Mo. Senate panel expected to endorse budget plan

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Missouri Senate committee is expected to sign off on a budget plan that cuts funding for social services but not education.

The Senate Appropriations Committee was to meet Thursday to vote on its version of a $24 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Over the past week, the committee already has embraced key elements of the budget plan, including a decision to hold funding flat for public colleges and universities. The panel also has cut funding for state grants to preschools and for subsidized child care to low-income working parents.

The Senate's budget plan makes a smaller cut than the House had proposed in a health care program for the blind. But the Senate plan assumes participants would start paying deductibles and premiums.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.