JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The General Assembly passed its nearly $25 billion operating budget Thursday, just one day before their constitutionally required deadline.
The budget included two provisions that drew criticism from Gov. Jay Nixon, including one that would effectively pit funds for low-income seniors against those for children with disabilities, and another that would only fund two-thirds of part of the Missouri Department of Revenue’s Motor Services Devision.
“This budget irresponsibly pits children with developmental disabilities against low-income seniors,” Nixon told reporters on Friday. “This budget deviates from our time-tested budget management practices by attempting to fund only part of the Fiscal Year.”
The budget would take effect on July 1, but funding would only be available until March 2014. So, Nixon’s administration would have to decide whether to treat it as an eight-month appropriation or as a one-third cut. In a brief statement to reporters earlier in the week, Nixon said that only funding eight months of the department would force him to lay off employees within the division. He was not clear about how many jobs could be cut.
Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, who has for months waved his red pen at Revenue officials — as well as those from the Department of Public Safety — said the funding could be restored when the legislature reconvenes in January if the budget stops its document scanning procedures.
The GOP-led outrage over the Department of Revenue’s document scanning procedures has overshadowed Nixon’s agenda for the past few months. Lawmakers have subpoenaed his administration, pursued remonstrances agains him and, most recently, have announced special investigative committees with the intent of calling him and others to testify.
While the Department of Revenue’s funding issue was basically a Democrat verses Republican issue, the issue of repeal of a tax credit for low-income elderly renters exposed a rift between two members of the same party.
Sen. Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City, stood for several hours Tuesday blocking the passage of House Bill 2, a budget bill that assumes the repeal of some $55 million in tax credits for low-income seniors known as the “Circuit Breaker Tax Credit” in order to fund First Steps, a health care program for children with disabilities.
Effectively, the General Assembly’s budget balances under the assumption that the tax credit is eliminated. The legislation passed the House Thursday, but its future is uncertain in the Senate, and Gov. Jay Nixon has said he opposes its elimination outside of a broader tax credit reform package.
Silvey said about halfway through his filibuster, Senate leadership became involved to orchestrate a deal with House leaders to fund First Steps with General Revenue funds, not funds made available by the elimination of the Circuit Breaker credit.
“The deal is that there are a couple of bills over there that we can use as vehicles to put in language that creates the senior protection fund,” he said. “Create the fund, and order the treasurer to transfer an amount from General Revenue into the fund that would cover those programs, or at least cover First Steps, and that we would put that bill on the governor’s desk.”
Soon after Silvey’s filibuster ended, lawmakers in the House took up Senate Bill 350, which would establish the “Senior Services Protection Fund” and would eliminate the circuit breaker cut.
Nixon said in a statement that he was against eliminating the Circuit Breaker credit on its own, despite the fact that his own Tax Credit Commission called for its elimination in recent years. Nixon said he would only consider it as part of a “balanced approach” to tax credit reform and opposed the bill.
“It is so troubling that budget negotiators in the House and Senate are now engaging in a cynical attempt to pit children with developmental disabilities who are enrolled in the First Steps program against low-income seniors who benefit from the renters’ tax credit,” Nixon said, adding criticism of the lawmakers for voting to approve funding for a new state office building at the same time.
Aside from the policy rift between Silvey and Schaefer, floor debate also included some personal jabs. Speaking on the floor, Schaefer thanked House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream for his work this year, and commented that it was better than years prior — when Silvey was chairman of that committee.
Other lawmakers expressed concerns that the fund swap was executed in conference committee, not in either the House or Senate budget committees — a potential breach in the tradition of not changing items where both bodies had already agreed.
“The conference committee process was injured and there now is a dark shadow that didn’t have to exist because of the failure of one,” said Sen. Maria Chapelle-Nadal, D-St. Louis. “The Senator from Boone,” referring to Schaefer, “created an error in judgment by making this switch.”
Speaking with reporters later in the day, Dempsey said while he was “a little” surprised by the public sparring, he thinks it just comes with the territory of the high-profile, high-pressure job.
“By the time it gets to the floor, it is a little hard for me to interject myself,” he said. “But I’ve seen other years where you’ve seen a dustup on the floor, but you just have to find a way to work through it. So I’m bouncing back and forth across to the House and we got it worked out.”
The legislature’s budget also includes increases in funding for education, including some $66 million for core funding, as well as a broad increase for colleges and universities based on a set of performance criteria.
Both chambers had already agreed on a pay raise for state employees making less than $60,000 each year that would take effect on Jan. 1, 2014, halfway through the budget year. In conference, they added a 4 percent bump for some Department of Mental Health employes, as well as some veterans homes.
The increase would be another in a series of pay increases for state employees. Last year, the House approved a 2 percent pay raise for employees making less than $70,000 a year. That increase took effect in July. Nixon had called for a 2 percent increase for all state employees in his original budget recommendations. es employees.
To contact Eli Yokley, email eli@themissouritimes.com, or via Twitter at @eyokley.
