Blunt uses line-item veto to trim budget

Gov. Matt Blunt vetoed nearly $36 million in state spending on Thursday, contending the cuts were necessary to balance the $19.2 billion budget passed by lawmakers.

Many of the line-item vetoes landed on programs in which the Republican-led legislature had authorized more spending than proposed by the Republican governor. Missouri's budget, which Blunt signed while making the vetoes, takes effect July 1.

Hard hit was the state's tourism division, which lost a quarter of its budget to Blunt's veto pen. The governor eliminated all state funding for Alzheimer's disease research and axed newly proposed grants for child mentoring and community social services programs. He also sliced 3 percent of the amount appropriated to each of the Missouri Mental Health Department's numerous treatment centers.

In Cape Girardeau, the Cottonwood Residential Treatment Center had its appropriation trimmed by $24,103, leaving a total of $2.3 million. Blunt sliced $9,800 for the Sikeston Regional Center, with $1.6 million remaining in the budget.

The Southeast Missouri Innovation Center in Cape Girardeau was among several similar centers around the state to take a 25 percent funding hit through Blunt's budget vetoes. The innovation centers provide fledgling businesses with assistance to help them grow.

Commissioner of administration Michael Keathley, Blunt's chief budget architect, said that when the centers were established public funding was intended to be temporary until they secured sufficient private funding and become self sustaining. However, Keathley said some have been resistant to giving up state support.

"The governor is going to start weaning them off," Keathley said.

After a veto of $80,025, the Southeast Missouri Innovation Center will receive $240,075 from the state.

Officials in Blunt's administration said the vetoes don't reflect a philosophical opposition to the targeted programs.

"A lot of these were good programs," said Blunt spokesman Spence Jackson. "It's just not the appropriate time to be expanding government or growing programs when we're still faced with a very tepid fiscal situation."

Missouri's revenue has improved since early May, when legislators gave final approval to a budget that they assumed would require $26.4 million in general revenue spending vetoes by Blunt in order to be balanced. Blunt ended up vetoing $20.3 million in general revenue spending. The total amount -- $36 million -- is higher because of matching federal money that is lost.

The single largest dollar cut -- $14.7 million in state and federal spending out of a $905 million appropriation -- came by assuming slower inflation rates in pharmaceutical costs through Missouri's Medicaid managed care program.

Officials also have made different assumptions about the effect of a cut to the state's tourism promotion efforts.

Legislators had appropriated $17.8 million in general revenue to the division of tourism for the next fiscal year -- the same amount as the current year. Blunt had proposed to spend $13.2 million, and on Thursday lopped the legislature's budget back down to meet his original suggestion.

The tourism industry had lobbied against the cut, arguing that fewer state expenditures would force a scaled-back marketing campaign, resulting in fewer tourists and a drop in the state's tourism tax dollars.

Missouri Tourism Commission chairwoman Raeanne Presley called Blunt's veto disappointing.

"We believe that during these tough budget times, tourism is here to help. We're a revenue generator," said Presley, co-owner of Presley's Country Jubilee in the tourism stronghold of Branson.

But Blunt's department of economic development, which oversees the tourism division, stood by his decision to cut the funding. Department spokesman Paul Sloca suggested the division could be more efficient in promoting tourism.

"We do not feel this necessary reduction will have an impact on our ability to attract visitors to the Show-Me State," Sloca said.

The legislature also had ignored Blunt's recommendation to eliminate a $227,000 program that funds private and public research on Alzheimer's and related disorders. Participants had said the program provides vital start-up funds for research, which can help pull down much larger federal grants.

But in vetoing the program's funding, Blunt's budget comments said the grant money had a limited impact on curing Alzheimer's disease.

Several programs that Blunt proposed in March to cut or eliminate, yet were funded anyway by legislators, ultimately survived when he signed the budget bills into law. Among those are state subsidies to continue twice-daily Amtrak passenger train service between St. Louis and Kansas City.

Blunt also opted against vetoes to Missouri's Division of Youth Services, which he had previously recommended to cut. House Speaker Rod Jetton, R-Marble Hill, was among numerous lawmakers who had expressed concern about cutting the division, which is often cited as a national model.