Governor Jay Nixon has released $143.6-million dollars of the money he was withholding from local schools and higher education, after the state legislature failed to overturn a number of bills Nixon said threatened state revenue.
Nixon says more releases could be coming.
Lawmakers in the veto session that ended early Thursday morning only overturned Nixon’s vetoes on a few of the ten bills he called “Friday Favors;” bills he said would cost the state $425-million annually, and would cost local governments another $351-million a year. Nixon spent much of the summer traveling the state campaigning against the bills and urging that his vetoes be sustained.
Nixon today released more than $100-million for the foundation formula for K-12 education and more than $43-million in performance funding for public colleges and universities.
“I thank members of the General Assembly for taking a closer look at these bills, listening to their constituents and standing with their schools,” write’s Nixon in a statement.