By AP/KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – Public schools will get more money to help with rising fuel costs for buses, while ethanol and biodiesel plants will get a threefold increase to pump out alternative fuels.
Thousands of additional college students will get scholarships. And almost everyone who is paid money by the state will get a little more: The doctors who treat Medicaid patients, the families who care for foster children, Missouri's judges and the state's roughly 60,000 full-time employees.
Lawmakers were giving final approval in a series of votes occurring Wednesday and Thursday to a $21.5 billion state operating budget for next fiscal year. The 3.3% increase would generally keep pace with inflation.
Differences between the House version of the budget and the Senate version still have to be worked out.
The budget "reflects the health of the state of Missouri," said House Budget Committee Chairman Allen Icet (R-Wildwood).
But some Democrats said Missourians could be healthier and smarter if Republican legislative leaders had spent an additional $200 million on Medicaid or education, for example instead of setting it aside for future years as GOP Gov. Matt Blunt recommended.
Saving so much money instead of spending it marks a significant shift for legislators, who typically budget to spend almost all the money expected to come in.
The budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 includes more than $2.8 billion in basic aid for K-12 schools, a nearly 5% increase over the amount originally budgeted for the current year.
Some, like Democrat Sara Lampe, a former Springfield school principal, said that still "does not provide the money to make sure that our children are well-educated."
Others, such as Republican Rep. Bryan Stevenson, of Webb City, countered: "We are spending way too much money on a failing school system."
Besides basic aid, schools also get specialized funding. For example, the budget includes $168 million for transportation a $5 million increase over this year.
Even so, the state busing payments will cover just 52% of the school districts' expected costs down significantly from the 75% threshold of several years ago, said Brent Ghan, a spokesman for the Missouri School Boards' Association. That means schools must spend more of their basic state aid or local tax revenues on buses.
"It's eating into money that could otherwise be spent on class," Ghan said.
Public colleges and universities will get an average funding increase of more than 4% next year. Blunt and lawmakers chose to phase in over several years a more than 12% increase recommended by the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education.
The higher education budget also includes $47 million for Missouri's main financial-need scholarships, a 72% increase. A separate bill passed earlier this week will combine those two scholarships into a single new program that will serve thousands of more students in the future.
State subsidies for cross-state Amtrak passenger train service will rise, despite efforts by some House members to cut them.
Agriculture Department incentive payments to ethanol and biodiesel producers will shoot up to nearly $42 million in next year's budget, compared with less than $14 million in the original budget for the current year.
Rep. Steve Hobbs (R-Mexico) a supporter of the subsidies and an investor in two plants, said the swelling payments are due to a surge in the number of plants being built. For rural Missouri, "it's our economic development piece," he said.
Most state employees will get a 3% raise, the amount recommended by Blunt, though some will get more. Judges and statewide elected officials will get an additional $1,200, plus 4% on top of that the fulfillment of recommendations from a citizens' salary commission.
Missouri foster parents, who now receive some of the lowest government subsidies in the nation, will get their first increase since 2001.
Health care providers also will see rate increases for treating patients covered through the Medicaid program for the poor. The budget includes an additional $25 million to increase payments for physicians, which still is less than a quarter of the amount necessary to raise Medicaid rates to the same level as the federal Medicare program for seniors.
"We're grateful for that, (but) we're going to have to keep doing that" rate-increase plan in future years, said Tom Holloway, a lobbyist for the Missouri State Medical Association. "As it is right now, they literally lose money to see Medicaid patients."
Nursing homes, in-home care providers, contractors for psychiatric, alcohol and drug abuse counseling, and services to the mentally and developmentally disabled also would get rate increases.
Blunt on Wednesday touted a $5.2 million appropriation for the first year of Missouri's new Internet-based virtual school, an amount more than twice what he requested. He said it should provide a good opportunity for home-schooled students and those who needed to make up classes because of illnesses.
But a few lawmakers weren't as enthusiastic. "We're just going to throw this money at this program without knowing how it is going to work. It's bad judgment," said Rep. Michael Corcoran (D-St. Ann).