The legislature has finished is plan; for paying for state programs and services in the next fiscal year…Governor Nixon will decide if any of the proposals need to be tossed out.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer admits the long budget process is something like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer—-it feels so good when you stop…

                                  AUDIO: Schaefer :18

Legislators have voted to spend more than $24-bilion But they’ve kept a teeny bit in reserve–about $6.4 million..

                                  AUDIO: Schaefer  :02

Governor Nixon wanted the legislature to cut higher education spending by $106 million from this fiscal year’s budget.  But the legislature rejected that idea and has appropriated the same amount for next year as was budgeted this year.    

Schaefer says the improving economy should eliminate the need for Governor Nixon to withhold funds–as he has done in the first three budgets of his administration.

The fiscal year starts July first.