Mo. Senate budget cut may miss target

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri senators trying to target budget cuts at the agency that issues driver's licenses instead might have blocked funding for the registration of boats and mobile homes. Other Senate cuts could cancel funding for police training and the collection of child support, the state budget director said Tuesday.

A day after the Senate passed a budget plan packed with attention-grabbing cuts, an analysis of those cuts conducted by the state budget chief indicates some reductions might have missed their intended mark while others could have unintended consequences.

Most prominent among the cuts is the elimination of the entire $3.5 million allotment and 37 full-time employee positions for the Motor Vehicle and Driver Licensing Division. GOP senators said their intent was to hold some negotiating leverage over licensing officials as they seek more information about the way the agency gathers, retains and distributes information about driver's license applicants.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer told colleagues during debate that, if the proposed cut ultimately became law, "they will not be able to issue any driver's licenses."

Gov. Jay Nixon's budget director, Linda Luebbering, said the cut would not actually hit the budget line that finances driver's licenses. Instead, she said, it would prevent processing of titles and registrations for boats, ATVs and manufactured homes. Luebbering said the cut also could prevent the state from issuing licenses to dealers and manufacturers of motor vehicles and boats.

She said funding for the issuance of driver's licenses actually is located in a separate budget line, which the Senate left untouched at $22.9 million.

"That's news to me, and that is not how they have ever explained the budget to us," said Schaefer, R-Columbia.

The Senate plan also cuts funding to other sections of the Department of Revenue budget and the Department of Public Safety. Luebbering said some of those cuts could eliminate funding for a contractor that collects and distributes child support payments and for the licensing and training of police officers.