Crafting the state budget is the only duty the Legislature is constitutionally required to complete each year. It’s also one of the hardest. The Senate Appropriations chairman probably put it best when he said every year’s budget is a balancing act among competing interests, priorities and available revenue. Trying to get just a few people to agree is difficult. Getting nearly 200 lawmakers to agree is a task that takes months.

The budget often comes into focus in the later weeks of April, as the bills start moving between chambers and conference committees are called. In reality, work on the state’s spending plan begins the second we gavel in for session. Appropriations committee members and staff go line by line through the budget, take hours of testimony from departments, and consider requests from legislators. It’s a long process.

Those efforts finally culminated on Thursday this week with the passage of Missouri’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget, approved a day before the deadline. The final operating plan totals $26.4 billion, an increase over last year, and a sign that our state’s economy is continuing to bounce back from the 2008 financial crisis.

The final version of the budget contains a $115 million increase to the already $3.1 billion provided in state aid to public schools. However, there is a slight difference with this year’s budget in that for the first time in years, the Legislature and governor didn’t agree on a baseline number for the budget. Legislators took a more pragmatic approach, as we felt it’s better to be fiscally responsible. But, if revenue exceeds expectations, public schools in Missouri could receive a total of $278 million.

Additionally, school transportation funding was increased by $15 million, which is particularly important to areas like ours where students often have to travel many miles to go to school. Providing ample transportation funding prevents those schools from having to dip into their general state aid to pay for the costs of transporting students.

We included a $43 million increase to higher education institutions for performance-based funding, a model more and more states are moving toward. We also added $6 million in equity funding to Missouri community colleges, which play a valuable, but sometimes underappreciated role, in educating our students and preparing them for future careers.

Other notable items include $8.5 million increase in First Steps; $1 million increase in the Parents as Teachers program; $6.7 million for the A+ Schools program; $15 million for the MO Access Scholarship program; a 1 percent raise for state employees; and funding for the bonding proposal to rebuild the Fulton State Mental Hospital, which is the oldest mental hospital west of the Mississippi and badly in need of being rebuilt. 

The FY 2015 budget will go into effect on July 1, 2014.

If you have any questions or comments about this or any other matter regarding your state government, please feel free to contact me at (573) 751-1503; you are also welcome to e-mail me at jay.wasson@senate.mo.gov.