Committee budget plan gives boost to schools

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The House Budget Committee signed off Thursday night on a roughly $19 billion budget plan that would boost school spending while cutting some health-care services for the fiscal year that begins in July.

Highlights of the legislation include $4.8 billion for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, a roughly $76 million increase from the 2005 budget. However, about $100 million worth of programs that had been under education, such as personal care assistance, were transferred to other agencies, so the increase actually would be higher.

The budget includes nearly $2.2 billion, a $113 million increase from the current year, for basic state aid to public schools.

Colleges and universities generally would be held at the same funding level they received in the current year.

The budget also includes more than $5.8 billion for the Department of Social Services, a 6 percent decrease from the current year. The agency oversees Medicaid, among other programs.

While lawmakers say spending on the government health-care program for the poor, elderly and disabled is rising, the budget assumes eligibility changes that will rein in costs and knock more than 100,000 of an estimated 1 million Missourians off the program.

The budget committee also spelled out that 500 state case workers should focus exclusively starting next fiscal year on ensuring that people on Medicaid are still eligible for the services.

House Budget Committee chairman Brad Lager, R-Maryville, has said he agrees the Bellefontaine center should close, but it could not happen by July 1, so funding was restored to keep it running with the intent of closing it when possible.

The Corrections Department budget also closes Camp Hawthorne near the Lake of the Ozarks, where prisoners help keep up park grounds.

In addition, the state budget no longer includes a 1 percent pay raise for state workers, as Blunt had proposed.

Despite earlier proposals to cut funding, the budget also maintains state money to keep Amtrak trains running between St. Louis and Kansas City and continues funding for Alzheimer's research.

"Although we'd love to do more, it's a responsible budget. It's a reasonable budget," Lager said as the committee finished voting.

On Thursday, Democrats tried several times to cut some funding for information technology across state government and for air ambulance services and put it instead toward social services programs to help children and those with disabilities.

"We are trying to restore services to people who really don't have options," said Rep. Margaret Donnelly, D-St. Louis.

Lager said he could support restoring some money to such programs, but disagreed with eliminating funding for the air ambulance program.

The budget also includes $26 million for the First Steps program, which provides therapy for developmentally disabled infants and toddlers. Blunt originally proposed funding reductions that would have essentially eliminated the program, but backtracked after an outcry from parents. The current plan would continue the program but require some payments by participating families and require insurers to cover some services.

The budget plan is expected to be debated and passed in the House next week. It then would go to the Senate.

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Budget bills are HB1-13.

On the Net:

Legislature: http://www.moga.mo.gov