By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A $51 billion state budget is now in the hands of Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, who has already promised he will issue some line-item vetoes.
Senate Appropriations Committee chair, Lincoln Hough of Springfield, says he anticipates some line-item vetoes, pointing out the legislature and the governor agreed to a consensus revenue estimate, but that had to be done 18 months in advance.
“So, it’s hard to do this, but we try to do the best job we can. You know the legislature came a little under what the governor had built out in his budget that he released in the State of the State (address) probably in January or something like that,” Hough tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post during a stop in St. Joseph. “At the end of the day, it’s his call. He gets to make the final call.”
Hough is campaigning throughout the state as a Republican candidate for Lt. Governor. He made a swing through northwest Missouri, including the stop in St. Joseph at Parkway Distillery.
Though the governor is eyeing some spending that he might cut from the budget approved by the legislature, Hough worries more about whether the legislature failed to properly fund a couple of crucial programs: Medicaid and managed health care.
“Those bills have to be paid and I think there probably are a couple of instances in this budget that the necessary appropriations amount isn’t quite there,” Hough says.
Hough expects the legislature to have to address shortfalls through a supplemental budget, either in the September veto session or next year’s legislative session.
The only constitutional requirement of the General Assembly when it meets in its regular session is to pass a state budget. That is about all the legislature did this year. Even that proved difficult. Friction within the Republican caucus in the Missouri Senate sparked filibusters that derailed much legislation. Friction between the Missouri Senate and the Missouri House derailed the normal budget process. Traditionally, the two chambers appoint members to negotiate the differences between the budgets approved in each. That didn’t happen. The Senate debated the budget sent it from the House and sent it on to the governor without sitting down with House budget committee members.
Still, Hough believes it’s a good spending plan.
“It’s a very conservative, I think, responsible budget that still made investments in our teacher’s salaries, made investments in our classrooms, made investments in higher education, made investments in infrastructure all over state; law enforcement. There’s a lot of good things in there,” according to Hough. “You and I are kind of waiting on the same thing to see what the governor does.”
Gov. Parson has until the end of the month to sign the budget.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.