Rick Stream Archives - Missourinet

Legislative budget chairs ask for restriction in use of state planes in light of low revenue, budget reductions

June 25, 2014 By Mike Lear

The chairman of the House and Senate budget committees are asking the Highway Patrol to restrict the use of state-owned aircraft as a cost-saving move, in light of state revenue coming in below projections. The two Republicans raise the issue in continued criticism of and response to Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) actions that cut or restrict more than $780-million dollars in the state budget for the fiscal year that begins Tuesday.

Senator Kurt Schaefer (left) and Representative Rick Stream.

They focus on the use of state planes by the governor to travel the state to events including the opening or expansion of new businesses, speaking engagements and the signing or vetoing of legislation.

In a statement Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) says of Nixon, “While he continues to cut services for some of our most needy and education, he flies around in his state-of-art $6 million plane using state money to pay for the expense of pilots, maintenance, fuel, and other associated travel costs.”

He and House Budget committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) on Tuesday sent a letter to the Patrol regarding the use of the state aircraft it maintains.

“We budgeted as though our revenues would grow at a certain rate, and that didn’t happen,” said Stream. “Until we can have further budget analysis, we ask the highway patrol to restrict use of all state-owned aircraft unless it is within the core mission and duty of the department to maintain public safety.”

A release from the Senate and House press offices says legislators are asking “certain state departments to look at cutting waste after the governor’s actions” on the budget, but only specifies the request made of the Highway Patrol.

Legislative budget chairs slam Gov. Nixon for budget vetoes and restrictions (AUDIO)

June 25, 2014 By Mike Lear

Republican budget leaders are slamming Governor Jay Nixon (D) for the actions he has taken with the state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. They say he is using “inflated” figures to estimate the impact of tax break bills passed on the final day of the session, and playing politics with the state’s children and the disabled in an attempt to force lawmakers not to override his vetoes of those bills.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) and House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) co-chair the budget conference committee. (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Nixon announced on Tuesday vetoes totaling $144.6-million and restrictions of $641.6-million from the state budget. Coupled with federal and other dollars that results in a reduction of $1.12-billion dollars for state programs, services and employees.

Nixon says the legislature sent him a budget that was more than $786-million out of balance. He says that’s in part because the legislature didn’t account in its budget for the impact of those 10 tax break bills, which he says could rise to $425-million in lost state revenue.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) and House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) say those bills were paid for in the general assembly’s budget proposal, and say Nixon has overplayed the effect those bills will have on state revenue.

“We looked at all the fiscal notes (on those bills) and (Nixon) took the high position on all those fiscal notes,” says Stream, “so we disagree with him on those estimates.”

Nixon’s is restricting proposed increases of more than $100-million for K-12 public schools and $43-million for colleges and universities, and says he could release those funds if the legislature doesn’t overturn his vetoes of those ten bills.

“He inflates the numbers,” says Schaefer of Nixon’s assessment of those bills, “to really hold school kids, kids with autism, mental health services, other things, hostage in order for Missourians to not get a tax break.”

Both budget directors say withholds have been anticipated because state tax revenues are behind last year’s, and behind the projections both Nixon and the legislature used in proposing the new budget.

“We budgeted to a number that we thought we were going to grow to and it just didn’t happen in the six months that we’ve had to look at it,” says Stream.

Schaefer says Nixon has exacerbated the revenue shortage by not having a plan for economic development.

“The only economic development plan this governor has had for six years is expand welfare and take Obama dollars,” says Schaefer.

AUDIO: Schaefer criticizes Gov. Nixon, accusing him of having no plan for economic development

Nixon says the legislature’s inaction on expansion of Medicaid eligibility, that could draw more federal dollars, is making the state’s economic situation worse.

Nixon also blames the need for his actions in part on the legislature basing its budget on the passage of tax amnesty legislation. Schaefer says the budget didn’t assume the passage of that legislation, which has been offered but hasn’t achieved passage for several sessions.

Transfer bill sponsor: ‘No different bill would be passed’ in a special session

May 23, 2014 By Mike Lear

The House sponsor of the proposed change to Missouri’s student transfer law says a special session to revisit the issue would be a wasted effort.

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

Representative Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) and other lawmakers who worked on the proposed transfer law fix are waiting to see whether Governor Jay Nixon (D) will veto the bill and call a special session, as the bill’s critics have called on him to do.

Stream says if those things happen, the first thing lawmakers will try to do will be to attempt to overturn Nixon’s veto. He says the Senate has the votes for the overturn, though it’s not clear if the House does.

“If it did not happen, and then he expected us to pass a different bill, he’s mistaken,” says Stream. “No different bill would be passed.”

Critics have accused the bill’s writers of only being interested in enacting a law that would let private schools draw tax dollars with transfers. Stream says the goal of the bill was to let students get out of poor performing districts as quickly as possible.

“This was one of the ways to do it,” Stream says, “To put them into charter schools and private schools close to their home, so they didn’t have to make the hour-long bus ride out to Francis-Howell or Kirkwood or Mehlville or anywhere else for that matter.”

Governor Nixon has said he will act soon on the bill.

House Republicans, Gov. Nixon clash on use of Social Services money for National Governors Association dues (VIDEO)

May 14, 2014 By Mike Lear

State House Republicans are criticizing Governor Jay Nixon (D) for the use of more than $390,000 in the past three fiscal years’ budgets for the Department of Social Services to pay dues to the National Governors Association. More than $206,000 of that has come from the Children’s Division within the Department of Social Services to pay dues to the National Governors Association.

The office of Representative Sue Allen (R-Town and Country) has offered documents it says show how that membership was paid for. They show money was taken from the appropriations to several agencies, but in fiscal years 2012, 2013 and in the current budget, the greatest amount came from the Children’s Division. About $69,000 was taken from the Division’s budget in each of those years. $32,000 was taken from Missouri Healthnet administration in fiscal years 2012 and 2014 and about $29,000 was taken from Missouri Healthnet administration in fiscal year 2013 and $28,000 from Family Support administration.

The National Governors Association is a bipartisan organization of the nation’s state governors. Through it those governors discuss policy and priorities and share best practices, and the association advocates on federal issues impacting states.

Allen, House Speaker Tim Jones (R-Eureka) and House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) say Nixon’s actions violate the title clause of that budget bill, that says, “no funds from these sections shall be expended for the purpose of costs associated with the offices of the Governor,” or the other elected officials of the state.

“The Governor and his staff know that we appropriated the money for a specific purpose; for children, for Children’s Services,” says Stream, “and they deliberately spent it somewhere else. To me that’s just deceptive.”

Stream adds, “[Nixon] basically misspent the money, and we’re hoping that he will not continue to do it.”

Jones says it’s an issue of transparency.

“There’s nothing wrong with the National Governor’s Association,” says Jones, “but if [Nixon] wants to spend money on that it should come from a delineated line item in his budget.”

Representative Sue Allen (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Allen took the issue up Wednesday at a hearing by the Appropriations Committee on Health, Mental Health, and Social Services, which she chairs. Department of Social Services Director Brian Kinkade told the committee the National Governors Association deals with federal issues, including those related to his department’s functions.

“One that has been worked on recently is the Prison Rape Elimination Act,” says Kinkade. “NGA’s been involved in advocacy with the states on that issue.” Kinkade says that act is related to the work of the Division of Youth Services.

Kinkade says the proposal to take the Governors Association dues came from the Office of Administration’s Division of Budget & Planning.

Troubles for Children’s Division answered with money this year

Nixon proposed and legislature appropriated an additional $5.1 million Children’s Division to create two new positions on its career ladder for child abuse investigators and other changes, meant to improve the Division’s response to child abuse investigations. That proposal is part of the Fiscal Year 2015 budget proposal that is awaiting action by Nixon.

Deparrtment of Social Services Director Brian Kinkade (right) and Department of Mental Health Director Keith Schafer

Department of Social Services Director Brian Kinkade (right) and Department of Mental Health Director Keith Schafer testify to the House Appropriations Committee on Health, Mental Health and Social Services.

Republicans have pointed to that appropriation and asked whether there would then have been a better agency to have taken money from to page the Governors Association dues.

“Federal funds are as important for the Children’s Division as any in our Department, so in looking at how to allocate that across our Department that’s not an unfair allocation,” says Kinkade.

Kinkade adds, “I need to be very clear though: this in no way jeopardized direct services or field service for our child welfare program.”

Allen says that still is not the appropriate place to draw those funds from.

“They still used funds from a very, very, I’ll say ‘weak’ program; Children’s Division, because over the past few years we’ve had children die,” says Allen.

Kinkade says the money came from the Department’s central administration and would have gone unused if not used to pay for the Governors Association membership.

Allen isn’t satisfied with that answer.

“If these people were incapable of recognizing ways to go beyond and further support these children,” with that money, Allen says, “that’s a problem.”

House Republicans say they also want to know if other money being appropriated in the budget is being used for purposes they aren’t aware of or don’t intend.

“We’ll certainly take a look. A much closer look,” says Stream.

In a statement, Nixon says the same funding source has been used in past years and calls the issues the House Republicans raise a “diversionary stunt,” that will “fall flat with Missourians wondering why their elected representatives refuse to reform our ethics laws, rein in wasteful tax credit expenditures or provide health coverage to 300,000 working Missourians through Medicaid expansion.”

The documents provided by Allen’s office and communication with a then-staffer for former Governor Matt Blunt (R) suggest that the dues for the Governors Association were not taken from the Social Services budget by administrations prior to Nixon’s.

Nixon adds, “I urge these legislators to set aside these desperate distractions and use the time they have left in the session to work on making a real difference for the Missourians we serve.”

Gov. Nixon wants ‘private option’ out of transfer bill, House sponsor says won’t pass Senate without it (VIDEO)

May 13, 2014 By Mike Lear

Governor Jay Nixon (D) has called on House and Senate lawmakers who have worked on a proposed fix to Missouri’s transfer law to remove language that would let local tax dollars pay for students to transfer to private schools.

The legislative conference committee updated the so-called “private option” so that after three years of a school district being unaccredited, private schools would become one of the places its students could transfer, though a public vote could result in that happening earlier.

Nixon says keeping public funds in public schools is a core state belief and is written into Missouri’s Constitution.

He says the legislature’s current proposal, “would destabilize the strong foundation on which public education has stood for generations and open the floodgates to even more radical voucher schemes down the road.”

The House sponsor of transfer legislation, Representative Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood), says he doesn’t think a bill will pass the Senate if it lacks the private school language.

He disagrees with Nixon’s assessment that the Missouri Constitution bars the use of public money in private schools.

“The Constitution says we cannot spend public dollars on religious institutions … religious schools,” says Stream. “I don’t believe that the Constitution says we cannot spend public dollars on private companies or private schools that are nonsectarian. We do that already in the budget. About a third of our budget is public money going to private providers.”

Stream says Nixon has failed to lead on the transfer issue.

“Since this problem started back in June with the last Supreme Court decision the governor has pretty much been out of the picture. He hasn’t offered any solutions, given any advice other than to say once the Senate passed overwhelmingly a bill that had the private option in it that he was going to veto it,” says Stream. “I think the students, the children of those two school districts deserve a little bit more than that from the Governor.”

The House-Senate committee’s proposed law is still being published ahead of being taken up by both chambers to consider passing it to Nixon. They have until Friday evening, the end of the regular session, to pass it.

House-Senate lawmakers finalize compromise transfer proposal

May 13, 2014 By Mike Lear

A House and Senate conference committee has finished its work hammering out a proposed fix to the student transfer law that threatens to bankrupt some Missouri schools.

The proposal would let students in failing schools in unaccredited districts first transfer to better performing schools within that district. If no room is available in those schools, they could transfer to neighboring districts or charter schools. Students in schools that don’t achieve accreditation for three years could also transfer to nonreligious private schools, with local tax dollars covering tuition. That could happen earlier if approved by a public vote.

See our earlier story on the latest changes to the ‘private option’

Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D-University City) says the legislation leaves some children out.

“When we decided to only allow children who are in unaccredited buildings in unaccredited districts [transfer,] I think that’s limiting children,” she says. “There are kids who are in unaccredited buildings in accredited districts who are totally ignored in this bill as of now.”

The legislation does not cover transportation costs for students traveling to new schools. Representative Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) says that could be a barrier for some parents wanting to get their children into better schools immediately, which lawmakers have said is a goal. He would like to have seen transportation covered in the bill, but says it was removed in compromise with the Senate.

“It does certainly limit their options to transfer out of the district to another public school district,” says Stream. “But, we do have in there now the charter options and the private school option in their district, and if our goal is to try to keep students in the district but in a better educational environment, those two options are now there.”

Stream considers whether the updated bill can pass the House.

“We had 91 votes to start with. We may have gained a few from St. Charles. We may have lost a few from the rural areas on the private option vote being constrained, so we’ll see,” says Stream.

The conference committee chairman, Senator David Pearce (R-Warrensburg) says he’s confident as the legislation goes back to both chambers to consider.

“Right now a lot of people aren’t pleased with it,” says Pearce, “so that means we’ve got a pretty good compromise.

Stream doesn’t think the House could muster enough votes to override Governor Jay Nixon (D) if he decides to veto the bill. Nixon has said he can not support anything that involves tax dollars going to private schools.

Legislature approves $26.3-billion budget for FY 2015

May 8, 2014 By Mike Lear

The state House and Senate have approved a $26.3-billion operating budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The proposal goes to Governor Jay Nixon (D) for his consideration the day before the legislature’s deadline.

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

Legislators based their spending proposal on a projection revenue in Fiscal Year 2015 would grow by 4.2-percent. Nixon’s administration projected growth at 5.2 percent in the budget proposal he presented the legislature in January. Because of that disagreement the legislature proposes drawing money for some state programs and services out of a new surplus revenue fund, where money that comes in beyond its revenue projection would go.

The proposal would increase funding to public school districts by $114.8 million, but if Governor Nixon’s higher projection proves accurate, K-12 education would get an additional $278-million on top of the current $3.1-billion in state support.

Either outcome would put state support for education below the amount needed to fund schools as required by state law. That would require an increase of more than $550-million.

Representative Margo McNeil (D-Florissant) criticized the decision to go with the lower revenue projection, and says the budget does not go far enough for education.

“We should have decided for a higher number. We should have prioritized education more,” said McNeil. “I’m going to be voting against this budget because basically we’re not putting our priorities where we should be.”

Representative Mike Thomson (R-Maryville) says the budget includes the biggest increases in state history for education and higher education.

“We have gone way above what was expected, I think, for education funding,” said Thomson. “This body gets accused a lot of picking on education, of not fully funding the formula and not doing the best we can, and I would like to point to these numbers and say this is a very good effort, the best we could do.”

Public colleges and universities would get an increase of $43-million to be distributed based on the meeting of performance goals.

The legislature has built into the budget a plan to pay for the replacement of the state’s only maximum-security mental hospital, Fulton State Hospital. The 25-year bonding proposal would cover the cost of buidling the new hospital, estimated at $211-million. The first payment on those bonds of $14-million is included in the proposed budget.

See our earlier story on the legislature deciding on Gov. Nixon’s plan to fund a new Fulton hospital

It also includes $1.5-million for renovation of the Women’s Building at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia and $2-million to rebuild levees protecting Rosecrans Air National Guard Base in St. Joseph.

The plan includes an across-the-board 1-percent pay raise for state employees. Child abuse caseworkers within the Department of Social Services would get an additional two-to-three percent increase in salary, as part of $5.1-million aimed at recruiting and retaining good investigators and improving the state’s response to reports of child abuse.

House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) said of the Children’s Division increases, “That’s one of the most important parts of this budget.”

See our earlier story on the increases proposed for the Children’s Division

The highest “no” vote totals in the House came on the budgets for the Departments of Mental Health, Health and Senior Services, and Social Services, as Democrats objected to those bills not including expansion of Medicaid eligibility using federal dollars.

Representative Judy Morgan (D-Kansas City), called that exclusion disappointing.

“I do believe, though, one day the General Assembly will wise up and will rise up and we will vote for Medicaid expansion,” said Morgan. “I just wished it were sooner than later and that’s why I will be voting ‘no’ on this bill.”

Representative Noel Torpey (R-Independence), who participated in a committee that traveled the state taking testimony on Medicaid expansion in the interim, said he hopes that the legislature will act to reform and expand Medicaid.

“I ask that we keep an open mind when discussing this issue in the future,” said Torpey. “At some point in time it’s going to become law, so why not sooner than later?”

The legislature’s proposed budget would increase spending by 6.4-percent, compared to the Governor’s budget proposed in January that would have increased state spending by 11.6 percent.

Legislature adopts Gov. Nixon’s plan to pay for new Fulton mental hospital

May 6, 2014 By Mike Lear

The state legislature appears to be moving forward with Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) plan to fund the rebuilding of Fulton State Hospital.

The Biggs Maximum Security Forensic Center is part of the Fulton State Hospital complex.

The House-Senate budget conference committee Tuesday morning adopted language for the final legislative budget proposal to pay for the new mental hospital through the sale of $198-million in appropriation bonds. It would make the first payment on those bonds in fiscal year 2015, in the amount of $14.2-million. The plan would pay those bonds off over 25 years.

This plan would cost more in interest in the long-term but less annually bond payments. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) says that was one of the considerations for using it, rather than a 5-year bond proposal that had been offered by House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood).

“We’re being very cautious watching revenues right now,” says Schaefer. “They’re certainly not where the Governor predicted we would be and even though we were at a lower number we’re starting to have some concern about that as well. Given that uncertainty and … the primary goal here is to get Fulton built, going with the $14-million-a-year bond payment was a safer option at this point than the $44-million-a-year bond payment.”

Stream says the goal was just to get to the governor a plan to replace Fulton.

“I think everybody in this building wanted to fund Fulton. That was a number one priority,” says Stream. “We were moving three or four footballs down the field and hoping that one would pass. Every one of these options had plusses and minuses to them. This particular one, it’s a plus in that it only spends $14-million a year, but it does go out over 25-years which means that we’re going to be on the hook for more in interest.”

Nixon’s plan had called for making the first payment on those bonds in the mid-year supplemental budget, but the legislature did not include that first payment in that bill since it was weighing multiple proposed plans to pay for the new hospital.

Lawmakers and the Governor say ground is expected to be broken on the new facility in the spring of 2015. Nixon last month announced the selection of a lead design firm for the project.

The state began operating a mental hospital at Fulton in 1851. The oldest buildings still in use at the site date back to 1937. It is the state’s only maximum-security psychiatric hospital and is widely regarded by elected officials in both parties to be unsafe for patients and staff. The structure is also blamed for a large portion of the state’s workers’ compensation claims each year.

House-Senate budget conferees to meet with budget due Friday

May 5, 2014 By Mike Lear

Selected representatives and senators will meet in conference this week to work out differences between the two chambers’ budget proposals. House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) says he doesn’t expect any major hangups between the two sides.

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

He says the two budget proposals do have some wide differences in education.

“[The Senate has] $33-million for the State Historical Society Building in House Bill 3. That’s something that [the House] didn’t have in there, so that’s a big difference.”

The legislature based its budget on a lower revenue estimate than the Governor and Stream proposed a new surplus revenue fund, from which money could be pulled to pay for things in his budget but not in the legislature’s. Stream says with revenue coming in slower than both sides estimated, items funded out of the surplus fund are looking like less of a priority.

“Who knows? The last two months we could see a boom and we’ll go above that, but we’ve left that Surplus Revenue Fund in there. The Senate has used it, we obviously used it, so it will stay in there for the rest of this budget process.”

The House and the Governor proposed adding 4.6 million-dollars to the state’s children’s division aimed at improving its handling of child abuse reports. The Senate Budget Committee removed that proposed increase. The money would bolster the salaries of child abuse investigators, give them I-Pads to increase efficiency in dealing with reports, and to forgive their student loan debt in an effort to keep good investigators from leaving.

Stream thinks all or some of it will be restored.

“I think there’s a good likelihood that the House position will prevail on those areas but I don’t want to say for sure … some or all of that will stay.”

The House spent a great deal of time debating the use of $6-million out of the surplus revenue fund to pay for the state to take over the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. The Senate doesn’t include that item in its budget proposal.

Stream says it doesn’t seem likely the federal government would relinquish control of that site anyway.

“We may resolve that in a different way than even the House and Senate position,” Stream says. “We can take one of the two positions or somewhere in between or some of the language differences too.”

The budget conference committee meets beginning Tuesday morning. The budget is due on the Governor’s desk by Friday.

House passes student transfer fix with scaled back private school option

May 1, 2014 By Mike Lear

The state House has approved a plan to change a 21-year-old law that lets students transfer out of failing schools into better ones. House Republicans pared back significantly a provision that would make private schools one of the places those students could go.

Representative Rick Stream carried the student transfer fix legislation in the House. (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Transfers have been occurring this year in two suburban St. Louis Districts and the cost of paying to transfer their students prompted lawmakers to try to change the law.

Under the bill, students who have been in an unaccredited school in an unaccredited district for at least one semester could first go to a better-performing school in that district. If no space is available, those students could then transfer to a neighboring district or to a charter school or nonreligious private school in the same or an adjoining county.

The changes to the private school portion would limit it to Jackson County, St. Louis County and St. Louis City. Private schools accepting transfer students would have to follow state laws regarding safety and student performance. Local voters would have to approve such transfers.

“We have taken away every argument usually used by the folks I would call the ‘education establishment’ against the private option,” says Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City).

Some Democrats were not satisfied. Representative Margo McNeil (D-Florissant) says she spent much of the session working on the bill and now can’t support it.

“This is the purpose of this entire bill,” says McNeil. “Really it has not been about fixing the transfer problem, which was a very simple problem. It has been, ‘How do we get passed in the State of Missouri … a bill that puts public money in the hands of private schools?”

The House proposes having sending districts pay 70 percent of their own tuition costs for students who transfer, plus additional money to cover transportation. Receiving districts could also set class size standards to avoid overcrowding.

The House passage means the bill goes back to the Senate. It is expected to wind up in a conference between the two chambers.

See how House members voted on the transfer proposal