Missouri Senate approves budget proposal

The Senate’s $25 billion spending plan doesn’t include funding to expand Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act, which Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, has pushed for several weeks alongside a broad coalition of supporters that includes business groups, labor organizations, clergy, law enforcement and health care advocates.

Members of the House and Senate will next meet in conference to work out the differences between the House and Senate spending plans for the budget year that begins July 1.

Lawmakers have until May 10 to adopt a final version that will be sent to the governor.

The Senate’s version of the budget eliminates more than $20 million in funding for driver’s licenses and related administrative functions – the latest action in a spat between Senate Appropriations Chair Kurt Schaefer and the Department of Revenue over the state agency’s handling of private information.

Schaefer, R-Columbia, said he anticipates issues will be resolved in the coming weeks as lawmakers work to finalize the state budget for the fiscal year that beings July 1.

“I would hope that’s what happens,” he said in a Monday evening floor debate over the Senate’s spending plan.

What Schaefer wants, he said, is for the Revenue Department to be more cooperative, stop making electronic copies of documents and work to explain why it receives certain federal funds. He said the funding threat is needed to get those issues resolved.

“They were not cooperative and to this day are still not cooperative,” Schaefer said.

If the agency doesn't cooperate with his challenge to the state's new drivers' license policy, Schaefer said other options for Missouri would include legislation extending the expiration dates of driver's licenses.

The Senate-approved cuts tied to the DOR flap include a complete $3.5 million elimination of funding and 37 jobs in the state Drivers License Division, a $680,000 cut in funding for postage to receive driver’s licenses from a third party printer, a $7 million hit to funds the Department of Revenue gets from the federal government and a $9 million cut in funding for the state Office of Administration’s IT department.

Schaefer faced some resistance from lawmakers who opposed efforts to put pressure on state agencies through the budget process. Aside from the Department of Revenue, Schaefer has taken a similar approach with the state Department of Public Safety, and senators spent nearly two hours debating Schaefer's proposed hit to a statewide recycling grant program.

Elsewhere in the budget, the Senate approved a $65.8 million increase for the state K-12 education foundation formula (which is still below what the formula calls for), a $34 million increase to higher education funding plus institution-specific increases for certain programs, across-the-board pay raises of $500 per state worker and broad cuts to agencies’ travel budgets.

Republicans thwarted yet another attempt by Democrats to expand Missouri’s Medicaid program under President Barack Obama’s federal health care law. In a party-line vote shortly before midnight, senators struck down a last-ditch effort to add it through amending the program’s budget.

The House-approved spending plan also did not include expansion of the health care program for the poor, so it has been effectively blocked out of the budget bills moving through the Capitol.

Under the federal health care law, Missouri could increase eligibility for an estimated 300,000 low-income individuals and the federal government will pick up the full costs of the newly eligible for the first three years and continue paying 90 percent or more beyond that.

Senate Minority Leader Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City, said that opposition to the expansion is “shortsighted.”

“I just don’t think it’s a stretch to think it’s the right thing to do,” she said. “This is an opportunity that we don’t want to miss.”

Schaefer said that the state can’t afford the costs of expansion down the road.

“It’s not an issue of whether or not we want people to have health care,” he said.

Sen. John Lamping, R-Ladue also spoke against the proposal.

“I think years from now when we look back the public will see that we made the right decision for Missouri,” he said.