By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
State Sen. Rusty Black has been placed in a powerful position in the Missouri Senate.
Black, a Republican from Chillicothe, has been appointed chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, responsible for drafting the $51 billion state budget. Black says it has been a goal of his to take a leading role in shaping the state budget.
“With that, I was happy to have that happen and looking forward to serving in that role,” Black tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Black says an immediate challenge his committee and the legislature as a whole face is the reduction of the federal dollars which have been flowing into the state from the federal government for COVID-19 relief and recovery.
“We try to do as little harm as we can to the citizens and to those core services that people expect state government to provide,” Black says.
Black points out federal dollars had made up a third of the state budget, but has grown to 45% in wake of the pandemic. That will change as the federal COVID money recedes.
As Black looks ahead to the 2026 legislative session and the 2026/27 state budget, he sees a tighter budget than many in the legislature have experienced. Black, though, remembers a tight state budget in 2017, his first year in the legislature.
“We probably weren’t physically cutting any core costs, but we were slowing the growth or expansion of money in a lot of different areas, because things didn’t look very good in 2017,” Black says. “Not to the point of cuts, but to the point that every department, every ask, was not going to get a yes answer.”
Lawmakers meeting in Jefferson City next year might just have a similar experience as the federal pandemic money runs dry.
“As those monies draw back, yeah, I’m going to have friends, including me, I’m going to have to look at some things and make choices that maybe both choices aren’t the best in the world, but I’m going to have to make one,” Black says.
While it has been Black’s goal to become chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he got there sooner than he thought. Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin of Shelbina appointed Black chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee shortly after the special legislative session called to redraw the state Congressional districts. Black had served as vice chair under the leadership of Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Republican from Springfield. O’Laughlin removed Hough as chair shortly after he cast one of the two Republican votes against the new Congressional map.
“I did not advocate for Sen. Hough to lose his position,” Black says, “but the fact that I received that appointment is something that I truly wanted to do and I hope I can do a good job for the taxpayers of this state.”
Black could serve in the role through 2030. Sen. Brad Hudson, a Republican from Cape Fair, will serve as the committee vice chair.
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