February 12, 2012

You are here: Home / Archives for budget

College and university presidents forwarn of impact of higher ed cut

February 1, 2012 By

Presidents from the colleges and universities around the state have testified to the House Appropriations Committee on Education about what will happen to their institutions if Governor Jay Nixon’s proposed 12.5 percent cut to higher education funding becomes a reality.

University of Missouri System interim president Steve Owens (seated, left) testifies before the House Education Committee.

They all said the outlook is not good.

The University of Missouri System President Steve Owens said the 12.5 percent reduction translates to a $50 million dollar hit to the University’s operating budget. He says the college has avoided raising tuition to deal with past reductions, but says that could only work for so long. The college’s staff has recommended a tuition increase of 6.5 percent, that the Board of Curators will begin considering on Thursday.

Owens says state support for full-time equivalent students at MU is down from $10,400 in 2001 to a projected $5,926 in fiscal year 2013, assuming the proposed cut remains.
The messages from most of the institutions were along similar lines. Cuts would result in increased tuition, cuts to faculty and programs, increased class sizes and postponement to needed maintenance.

The state’s community colleges would also have to hike what they charge students, according to Mineral Area College President Steve Kurtz. “Preliminary discussions with presidents and chancellors indicate that statewide average (increase) is about $4 a credit hour.”

Several of those officials said the efforts to deal with the cut was already underway. Northwest Missouri State University President John Jasinski says plans will be announced next week for cuts and restructuring.

He asked the Committee’s lawmakers to consider what message the state is sending to current and future students. “We spend $16 thousand on non-violent, incarcerated individuals and we’re spending 3, 4 and 5 (thousand) on a full student FTE, what’s the value of higher ed there? What’s the whole tobacco tax situation and what’s happening there? What about the amount of money we give to private higher ed institutions?”

Representative Genise Montecillo (D-St. Louis) summed up what the testimony meant to her thusly, “It’s going to be difficult to continue to work towards our goal of having more college graduates.”

The Committee will next meet February 7.

Filed Under: Economy, Education, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

State spending cap passes House Budget Committee

January 11, 2012 By

The House Budget Committee has advanced a proposed change to the Missouri Constitution to limit future state spending.

Former House Budget Committee Chairman Allen Icet (left) testifies in favor of HJR 43 alongside its Sponsor, Representative Eric Burlison (R-Springfield).

Representative Eric Burlison (R-Springfield) is sponsoring the measure, HJR 43. It would limit the amount of state general revenue that can be appropriated to the rate of inflation plus population growth.

Under the measure, 1.5 percent of growth over the previous year could be used for appropriations. Any amount between 1.5 and 2.5 percent would be used to pay off state debt. Any amount beyond that would be divided between two emergency funds that would replace the current Budget Reserve Fund, more commonly called the Rainy Day Fund. When those funds are full if there is more growth, it could go toward a state income tax refund.

The proposal is part of the House Republicans’ legislative plan, the “Blueprint for Missouri.”

The Committee voted 20-9 to pass the resolution, with Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) the only Democrat to favor it.

Kelly offered an amendment that made the 2008 budget year the baseline for the resolution, when general revenue was roughly $8 billion dollars. That means the amendment would not kick in until the fund reached that level, which lawmakers agreed is unlikely in the forseeable future.

Burlison says the change would stabilize the budget process and prevent the creation of programs in years of excess only to have them cut when the economy takes a down turn. He says now is the time to enact the resolution, when the economy is down. “We’re experiencing the difficult end of this. We’re looking back and saying if only legislators prior to us had had something like this in place then we wouldn’t have been having to make some of these very difficult cuts that we’re making today. We would have had money in reserves…in savings that we could go to.”

An almost partisan split

Among those opposing the bill, Representative Genise Montecillo (D-St. Louis) says she worries that even in the high mark year of 2008 some funding levels were not sufficient. “Even if I could get all the money in the world for education I have some concerns for social services as well. So, it seems to me that we’re kind of locking some groups into a continued future of being under funded when our needs in our state are becoming greater with unemployment still at really high levels.”

Other Democrats criticized that Republican leadership is trying to limit spending while offering no plans to generate more revenue such as increasing the cigarette tax or collecting internet taxes. 

Representative Kelly countered, “As you know, I am a big supporter of raising more revenue around here, but raising revenue is a different question than managing the revenue that we have.”

Representative Burlison noted that the resolution exempts new or increased tax revenues or fees that are voter approved from appropriations growth limit calculations for the year they are passed.

The measure moves on to the Rules Committee, which meets tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. As a constitutional amendment, it would eventually have to go before Missouri voters.

Filed Under: Economy, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Leadership: post special session rift between House, Senate healed (AUDIO)

January 9, 2012 By

The relationship between leadership in the House and the Senate collapsed along with the special legislative session last year. At one point in late October, Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer (R-Dexter) said he had not spoken to House Speaker Steven Tilley (R-Perryville) in three weeks, while Tilley went so far as to say Mayer had “lied” to him about the status of a deal on legislation.

Senate President Pro-Tem Rob Mayer (left) and House Speaker Steven Tilley pictures courtesy, Missouri Senate and Missouri House of Repsresentatives

The situation left many wondering if the two ends of the Capital would be able to work together in the regular session that just began last week. Cooperation between chambers and parties is key as lawmakers take on a budget with an estimated $500 million dollar gap between revenue and expenditures.

Representative Tilley says things are getting off on a good foot. “It’s well documented we had our difficulties last year and I’ll take the blame my part of that. I had a great dinner with the President Pro Tem of the Senate. I know our Majority Leader (Tim Jones, R-Eureka) has had numerous visits with the Majority Leader of the Senate (Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles) and we want to start off on a good note, and I told Rob (Mayer) that I want to focus on areas where we agree and let’s stay away from areas where we disagree.” Tilley says he hopes there will be time at the end of the session for areas where the two disagree.

Senator Mayer says he holds no animosity about what unfolded last year. “This is a tough business and sometimes things don’t work out, and you have to put all that behind you to go forward to get some things done for the people of Missouri, so I hold no ill feelings about the House or the leadership there and look forward to working with them this year.”

Representative Tim Jones picture courtesy, Missouri House of Representatives

Representative Jones talked about appearing together with Senator Dempsey “in front of several groups over the last several months…I will tell you we had no arguments together in public. We actually spoke about common themes and principles and even common specific legislation.”

Representative Mike Talboy picture courtesy, Missouri House of Representatives

Jones says he hopes the Senate as a whole is on board with its leadership, which he says plans to pick three or four key topics to attempt to address early in the session. “I hope that there’s not any individual agendas over there that are simply thinking of themselves and not of the state as a whole. I do truly believe that there are a majority of senators that want to work with a majority of the House and actually move and pass some significant legislation that will help the state as a whole.”

The top Democrat in the House, Minority Leader Mike Talboy (D-Kansas City) says for his part, he has a good relationship with Representative Tilley and Senators Mayer and Dempsey, “so I don’t necessarily have the issues but then again I’m also not in the same position that Steve is and I realize that there are some disagreements that when you’re in charge you have to sit at the table and be able to do some things.”
 
Talboy adds “I can’t speak for what their relationship’s like but, we’ll see.”
 
AUDIO:  Mike Lear reports – 1 minute
Filed Under: Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Nixon hopes to avoid tapping Rainy Day Fund, for now

January 6, 2012 By
The State of Missouri’s Budget Reserve Fund has still not been tapped into in response to the disasters of 2011. Governor Jay Nixon hopes it won’t have to be, if only in the short-term.
 

Governor Jay Nixon discussed the use of the Rainy Day Fund following the annual Governor's Prayer Breakfast.

Nixon says it might be used later, as costs are still being assessed from events like the Joplin tornado and flooding in northwest and southeast Missouri. “Because of some of the bills that are yet to come in, because of the insurance claims that haven’t been met, because of the gaps especially in schools and other public facilities down there (in Joplin) between the insurance coverage, we still may have to have that as an option.”

State statute requires that any amount taken out of the Rainy Day Fund be paid back to it within three years, with interest. Nixon says that means taking out money now could compound challenges of balancing the budget in future years.

The Governor says he plans to talk to legislative leadership over the next one to two weeks about how to proceed in the “best and most prudent financial way.”

Filed Under: Economy, Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , ,

State tax collections lagging; reduction talks begin (AUDIO)

January 6, 2012 By

Some concerns are starting to come from the state budget office that funding for services and institutions will fall millions of dollars short by the end of this fiscal year.  Some early discussions of cuts or withholdings have started.

Halfway through the fiscal year, the state is collecting slightly more taxes than it was a year ago.  But a Christmas bump didn’t happen..  In fact, sales taxes were down four percent from December, 2010–a month that was 13 percent under 2009′s figure.  Corporate tax collections are down ten percent.  

So far, total state tax collections are up only 1.2 percent and losing ground..State budget director Linda Luebbering says tax collections need to grow by about four percent for the rest of the fiscal year for the state to hit budget targets based on a 2.7 percent revenue growth. . .

Tax collections peak in the last quarter of the fiscal year, driven by income tax collections in April. And with unemployment going down, income taxes are expected to go up.  But there are concerns they won’t go up enough.  

Luebbering says she and the governor have been talking regularly but they have not identified specifically will be done if enough taxes don’t come in to pay all the bills.

AUDIO: Luebbering interview   8:15 mp3

 

 

Filed Under: Economy, Featured, News, Taxes Tagged With:
« Older Posts