The House Budget Committee squeezed $139 million in general revenue out of the Missouri state budget for road, port and other earmarked projects Monday night, but Republicans thwarted an effort by Democrats to shift $50 million into public schools.
During a stop-and-go work session that stretched late into the night, the committee approved a $47.9 billion budget for state operations in the coming fiscal year. The committee reduced Gov. Mike Kehoe’s budget by $2.1 billion overall and about $750 million in general revenue.
The mark-up session boosted the total for general revenue earmarks by $20 million and the package going to the full House will have 96 earmarked items tracked by The Independent costing $166.2 million total added since Kehoe proposed his budget in January.
Some of the biggest general revenue earmarks — $15 million for a new state park in McDonald County and $12 million for a climbing lane on Interstate 44 — are in the southwest Missouri district of House Budget Committee Chairman Dirk Deaton. The new state park will also require $4 million of state parks tax funds.
Among the largest earmarks added Monday are $5 million for ramps and an outer road on U.S. Highway 60 in Sikeston and $4 million for the Marion County Port Authority.
While Democrats succeeded in adding a handful of earmarks, they were shot down on almost every proposal to increase or shift funding for state programs.
Two major spending proposals — one Kehoe endorsed in January and another he did not — were backed by Democrats on the committee but could not win support from Republicans.
Kehoe wants the state to spend an extra $107 million in federal funds on child care to revise how payments are calculated to one based on enrollment and change when checks arrive. Meanwhile, he does not want to spend $300 million in state general revenue to fully fund the public school foundation formula.
“Our providers have been through quite a lot this past year, to some extent from what they’ve had to deal with the state,” state Rep. Stephanie Hein, a Democrat from Springfield, said as she sought to restore part of the child care funding. “This would help provide them stability within their budgeting process for the upcoming year.”
Republicans questioned whether the federal funding used this year will be available in the future.
“There’s no ongoing federal money for this,” said committee vice chairman Bishop Davidson, a Republican from Republic.
Because of a rule requiring cuts in general revenue from one line to spend it in another, Democrats did not attempt to shift the full $300 million into the school foundation formula. Instead, they tried to delete another of Kehoe’s major initiatives, $50 million for a tax credit program supporting private school tuition scholarships.
“When I look through some of the schools that receive taxpayer dollars now through the form of the tax credit program, there are schools that are getting dollars, that wouldn’t have educated, some of us in this room and I think it’s really important that we are spending our money in the right places and fully funding the foundation formula,” said state Rep. Betsy Fogle of Springfield, ranking Democrat on the committee.
Republicans said the credits are available for students who want to switch public schools as well as attend private schools.
“One thing we lack is parental engagement,” Davidson said. “Another thing we lack are any sort of competitive forces and we get to have both of those things when it comes to the (Empowerment Scholarship Accounts) program.”
The foundation formula distributes state aid on a per-pupil basis, with factors that give more money for students with disabilities or who are from low-income households. It cost $3.7 billion in the current year and the amount needed to fully fund it is determined by applying the calculation to what is called the state adequacy target.
To fully fund the formula for the coming year, the adequacy target would be $7,145 per student. To keep the cost down, Kehoe and the House Budget Committee are funding a target of $6,760 per student.
Kehoe wants the formula to be revised. One Republican said he wants no more money for the formula until it is changed.
“We need to fix it or get rid of it,” said GOP state Rep. Don Mayhew of Crocker.
The Democratic proposal that drew the most support from Republicans would have increased the amount paid for home-delivered meals for the elderly and disabled from $6.21 per meal to $7.14 per meal at a cost of $2.1 million, including $787,120 of general revenue.
“This is a warranted increase,” said state Rep. John Voss, a Republican from Cape Girardeau. “Many of the counties surrounding my district are very, very poor. In fact, I think we have many of the top 10 poorest counties. That is a lot of food insecurity and anything that we can do to support our seniors here, I would sure be supportive of.”
The full House will debate the budget next week. Democrats and Republicans will each have three hours to present their amendments and arguments.
At the end of Monday’s meeting, Deaton asked members whether six hours was too much. Some Republicans said it was.
“I don’t see that too much of the floor debate has changed my mind,” said state Rep. Mitch Boggs of LaRussell. “This is where the main meat and potatoes is done.”
Democrats objected to any change, saying it was the only time for most House members to have a say on spending.
“It doesn’t mean we have to burn all of it,” said Democratic state Rep. Del Taylor of St. Louis.
Mayhew agreed and at the end, Deaton did not recommend any change.
“This, folks, is really our only constitutional duty, and providing the opportunity for members who were elected to be here to make comments on that,” Mayhew said. “I’m okay with our standing normal procedure, and I don’t think it’s unfair or overly burdensome for us, especially when we’re talking about upwards of $52 billion of the taxpayers money.”
