$19 billion budget for state exceeds governor's target

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Legislature on Thursday gave final approval to a $19.2 billion state operating budget that, despite large core cuts to Medicaid and other programs, would increase overall government spending by $323.6 million.

In sending the 13 appropriations bills that make up the state budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 to Republican Gov. Matt Blunt, the GOP-led legislature finished four months of work in which it was the target of frequent protests by advocacy groups unhappy with the party's spending priorities.

The final version of the bills call for a 1.7 percent increase in total state spending from what lawmakers originally approved for the current fiscal year. However, Blunt has the authority to veto individual spending items before signing the bills into law. The total cost is $26.3 million more than the amount Blunt recommended in January.

Under the budget, about 100,000 low-income Missourians will lose their health-care coverage under Medicaid. However, about 900,000 others will continue to receive benefits.

Senate Budget Committee chairman Chuck Gross, R-St. Charles, said the state can no longer sustain the burgeoning costs of the more than $5.3 billion program without action to limit spending.

"The governor was very clear. He said he we have to bring our expenses under control," Gross said. "One of the most rapidly growing areas on the expense side was the Medicaid budget."

State Sen. Pat Dougherty, D-St. Louis, said the Medicaid cuts will backfire because recipients kicked off the program will still get sick. Rather than having the program pay for their health care, Dougherty said, they will flood emergency rooms for treatment. Hospitals will then pass on their expenses for care of the indigent to those with private insurance.

"It's wrong for the governor to have put us in this box," Dougherty said. "I think we will probably rue the day we did this because the private sector, one way or another, will pick up the cost."

Both parties made boosting elementary and secondary education spending a top priority. The budget includes a $170 million increase in direct state aid to local school districts.

A cut to public colleges and universities the Senate had proposed as a way to restore some of the Medicaid reductions was dropped from the final budget. As a result, Southeast Missouri State University will maintain its state appropriation of $43.8 million, the same as for the current year.

Funding for two Department of Mental Health facilities in Southeast Missouri that serve clients with mental and developmental disabilities will increase by more than $200,000 each. The Poplar Bluff and Sikeston regional centers are slated for separate appropriations of more than $1.6 million.

Spending for the Cottonwood Residential Treatment Center in Cape Girardeau would drop slightly to around $2.35 million.

The appropriation for the Southeast Missouri Correctional Center, a Charleston prison, would drop by about $82,000 to just over $11 million.

The budget bills are HBs 1-13.

mpowers@semissourian.com

(573) 635-4608