Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens outlined a $27.6 billion budget plan Thursday containing a mixture of spending cuts and slight funding increases for public education and thousands of residents who rely on other state services.
The Republican governor outlined his proposal for the 2018 fiscal year while declaring in a public letter that "our budget is broken" and "we must come together, tighten our belts, be smart and wise with our tax dollars, and work our way out of this hole."
In a break with tradition, Greitens posted the budget plan online while leaving the Capitol to make a speech about it at a school in the southwest Missouri town of Nixa.
He told students in Nixa: "We've ensured that our K-12 classrooms are protected," and he added that it "wasn't an easy decision" to recommend less money than colleges and universities had desired.
Despite proposed cuts to various programs, the overall 2018 state operating budget would rise by 1.2 percent under Greitens' plan when compared to the 2017 budget passed by lawmakers. The Republican-led Legislature has until May 5 to pass its own version of the budget, which Greitens can fully or partially veto. The budget is to take effect July 1.
Revenues this fiscal year have come in below what the last governor and Legislature estimated, and Missouri's corporate income tax revenues were down by more than 25 percent through the first half of the budget year. Part of that may be attributable to a tax law change approved by the Legislature that allows multi-state corporations to allocate their profits differently.
But Greitens also cited "special interest tax credits" that sap money from the state and increasing spending demands for health care, which he blamed on the federal health care law enacted under President Barack Obama. Missouri did not expand eligibility for Medicaid as envisioned under the federal health care law, but Medicaid costs have risen nonetheless.
Greitens, who took office in January, already has cut roughly $146 million to balance this year's budget. That's on top of about $200 million cut by former Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon before leaving office.
Greitens' plan would continue at least part of those cuts made to higher education institutions by providing them less money than they were originally supposed to receive this year.
Some University of Missouri-Kansas City medical students shared their thoughts about the cuts with 41 Action News.
"Pretty annoying, especially if I already have frustrations with the school. Frustrations that have to do with money that other medical schools that I see around the country often don’t have," said Bilal Alam.
"It also makes you think of like, the accessibility for people who know, want to come to med school, have that med school dream, and if they can’t, you know, afford it, that dream pretty much dies," said Logan Burrow.
Page 9 of Missouri FY 2018 EB Higher Education
The governor's budget plan would provide $3.3 billion of basic aid to public elementary and secondary schools, an increase of about $3 million but still about $45 million short of what's called for under state law. It also boosts funding for early childhood special education programs by $13 million. But state payments for school busing would be reduced to $69 million from the $105 million appropriated in the current budget.
Greitens told reporters in Nixa that "more money is going to K-12 education" but acknowledged: "Now would we love to be in a budget place where we can invest more in quality programs that are working for our kids? Absolutely."
House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick told The Associated Press that he will try to direct more to schools that Greitens proposed.
"If we can fully fund the (school) formula, we will. That is a top priority for me," said Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Shell Knob.
The budget plan recommends no pay raise for state workers -- who are among the lowest paid in the nation -- but does propose to fully fund the state's payments to its main employee retirement fund. Fitzpatrick said it's unlikely the state can afford a pay raise next year.
Greitens did not highlight specific spending cuts beyond those to higher education. But the budget books detailed several, including a one-fifth reduction in tourism promotion and a cut in funding for the Missouri Technology Corp. -- which invests in new, high-tech companies -- from $23 million to $5 million.
Greitens touted a nearly $34 million increase to provide services to an additional 1,472 people with developmental disabilities, yet budget documents show the overall amount going to the Division of Development Disabilities would decline by $23 million.
By traveling to Nixa to talk about the budget, Greitens broke with decades of tradition in which governors outlined their budgets at the Capitol while delivering their annual State of the State speech. Greitens did not do so when he gave his first State of the State address on Jan. 17.
About 15 people protested outside the Nixa school, including education researcher Lexi Amos of Springfield, who criticized Greitens' appearance there as "political theater."
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