Legislative News

After months of hard work on the part of lawmakers in both chambers, the Missouri General Assembly gave its final approval this week to the state’s $27.8 billion spending plan for Fiscal Year 2018. In addition to serving on the Senate Appropriations Committee, I was honored to be appointed to all of this session’s budget conference committees. 

Two of the biggest concerns throughout the budget process this year were the proposed cuts to in-home care and nursing care programs and the proposed repeal of the Missouri Property Tax Credit — more commonly known as the “circuit breaker” tax credit program. As you may recall, due to the state’s strained budget situation, the governor proposed raising the threshold for the elderly and disabled to qualify for in-home care and nursing care programs, which would’ve caused thousands to lose access to care. To keep this scenario from playing out, legislation was offered to repeal the renter’s provision of the circuit breaker program.

The circuit breaker program is meant to help low-income seniors and the disabled remain in their homes by giving them what is basically a 20 percent refund on the property taxes or rent they pay. Considering that approximately 100,000 low-income seniors living in every corner of the state benefit from it, eliminating even a portion of it would have disastrous consequences.

Clearly, neither one of these options — repealing the circuit breaker renter’s provision or choosing not to repeal it and have thousands of our state’s most vulnerable citizens lose their access to critical in-home and nursing care programs — was the right decision. As I said in a previous column, there were other places in the budget we could recover the money we need. We just needed to find it, and that’s precisely what the Senate did late Thursday evening. 

Rather than repealing the renter’s provision of the circuit breaker program, I offered an amendment to allow the Office of Administration to do a one-time sweep of $35.4 million in unused funds from Missouri’s various boards, commissions, agencies, etc. The money will then be deposited into the Missouri Senior Services Protection Fund to cover the costs of the circuit breaker program in its current form and funding in-home and nursing care services for those who were at risk of losing their care. I am very pleased to say my amendment passed. Provided the House adopts the Senate’s amended language, both the circuit breaker program and the in-home care and nursing care funding will remain intact.

As reported in last week’s column, the biggest highlight of this year’s budget is that state lawmakers have approved full funding of Missouri’s Foundation Formula for the first time since it was passed by the Legislature in 2005. The formula was created as a means of ensuring every school district in the state receives the necessary funding to provide an adequate education for their students — regardless of whether they live in a small community or large, urban or rural area. With a fully funded Foundation Formula, Missouri school districts are set to receive nearly $3.4 billion in basic aid for FY 2018.

Other education budget highlights include a $2 million increase for virtual education, a $12 million increase for early childhood special education and additional funding for school transportation costs. To help make higher education more affordable for Missouri students, the Access MO Scholarship program will receive $76.5 million, and Bright Flight will see a bump in funding of $4 million.

The budget bills are now headed to the governor for his consideration. Fiscal Year 2018 begins July 1, 2017.

It continues to be an honor serving the men, women and children of Missouri’s 9th Senate District. As we move forward through session, please know I value your input, and I invite you to visit my Capitol office if you are ever in Jefferson City.

For a complete list of all Sen. Curls' sponsored legislation and committee assignments, please click here or visit her official Senate website at www.senate.mo.gov/mem09/.