Senator David Sater's Statement on Closing of
Missouri Rehabilitation Center

“The closing of the Missouri Rehabilitation Center is devastating news for the city of Mt. Vernon, Lawrence County and all of southwest Missouri. MRC has been serving patients for over 100 years and is an integral part of the local community. It seems the facility’s closing is the result of the governor’s recent veto of half of MRC’s appropriation this year and future plans to eliminate all state funding for its operation. The governor included full funding in his initial budget and the Legislature included full funding in the completed budget. Not once has the University of Missouri or the governor’s office voiced intentions to close the facility or signaled the funding would be cut.

Since the largest employer in the county is shutting its doors and hundreds of hard-working Lawrence Countians will be out of a job, I think we deserve answers as to why this funding was cut and why there was not a dialogue with employees, administrators and local leaders on ways to keep MRC open.

I am deeply disappointed in the way this situation was handled and the lack of communication by both the University of Missouri system and the governor’s office. Two and a half months is not enough time for people who work there to find gainful employment or to decide to uproot their families and move across the state.

I am committed to doing whatever I can to help the employees at MRC. I will be working with my colleagues to override the governor’s veto of MRC’s funding to put as much pressure as possible on the University and the governor to give this facility the time it needs to bring in new services and more patients to become self-sustaining. To cut and run now is a betrayal of the hard-working employees and local community that has supported MRC for so many years.”