State lawmakers will against be asked to send voters a measure to pay for a new veterans home in Missouri.

Representative Lindell Shumake (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Lindell Shumake (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Hannibal representative Lindell Shumake sponsored the idea in the session that ended in May.

“We have seven homes. There’s 1,350 beds total among the seven homes that we have, and there’s a waiting list that according to the numbers I get, it varies between 1,700 and 1,900 at any one time,” Shumake told Missourinet. “That is veterans that are qualified and would like to be in a veterans home.”

The Missouri Veterans Commission says the number of veterans waiting to get into a Missouri veterans home is currently about 1,950.

It is estimated a new home would cost about $50-million.

“It’s basically going to the voters and saying, ‘Can we borrow $50-million in bonding,” said Shumake. “That would specify that amount for this purpose – for a veterans nursing home.”

Shumake thinks voters would support the plan.

“Veterans, I believe, are being held in high esteem, and when [voters] see the situation … I think people would be very supportive.”

The proposal cleared the state House in this year’s session but was one that stalled out when the Senate was locked in a filibuster after a vote in that chamber on a “right to work” measure.

Shumake is optimistic the measure will clear the legislature in 2016.  He hopes to have it ready to file on the first day of bill filing, December 1.

Where a new home would be built has not been determined.