Holden to veto public schools budget

Associated Press Writer

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Gov. Bob Holden aimed his veto pen at the budget for Missouri's public schools Thursday as he continued a weeklong crusade against spending cuts passed by the Republican-led Legislature.

Holden said he would veto the $4.5 billion budget for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and intends to say announce Friday when he will call lawmakers into a special session on the budget.

He left open the possibility of announcing even more vetoes Friday but does not plan to reveal then what tax increases he will be asking lawmakers to refer to voters as a way to avoid the cuts.

Since Monday, Holden has announced vetoes of roughly two-thirds of the expenditures in the nearly $19 billion budget passed by lawmakers before their regular session ended May 16.

Holden claims their budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 is $367 million out of balance despite making $354 million in cuts that he opposes in education, health and social services. In the past, he has advocated tax increases on tobacco products, casinos and wealthy Missourians, as well as the elimination of what he terms "tax loopholes."

Republican legislative leaders insist the budget is no more than $12 million short of balancing and say they will not ask voters to raise taxes. If anything, they may make a few more cuts in a special session before sending Holden substantially the same budget they passed before.

Top Republicans also have questioned whether Holden has the legal authority to veto the budget bill for public schools.

The Missouri Constitution, in a section about the partial veto of budget bills, provides that "the governor shall not reduce any appropriation for free public schools."

"We do not believe (Holden's veto) is constitutional," Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau said in a telephone interview Thursday.

But Holden's legal counsel, David Cosgrove, noted the governor is not using the line-item veto referenced in the constitution.

Instead of reducing only some items in the budget bill, he is vetoing the whole thing -- which isn't prohibited in the constitution, according to Cosgrove, who is a former member of the attorney general's staff.

"The drafters of the constitution, if they wanted to prohibit a general veto, they could have said, 'There shall be no veto relative to public schools,"' Cosgrove said. "They don't. They say there shall be no reduction."

House Speaker Catherine Hanaway, in a Capitol news conference Wednesday, said that is a meaningless distinction.

"Vetoing the whole bill, it has the same effect as vetoing all of the line items," said Hanaway, R-Warson Woods.

Holden repeated his veto message later Thursday at a school in Independence, where he said the budget cuts could cost the school district $2.7 million and force it to eliminate 110 teaching positions.

Independence schools superintendent Jim Hinson said those cuts would amount to one out of every eight positions in the district.

"At this time, we have not only tightened our belt and become more efficient and accountable, but we have had to cut into the muscle of our operation," Hinson said.

The budget passed by the Legislature contains $163 million less in basic state aid to schools than this year's appropriation. It also cuts aid for busing, technology grants, programs for gifted students and the state's standardized achievement tests, among other things.

"Cutting these programs is the wrong direction for our state, and it's the wrong direction for our children," Holden said in making his announcement at the Capitol.

The cuts still leave schools with about $2 billion in basic state aid in the upcoming fiscal year -- about 7.5 percent below this year's appropriation.

However, schools have not received the full amount this year. Because of budget troubles, Holden announced Feb. 28 that he was withholding $61 million from elementary and secondary schools.

Since then, state revenues have continued to fall short of expectations. Holden said he plans to announce more current-year spending cuts, perhaps as soon as Friday.

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On the Net:

Missouri Legislature: http://www.moga.state.mo.us

Gov. Bob Holden: http://www.gov.state.mo.us

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