An economy that is only slowly recovering and the end of federal stimulus money used to prop up state programs means some of those programs will have to take cuts..again.
Governor Nixon’s proposed state budget uses cuts in some programs, services, employees, and subsidies to fill a half-billion dollar hole. State budget director Linda Luebbering says the biggest funding cut comes in higher education–about $106 million. “Quite frankly….we don’t have the money,” she says.
Senate appropriations chairman Kurt Schaefer of Columbia says a 12.5% cut to higher education is “unacceptable.” He accuses Nixon of balancing the budget on the backs of education for the last three years.
Nixon hopes the legislature will enact a tax amnesty program that might convince people to pay 51 million dollars in back taxes without penalty. The issue has failed in the past.