May 21, 2013

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Legislature passes bills meant to fill in budget gaps for children, blind

May 20, 2013 By

The legislature and the Governor blame one another for a situation that left the state budget in need of additional legislative action to balance it. On Friday the legislature passed two bills meant to be the final step.

Representative Rick Stream (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (at the Mic) explains the provision in HB 986 meant to round out the legislature’s proposed FY 2014 budget. (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Each of those bills includes a provision to create the Missouri Senior Services Protection Fund. That fund would receive $55.1 million from General Revenue, which is coming in to the state coffers ahead of projections, and use it to support four programs. Those are First Steps, a program for children with developmental disabilities, health care for the blind, medical clinics that treat low-income patients and special initiatives for early childhood.

Those programs were to have been funded by the repeal of a tax credit for low-income seniors living in rental housing, the passage of which Governor Jay Nixon and the House and Senate all built into their budget proposals. However, after the House had approved its budget plan and while the Senate was debating its plan, Nixon said he would veto that bill if it was not passed as part of a larger tax credit reform package. It was passed as a stand-alone and Nixon did veto it.

The two bills passed by the legislature on Friday are now awaiting the Governor’s action.

One of them, HB 116, would one would allow second-class counties to be audited by the State Auditor at any time and specifies those counties must cover the expense of those audits. It would also have details about budget cuts made by a governor and local bond issuances be posted on a state website.

The second, HB 986, would create an interim committee to study Medicaid expansion and reform in Missouri, and would extend the Ticket to Work program’s expiration date. That program provides Medicaid coverage to disabled individuals who want to work but risk losing government health care by earning too much.

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Funding for developmentally disabled, blind still in question on final morning of session

May 17, 2013 By

One unresolved issue in this final day of the legislative session is how four programs will be funded, that the legislature tied in its budget to the passage of a bill to repeal a tax credit for low-income seniors in rental properties.

Those are First Steps, that supports families with children with developmental disabilities, early childhood education, healthcare for the blind and community health centers.

House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

House leadership had earlier in the week said that one possibility was to attach that tax credit repeal to a larger tax credit reform package. It was amended on the House floor to a Senate bill, SB 24, on Wednesday, but the House failed to adopt the changes. The same amendment had been among those drafted for SB 112 that the House sent back to the Senate yesterday, but it was not offered on the floor.

House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) says the Senate has indicated it won’t support the tax credit repeal.

Instead, it has amended language to a couple of bills to use higher-than-expected state revenue to fund those programs. Stream had first been cool to that approach because it would mean exceeding the Consensus Revenue Estimate, a budget spending amount agreed to by the House, the Senate and the Governor in December. He says now, however, that’s the way to go.

“We have to face reality, and the reality is that the Senate has moved in a different direction in the last several days. So, we’re going to follow suit and make sure the people get the funding for the programs that we think need to be funded.”

The Senate’s funding mechanism has been added to HB 986, which has been sent back to the House where it will likely be taken up today.

Stream maintains Governor Jay Nixon created the question of how those programs would be supported.

He says the legislature’s budget was balanced on, “a bill that the Governor had initially proposed in his budget, had supported for three months, then backed away from it at the last minute.”

House leadership has said that the bill to repeal that senior renters tax credit used language drafted and offered by the Governor’s Office, and that Nixon’s state Budget Director Linda Luebbering had privately assured Stream that the Governor supported the bill less than two days before he said he would veto it.

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House Republicans: Nixon switched positions on new state office building

May 15, 2013 By

Governor Jay Nixon has harshly criticized legislative budget makers for proposing the construction of a new state office building. Now those lawmakers are saying the Governor has changed his position on that plan.

House Speaker Tim Jones (left) and House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

House Speaker Tim Jones (left) and House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

House Bill 19, a supplemental spending bill for capital improvements, includes $38 million for the new building that would be built in the site of the decommissioned Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. It would house the Department of Transportation and other state offices that budget makers say are in rented or leased space.

House Budget Director Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) says Nixon supported that plan privately before he opposed it publicly.

“I don’t talk to the Governor personally, of course, but with his director of the budget, Linda Luebbering. She twice came back and said the Governor is on board with the office building … if he had been opposed to it. If he had used language or she had used language that in any way, shape or form gave us the slightest inkling that he was not going to be in favor of it, we would not have included it in that bill.”

Stream and House Speaker Tim Jones (R-Eureka) say pulling those state offices out of leased space means that over time the state would save money in the deal, even paying off the building in 7 to 10 years.

Jones accuses Nixon of switching positions on this and another significant issue tied to the budget.

“Like what the Governor did to us on flipping on his support of the circuit breaker bill, I feel like I’m having Groundhog Day on House Bill 19 as well.”

Jones refers to SB 350, a proposal to repeal a tax credit for seniors in low-income housing. Nixon had built that into his budget proposal unveiled in January, but a few weeks ago announced he would veto it if it was not part of a larger tax credit reform proposal. The legislature passed the bill last week and Nixon has kept his promise, vetoing it yesterday.

Governor Nixon has not said what he will do with HB 19.

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Democrats rail on proposal of new state office building (VIDEO)

May 13, 2013 By

The Governor says the priorities of legislative Republican leadership are “out of whack.”

Governor Jay Nixon

Governor Jay Nixon

Governor Jay Nixon (D) is critical of the state legislature’s approval of proposals to cut individual and corporate income taxes and repeal a tax break for low-income seniors in rental housing, particularly in light of something it included in a supplemental spending bill, HB19.

“This is a legislature that decided to add to its budget $38 million to build a state office building for bureaucrats that I didn’t ask for.”

The Governor refers to 38-million dollars for a new office building to be built on the site of the old Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, presumably to house the Transportation Department and make room for state offices now housed in leased property. House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) says that would save the state money, perhaps enough to recoup its investment in 7 to 10 years.

That could also free up space in the current Transportation Department Building next to the Capitol for some staff and other offices now housed in the Capitol. Republican lawmakers say that means more room for legislators’ offices and staff and an opportunity to make the Capitol more compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Nixon says when considering the legislature sent him the rental tax credit repeal, as well as an operating budget that would make him choose between passing that repeal or cutting funding to a program that benefits developmentally disabled children, those arguments aren’t good enough.

“Let them tell that to the First Steps folks. Let them tell that to the parents who don’t know whether their disabled kid, starting July 1, is going to get the necessary services to live a normal life. Let them tell that to the senior citizen who they put a risk to have to pay more taxes next year than they paid this year even though they’re on fixed income. Let them make that argument about how they need a shiny new building to those Missourians.”

During debate on that supplemental spending bill, Representative Jeff Roorda (D-Barnhart) raised similar criticisms.

“I can’t imagine that we can do this with a straight face. Approve HB 19 when we’ve just eliminated this tax credit. By the way: between that $38 million on that new building, the $50 million we’re sinking in [The Capitol], more than enough to pay for that tax credit, which has worked great in this state since the ’70s.”

Majority Floor Leader John Diehl defended the proposal to cut that renters’ tax credit, one that he said most legislators would not have voted to create in the first place.

“One of the most difficult things we do is eliminate a government program. Government programs are pretty easy to create, they’re pretty tough to eliminate.”

Despite his criticisms, Nixon has not said whether he will veto any part of those bills.

Watch the Governor’s media conference below:

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House debates funding cut to Division of Motor Services

May 10, 2013 By

Democrats in the state House have defended Governor Jay Nixon’s stance that the budget the legislature has sent him must results in cuts and layoffs, because it doesn’t fully fund the Division of Motor Vehicles.

Governor Jay Nixon announces he will make cuts and layoffs in the Department of Motor Vehicles if the legislature carries through with a proposal to provide only eight months' worth of funding to that Department.

Governor Jay Nixon.

That budget includes only enough funding for the Division for eight months. Republican budget makers want the Revenue Department to change its licensing procedures and, if it does, they say the rest of that Division’s annual budget can be appropriated in January.

Nixon issued a statement this week saying if that happens, he will make cuts to programs and lay off state workers to live within that two-thirds budget.

Representative Jill Schupp (D-Creve Coeur) says the reduced funding ties the Governor’s hands.

“We have to expect that the Governor is going to assume what we have told him to assume, which is that we only have eight months’ worth of money in the budget. We have to be prepared to spend those eight months’ worth of dollars over the twelve month cycle of the budget.”

Representative Jeff Roorda (D-Barnhart) calls the reduction improper.

“This is bureaucratic euthanasia. We’re putting a pillow over the face of this department and trying to suffocate it in retaliation for some perceived wrongdoing that is still in question.”

Republicans defended the tactic, however, saying there is precedent for it and their intent to fund the rest of the Division’s annual budget in January has been made clear.

Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City) called the Governor’s threat to make cuts and layoffs, “disgusting, it’s dishonest and it’s deplorable. It’s an insult to the intelligence of all Missourians. That Department is fully funded for long enough that we can come back next year and do a supplemental.

State Budget Director Linda Luebbering says there is no plan on where those cuts might be made or how many employees might lose their jobs, and Nixon has not taken questions on the matter from the media.

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