A seat at the table - bringing state dollars home to southeast Missouri

Life is often about competition.

The notion is true not only in sports but when it comes to divvying up state revenues among Missouri's 114 counties.

Lawmakers from Southeast Missouri say other parts of the Show Me State are getting greater slices of the fiscal pie.

"I think when you look at the amount of money spent in Southwest Missouri compared to our region, for example, it's an alarming difference," said Rep. Jamie Burger of Benton, assistant House majority floor leader -- the no. 4 leadership position in the General Assembly's lower chamber.

Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder of Scott City is one of two senators who are hosting frequent breakfast meetings with legislators to discuss, among other matters, budget requests.

Holly Thompson Rehder

Holly Thompson Rehder

"We haven't banded together (before) and been decisive in our requests," said Thompson Rehder, whose senatorial district encompasses seven counties: Cape Girardeau, Perry, Scott, Bollinger, Iron, Madison and Reynolds.

"Southwest Missouri has thought more regionally and we need to do the same," she added, in remarks to a Jan. 20 legislative panel at Show Me Center.

"Springfield has done a nice job of coming together and packaging their wants into a common document," said Rep. John Voss of Cape Girardeau, a first-year legislator who took his District 147 seat earlier this month.

"Southwest Missouri has been very successful in leveraging funds from the state for workforce development and economic development," Voss added, noting Springfield's Missouri State University "was able to secure a structural core appropriation increase a couple of years ago in addition to the same across the board increase that Southeast Missouri State and all other higher education institutions in the state received."

Drilling down

John Voss

John Voss

According to Missouri Budget Project, mobudget.org, using statistics derived from the state's Office of Administration, Division of Budget Planning, SEMO received less than half the core funding allotted to Missouri State University for Fiscal Year 2022.

• SEMO: $47,802,009.
• Missouri State: $97,979,099.

There is a significant difference, however, in enrollment between the two schools.

According to a 2022 "Factbook" prepared by state Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development, dhewd.mo.gov, Missouri State's full-time equivalent enrollment was 16,098, while SEMO's was 7,764.

As recently as 2014, SEMO's FTE enrollment was 9,478 while MSU's 2017 figure was 19,741 -- with both figures constituting the schools' high-water marks over the past decade.

Future

"We haven't had much of a budget presence in the past and we have that today," said Burger, who noted that given his leadership role in the 102nd General Assembly, he is an ex-officio member on all committees of the House, including Budget.

Voss has secured a position this session on the House Budget Committee, as well as roles on two subcommittees dealing with education, health, mental health and social services.

Thompson Rehder is chair of the senate's Fiscal Oversight Committee and is a member of the upper chamber's Appropriations Committee.

"We need a more regional focus, a regional voice (and) we have a seat at the table with (legislators) on those committees," said Burger. "I think you will see a greater impact with Missouri state dollars distributed a bit more equitably across the state."