JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers were working to pass a roughly $51 billion state budget Friday that boosts funding for education and infrastructure projects around the state.
The House faced a 6 p.m. Friday deadline, set by the state constitution, to give final approval to the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The Senate signed off the spending plan Thursday after sometimes tense debate between majority-party Republicans.
“The end product is a good, sound, fiscally responsible, conservative and prioritized budget,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Lincoln Hough said.
Democrats complained about a secretive, rushed process and asserted that lawmakers should have spent even more from the state’s budget surplus on public services and schools.
Work on the budget in the Senate had been delayed last week amid a standoff between chamber leaders — who wanted to pass a $4.5 billion hospital tax program before tackling the rest of the budget — and the Freedom Caucus.
Members of the GOP faction spent the better part of two days last week filibustering in an attempt to pressure Republican Gov. Mike Parson to sign legislation defunding Planned Parenthood, which he had been expected to do and eventually did Thursday.
The caucus also wants the Legislature to pass a measure that would make it harder to pass future constitutional amendments, if approved by voters.
Meanwhile, House and Senate budget leaders had been negotiating behind closed doors to iron-out a compromise rather than airing differences over spending priorities in committee hearings.
The biggest disagreement between the House and Senate was over the total cost of the budget, with the House pushing for roughly $50 billion compared to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s recommended $53 billion.
The final version was smaller than originally sought by Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who on Thursday warned that underfunding could delay payments on inevitable bills.
“All you’re doing is just passing that on to the other legislators,” Parson told reporters Thursday.
Next year’s budget includes $120 million more in baseline funding for public K-12 education, plus $33 million to help schools raise the minimum teacher salary to $40,000 a year.
Higher education institutions would get a 3% increase in core funding.
Building on recent infrastructure investments, lawmakers agreed to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into expanding Interstate 44 to six lanes near Springfield, Joplin and Rolla.
The budget was sprinkled with funds for numerous other local projects, including improvements to the Springfield Cardinals minor league baseball stadium and development near the newly built soccer stadium for the Kansas City Current.
Senators in the Freedom Caucus on Thursday sought to amend the budget to ban government spending on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. But those amendments were voted down.
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