For the first time in years, Missouri lawmakers are facing a tighter budget.
Legislators have passed record-breaking budgets the past few years, bolstered by a surplus of federal dollars. However, most of those dollars are now spent or likely to remain in reserves.
Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, D-Kansas City, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the state’s essentially flat revenue means a difficult upcoming budget process.
“The departments are asking for more money than we anticipate that we're going to collect. So that's going to be tough. We're not going to be able to fund everything,” Nurrenbern said.
One area of spending that Nurrenbern hopes remains consistent is education spending. A former teacher, she wants lawmakers to again fully fund the state’s K-12 public education formula and the state’s obligation for school transportation.
“Schools have to provide transportation and so making sure that they have the resources to do that, that doesn't require them to take it out of other areas, like after-school programming,” Nurrenbern said.
Nurrenbern made her comments on Politically Speaking. Here’s what else she discussed during the show:
- Other education priorities she wants to see passed this year. They include proposals to fully fund school lunch programs and legislation that gives more leeway to schools when it comes to annual standardized testing.
- Her opposition to a request from Treasurer Vivek Malek to allocate $100 million to the state’s private school voucher program. Nurrenbern believes the money allocated last year to the program is unconstitutional.
- Republicans’ goals to pass legislation aimed at phasing out the income tax. Nurrenbern said a decrease in income taxes likely means higher taxes elsewhere.
- The fractious end of the 2025 Missouri legislative session in the Senate between Republicans and Democrats and how that could shape the upcoming session.
- The 2026 election and her thoughts on Democrats’ chances to break the supermajority in the Missouri Senate.
Kansas City-area voters elected Nurrenbern to the 17th District seat in the Senate in 2024. She is in the middle of her first term.
Prior to joining the Senate, Nurrenbern served four years in the House after being elected in 2020.
