JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – On the first day of the Senate Appropriations Committee reviewing the Governor’s recommendations for the budget, both Senate Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, and House Budget Chairman Tom Flanigan, R-Carthage, stated they will be cautious going forward due to past conflict regarding the consensus revenue estimate (CRE).
The leaders said “the games played by the Governor’s Office have made it nearly impossible to work toward a fiscally responsible budget based on realistic revenue projections.”
“Last year, after agreeing with us on a CRE, the governor came in late in the budget process with an amendment that in effect blew the consensus estimate out of the water,” said Flanigan. “The governor asked us to appropriate an additional $80 million based on his numbers that grew the original CRE by nearly an entire percentage point. As a legislature we want to be fiscally responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, but it’s a constant fight against a governor who continues to move the goal line any time it suits him.”
Schaefer agreed with Flanigan.
“This year we had a tentative agreement on revenue and then the governor showed up with over $100 million in additional revenue from ‘collections additions’ in his budget that effectively increased the revenue estimate by more than a percent,” said Schaefer. “It’s almost impossible to work with a governor who agrees to a revenue number only to increase it significantly just six weeks later, but these are the kinds of games we have been subjected to during his time in office.”
House appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2017 will be filed on Wednesday, said Flanigan. The House will cautiously base its budget on the governor’s recommendations.
“The governor has a budget based on numbers we think are unrealistic, which means we will have our work cut out for us as we do our best to transform his proposal into a fiscally responsible spending plan,” said Flanigan.
“It is troubling to find revenue irregularities in the Governor’s budget at this point in the process,” Schaefer said. We will evaluate the information we now have to determine if the estimate is still reasonable.”
Rachael Herndon was the editor at The Missouri Times and also produced This Week in Missouri Politics, published Missouri Times Magazine, and co-hosted the #MoLeg podcast. She joined The Missouri Times in 2014, returning to political reporting after working as a campaign and legislative staffer.
Rachael studied at the University of Missouri – Columbia. She lives in Jefferson City with her husband, Brandon, and their two children.
