The Missouri General Assembly has one constitutionally mandated job, and that is to pass a balanced state budget by 6 p.m. on the Friday before the last day of session, which this year is May 13.  As we draw near to the beginning of the 2016 legislative session – as is typical for this time of year – much attention is being paid to the $26 billion budget and mapping out a successful course for meeting that critical deadline.

In accordance with guidelines set forth by the Office of Administration’s (OA) Division of Budget and Planning, state agencies prepared and submitted budget requests to OA by October 1.  After that office analyzes those requests, the Executive Budget will be published in mid-January, and will be presented by the governor in his State of the State Address he will give to a Joint Session of the Legislature in the latter part of January.  Budget appropriations bills are then introduced by the Chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Following introduction, appropriations bills are referred to the House Budget Committee for assignment to the appropriate House Appropriations Committee. Each committee will hold hearings in late January or early February for agencies to testify on their budget requests and the governor’s recommendations.  Additionally, early in the session, the House Budget Committee will conduct hearings on emergency and supplemental requests.  House Appropriations Committees “mark-up” the operating budgets, which are then presented to the House Budget Committee, where they are either accepted, altered or rejected.  The bills approved by the House Budget Committee are then sent to the full House of Representatives with a committee recommendation.

All appropriations bills for the operating budget are brought before the House of Representatives, and once passed are sent to the Senate, usually with about one-third of the session remaining.

In the meantime, the Senate Appropriations Committee also conducts hearings and begins to prepare an appropriations bill for emergency and supplemental items.  The Senate Appropriations Committee then conducts hearings and “marks-up” the capital budget to develop a Senate budget version.

Then, the full Senate adopts or amends Senate budget versions for appropriations on various budgets. The Senate then returns the appropriations bills to the House of Representatives for acceptance or for further discussion.

To iron out differences between House and Senate versions, Conference Committees consisting of five members from the House and five members from the Senate meet to achieve compromises and settle differences. Those bills are then returned to the full House and Senate to be Truly Agreed To and Finally Passed, before they are sent to the governor for signature.

The governor has the option to either sign an appropriations bill, veto the entire bill or line-item veto part or all sections or lines in the bill. The governor has until July 1 to act on appropriations bills, at which time the funds become available to be expended. The Legislature may override the governor’s veto of a bill or line-item by a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate during fall veto session.

As always, please feel free to contact me or my staff with any questions or concerns at any time. We look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions and trying to answer any questions you may have. You can reach us by phone at (866) 277-0882 (toll-free) or (573) 751-2272, or by fax at (573) 526-7381.