Conference Committee Set to Meet Following Senate’s Passage of Budget
This week, the Senate passed a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Moreover, for the first time in more than a decade, the Missouri Senate passed a budget that would fully fund the formula for K-12 education. Many areas in the budgets do not have formulas similar to the education formula. Because they do not have formulas, it is not as simple to say whether those areas and their programs and initiatives are being “fully funded”. But what if everything in the state’s budget had a formula? It is likely that every formula would be generous, requiring many funds, and thus it would be challenging, if not impossible, for the Legislature to fully fund every program, department, initiative, and district project.
When a state operates on a balanced budget, it cannot provide unlimited funds for everything. This is why the Senate passed a budget that fully funds the education formula for the first time. The state has to prioritize and, as legislators, my colleagues and I, representing every aspect, culture, idea and desire of Missouri, try to maximize the number of programs and initiatives to fund under a strict balanced-budget approach.
By fully funding the K-12 education formula, the Senate has given little room for the conference committee to address any budgetary differences between both chambers of the General Assembly. Because the House and the Senate chose to fully fund the education formula, the conference committee cannot consider it. This could have two significant consequences. One, by fully funding the formula, which may trigger mandatory spending, the state could be in the hole next fiscal year by tens of millions of dollars. Second, with little wiggle room, the conference committee may be forced to cut from other programs — programs that affect thousands of disabled and low-income Missourians — to supplement the potential hole the state may be in next year.
This is not to say that a fully funded education formula should not be encouraged. Perhaps the conference committee could have funded the formula ninety-nine percent of the way. But for the Senate to shortchange the committee, the committee will have fewer options to save both money and programs that benefit thousands of Missourians.
We have a budgetary process for a reason. The reason to establish a conference committee is to address bicameral differences with a wide latitude of options. Yet with the Senate undermining the budgetary process, the Senate’s decision to take away that wide latitude not only defeats the committee’s purpose but also threatens our ability to meet the constitutional deadline by next Friday.
As chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I look forward to getting a budget sent to the governor by next Friday evening, potentially saving thousands of taxpayer dollars needed for a special session.
As always, I encourage my constituents to contact me throughout the year with comments, questions or suggestions by calling my office at (573) 751-5713. To find more information about the bills I sponsor, visit www.senate.mo.gov/brown. Thank you for reading this and for your participation in state government.