Engagement office unfunded in 2016 budget

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- After tensions flared in Ferguson and around the country when Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer in August, Gov. Jay Nixon created the Office of Community Engagement as a centerpiece to address concerns in the state's low-income and minority communities.

Nixon wants to fund that office in the fiscal 2016 budget, but the House Republican version of the budget contains no money for it. Lawmakers said there are other avenues to address such issues, and don't agree with the way the Democratic governor created the office through an executive order and funded it with $350,000 from various state departments.

House Budget Committee chairman Tom Flanigan, R-Carthage, said he doesn't plan to add funding for the office to the budget awaiting consideration by his panel.

Other state offices do similar things, he said, and since there was no statute that created the office, he doesn't know how he would appropriate funding for it.

The Office of Community Engagement has worked to facilitate a summer jobs program for 3,500 youths in the greater St. Louis and Kansas City areas, helped set up a job fair in north St. Louis County and is tasked with coordinating services and programs for low-income residents among state agencies and citizen groups.