House leaders say Nixon budget plans could bring trouble for schools

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Two Republican leaders of the Missouri House of Representatives praised Gov. Jay Nixon's approach in Wednesday's State of the State message but warn there may be trouble ahead, especially for local schools, if some of Nixon's recommendations go into effect.

House Budget Committee chairman Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City, said there appear to be flaws in the plan that would involve an influx of $189 million from the federal government to local school districts. Before Nixon's address, his budget chief, Linda Luebbering, said the administration is working with local districts to get them to withhold a total of $112 million and carry it forward into the 2012 fiscal year. That would make the state expenditure on education the same next fiscal year as the current fiscal year, around $300 million.

Silvey said that scenario would probably cause a change in the distribution model of the state's foundation formula, the elaborate mechanism that controls state fund distribution to the state's elementary and secondary schools.

"By pushing additional federal money to the districts this year and assuming that they're just going to hold on to it ... and appropriate them less next year, I don't think that necessarily works out the way that he envisions it," Silvey said. "By decreasing next year's appropriation in the formula, you change the distribution, because you are actually distributing less through the formula.

"While the bottom line may be exactly the same ... what gets to the local districts won't be the same, and we have some concerns about that."

Silvey said he's not sure what districts would be affected by a change in distribution under the formula.

Silvey said he favors some kind of a change to the foundation formula. On Wednesday, the state board of education called on lawmakers to freeze the next scheduled round of the formula implementation due to the uncertain level of state funding.

House Speaker Steven Tilley of Perryville praised Nixon for his emphasis on holding the line on state spending and balancing the state budget with no new taxes. But he said the governor may have gotten a little overexuberant in his assessment of the state's early turnaround.

"Probably a third of the speech was devoted to ... patting everyone on the back and talking about how wonderful everyone had done," Tilley said. "When you've got nine-and-a-half percent unemployment, when you've got families struggling, when you've got a half-a-billion-dollar budget shortfall, I don't think the people of this state want to hear politicians stand up and talk about how great they are."

Tilley was critical of the governor's handling of tax credits for business development while seeming to ignore the ideas of statewide business groups that met at the state Capitol last week.

Tilley was also caught off-guard by the governor's call for caps on campaign contributions. He noted that governors were at one time barred from taking any more than $1,200 from a single contributor.

"He's taken more over-the-limit contributions than any politician in state history," Tilley said. "It's kind of ironic."

House Minority Leader Rep. Mike Talboy, D-Kansas City, said Nixon was right to bring up the issue.

"I think that when you're on the right side of an issue, it's always a good thing to talk about," Talboy said. "When you can give more to the state representative candidate in your district than you can to the president of the United States ... it's always something the public is going to be concerned about."

Talboy said the governor hit the right notes in his assessment of the economic conditions in the state.

"You have to start from the basics when you're trying to rebuild your economy," Talboy said. "And when you're talking about jobs, education ... you're talking about the cornerstones that need to be out there."