, who say the proposal relies too heavily on federal spending, have thwarted repeated attempts to get the money approved this session.

“I’m still disappointed,” said Sen. Kiki Curls, D-Kansas City. “I think it’s something that would have been beneficial to the state.”

But there appear to be few other areas of discord in this year’s budget.

Lawmakers hashed out many of their differences before holding the first public meeting between House and Senate negotiators on Tuesday.

The latest budget proposal cuts spending by a third for the state Department of Revenue’s motor licensing bureau — a move that lawmakers say is intended to send a message in the ongoing controversy over the state’s new driver’s license system.

Last fall, the Revenue Department adopted a policy of making electronic copies of identifying documents when Missourians apply for driver's licenses. Those documents include birth certificates, marriage licenses and - until a recent policy change - concealed weapons permits.

Republicans have blasted the department, part of Nixon's administration, for what they have deemed an invasion of privacy. The documents are being retained in a state data center that some have sought to tie to the federal government.

Schaefer and others have urged the department to halt its scanning policy, but Revenue officials say it is intended to prevent fraud and make driver's licenses more secure.

Schaefer said the budget plan provides funding for driver's licenses for eight months, and lawmakers plan to review the agency again when they return for the 2014 session in January.

“It’s the funding they asked for, but only at eight months,” he said. “We’ll come back and evaluate that and what they’re doing.”

House Budget Chair Rick Stream, R-Kirkwood, said the department needs to stop scanning documents related to driver’s licenses if it wants to receive the rest of its funding.

“I think that’s the major issue,” he said. “I think they understand what our intentions are.”

Department of Revenue spokesman Ted Farnen said officials are reviewing the budget recommendation before deciding how the agency will proceed.

Lawmakers also cut travel budgets for many state agencies, but Schaefer said the new figures should not harm the departments because they were based on actual travel spending in recent years.

“We looked at their requests versus what’s actually being spent,” Schaefer said.

Schaefer said the budget proposal is balanced and it’s at least $500,000 below what Nixon had proposed in his spending plan earlier this year.

But the numbers do rely on the passage of legislation that would eliminate a tax credit for seniors who rent their homes.

Nixon included $56 million from the elimination of the so-called “circuit breaker” credit program in his budget proposal, but he has recently signaled that he won’t support the bill unless it’s part of a broader tax credit overhaul that he has pushed.

“I would hope the governor wouldn’t veto it because it was in his budget,” Schaefer said. “This is a request that he made for $56 million…he was prepared to spend that money.”

With less than two weeks left in the session, the circuit breaker bill hasn’t yet passed the House, but Stream said he’s confident it will.

“Until two weeks ago, the governor was behind it 100 percent,” Stream said.

The budget plan also relies on funding from pending legislation that would create a tax amnesty program.

“I’m still confident that it’s going to pass,” Schaefer said.