The Missouri General Assembly is one step closer to completing the one constitutionally mandated task: passing a budget.
Sen. Bob Onder joins Scott Faughn on This Week in Missouri Politics as the featured guest and they dive right into the version of the budget passed by the Senate.
“I think we passed a good budget. A budget that honors our commitments to elementary education, we restored the cuts in higher education that the governor suggested — so we funded higher education,” says Onder. “With more money for transportation infrastructure — which our state badly needs — for law enforcement, we passed a budget that honors our commitments and at the same time is balanced without raising taxes. So, I think we did really good work in the Senate.”
The budget now goes to conference and Onder believes the legislature will “be sending a very good, fiscally balanced budget to the governor’s desk.”
The “Paycheck Protection Bill” is also moving through the legislature. The bill would require public employees to opt-in to a union every year, though police and firefighters are not part of the legislation this year.
“Sometimes you do have to make compromises to get legislation like that across the aisle but I am hopeful we can to that this year,” says Onder.
Joining the opinion maker panel is former-Rep. John Mayfield, Rep. Marsha Haefner, David Barklage, and Brad Bakker where they discussion Gov. Eric Greitens and his continuing saga along with the U.S. Senate race.
“In politics, a lot of the time when you are doing something right, you are being attacked,” Barklage says, referring to Hawley being attacked by Greitens and Senator Claire McCaskill.
Tune in for the full episode Sunday morning.
Alisha Shurr was a reporter for The Missouri Times and The Missouri Times Magazine. She joined The Missouri Times in January 2018 after working as a copy editor for her hometown newspaper in Southern Oregon. Alisha is a graduate of Kansas State University.
