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Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Stadium funding, disaster aid set to be debated by divided Missouri Senate
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Lincoln Hough, center, prepares with Sens. Rusty Black, left, and Karla May for a Tuesday hearing on two special session spending bills. (Rudi Keller/Misssouri Independent) The first two days of the special legislative session called by Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe to allocate state money for Kansas City sports stadiums, disaster recovery and unfinished spending bills have gone as well as could be expected. The Missouri Senate is poised for Wednesday debates on all the legislation Kehoe wants passed. And that's when the legislation will move from friendly committees to a chamber compromised by clear Republican factional lines and simmering Democratic anger. Some of the potential problems could be solved by which bills go first. The simplest bill would alter the rules governing the Missouri Housing Trust Fund so it could use $25 million included in an appropriations bill to fund home repairs and other assistance in areas hit by natural disasters this year. The biggest gripes about that plan is that the money is too little and spread too thin — federal disaster declarations have been sought for 37 counties so far this year — to do a lot of good. The biggest disaster of the year, and one that has yet to receive a presidential directive allowing federal aid, is a May 16 tornado that carved a 22-mile path across the St. Louis region, damaging or destroying 16,000 structures including hundreds of old brick homes in North St. Louis. People are sleeping in cars to protect their damaged property while they work to rebuild and wait for help, said state Sen. Brian Wililams, a University City Democrat. 'I'm having a severe challenge with even entertaining this, because I don't know how anyone would be able to go back home and look at their neighbors,' Williams said. The bill with the biggest obstacles would use tax money collected from the economic activity at Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City to finance renovated or new stadiums. The bill is estimated to divert almost $1.5 billion from state revenues over 30 years. State Sen. Kurtis Gregory, a Marshall Republican and a former NFL player, is sponsoring the bill. The damage it will do to Missouri's national image to lose one or both teams, especially the Chiefs, is as important as the transfer of the economic value to Kansas, Gregory said during a hearing of the Senate Fiscal Review Committee. Kansas is offering to pay 70% of the cost for new stadiums, an offer that is 'very viable,' Gregory said, and must be answered by the end of the month. 'I firmly believe these are Missouri's teams, and if Missouri doesn't have an offer on the table for the teams to even consider, that will speak for itself and how we view then what they bring to our state and our economy,' Gregory said. Lobbyists for the teams would not commit to staying in Missouri if the legislation is passed. That, said state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, is hard to take for residents of eastern Missouri who remember that Chiefs owner Clark Hunt supported moving the Rams from St. Louis to Los Angeles. 'There was a real begrudgement about whether we were going to root for the Chiefs after the ownership team voted to remove the Rams from this from our side of the state,' said Coleman, a Republican from Arnold. Along with the stadium financing, Gregory's bill includes expanded tax credits for major amateur sporting events and a tax credit of up $5,000 for insurance deductibles paid as a result of disaster damage. The bill where Kehoe's plan could make its biggest political gains is the spending bill. It is mirrored on a construction spending package that the Missouri House refused to consider for a final vote during the regular session. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved two versions Tuesday. One, based on Kehoe's requests, has all the non-general revenue items but only $50 million of the more than $300 million in general revenue spending. Kehoe said he left out the general revenue items because he is concerned about the trend of little growth in state revenues. He cut in half a line item to support a new research reactor at the University of Missouri, leaving $25 million and using the other half for the disaster relief funding. Some lawmakers have called the cut a broken promise to the university. University President Mun Choi, who attended the hearing on the spending bill, said he is happy with the $25 million and the remaining funds will be welcome next year as the multi-year project progresses. 'I am not upset at all,' Choi said. 'I am grateful that the governor and the legislature are considering supporting this very important project here today. There are many other competing interests, especially with the disaster relief in St. Louis, and I really feel for the St. Louisians that are affected.' The other version of the bill is exactly the same as the bill the House spiked. It includes more than 60 projects added by lawmakers, with money to rebuild a sheltered workshop that burned in December and provided needed upgrades at eight hospitals around the state. While many members worried about disaster recovery or the earmarked projects have said they are ready to consider the stadium legislation after those bills are finished, the members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus who have signaled they oppose stadium funding are against it as a government subsidy to wealthy owners. During testimony against the bill, Patrick Tuohey, a senior fellow at the Show Me Institute, summed up why conservatives oppose the bill. 'What's happening here is that the teams want to use Kansas, and want to use fear of losing the teams, to vacuum up as much state subsidies as they can,' said Touhey, who wrote an op-ed about the issue published by The Independent earlier this week. 'And then they are going to come to Jackson County and Clay County and do exactly the same thing, pit them against each other, and try to vacuum up as much public subsidies from taxpayers as possible,' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Proposed federal tax changes could mean $170M or more cut to Missouri state revenues
Missouri Senate Appropriations Chairman Lincoln Hough, right, discusses a budget item May 8 with House Budget Committee Chairman Dirk Deaton during negotiations over the fiscal 2026 budget (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent). Along with hundreds of millions in potential new costs for Missouri taxpayers, an analysis of the budget bill backed by Congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump shows it would also cut state revenue as tax changes at the federal level are reflected in state returns. Exactly how much is uncertain. The review by Jared Walczak, vice president of state projects at the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation, estimates it will be at least $170 million and could be as much as $429 million if state lawmakers pass tax cuts that mirror provisions in the legislation approved in the U.S. House. Dylan Grundman O'Neill, senior state tax policy analyst at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said Walczak's estimate is sound. O'Neill said he is working to estimate how much Missouri's revenues would be reduced further from the bill's increase in the limit on the itemized deduction for state and local taxes. Cuts to food aid endorsed by Congressional GOP could cost Missouri $400 million The potential reduction in state revenue caused by federal changes, coupled with the new exemption for capital gains income and expanded property tax credit for some retirees and people with disabilities passed by the Missouri legislature earlier this year, could cause the coming fiscal year to be the fourth in a row where revenue growth does not keep up with inflation. And the prospect that those federal tax changes and state tax cuts will put the squeeze on Missouri's budget hangs like a shadow over the legislature as it reconvenes this week to consider whether to set aside almost $1.4 billion in state taxes over the next 30 years to finance professional sports stadiums in Kansas City 'We know the state budget years ahead are going to be challenging, and the amount of general revenue that we have is something that I'm taking very seriously as a businessman, and what it's going to take in future years,' said Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe. The state budget for the coming fiscal year, awaiting action by Kehoe, would spend $15.8 billion in general revenue while collections are estimated at $13.6 billion. The budget's draw on the state's surplus and uncertainty about future collections is why a spending bill also on the special session agenda has only $50 million more in general revenue, Kehoe said last week. Missouri's state income tax is linked to the federal tax system. The state tax form starts with the adjusted gross income calculated on the federal return and grants filers the same standard deduction. The approximately 10% of taxpayers who itemize deductions are allowed to keep most of what they report to the IRS and add some deductions for Social Security and other payroll taxes. The bill approved by the U.S. House includes a temporary $1,000 increase for the federal standard deduction, $15,000 for single filers this year. That would reduce Missouri revenue by about $124 million, Walczak said. The new deduction for interest on motor vehicle loans would be added to the federal form in a way that reduces the adjusted gross income amount. That change is estimated to reduce state revenue by $46 million, he said. 'They're putting that above the line there,' he said. 'I don't understand why. I don't think anyone knows why they choose to do it this way.' It would require action by state lawmakers to reverse the effect, Walczak said. 'A state could choose to have a modification where they add back the subtracted amount for auto loans, but they would have to choose to do that,' he said. For most taxpayers, income derived from tips and overtime would be exempt from the income tax entirely. Like reversing the auto loan deduction, making Missouri law mirror that benefit would have to be done by the legislature, Walczak said. The two exemptions would reduce Missouri state revenues by about $259 million. 'We put those numbers there because there are states that are saying that they want to follow the federal government and exempt tips and overtime,' he said. 'So we wanted to show what it would cost if they did that.' The change in the $10,000 cap on the deduction for state and local taxes to $40,000 is one of the hardest pieces of the federal bill to estimate, O'Neill said. Federal Medicaid cuts could leave Missouri with huge budget shortfall Before the cap was put in place by Congress in 2017, more than 30% of taxpayers itemized their deductions. When the standard deduction was doubled — and when mortgage loan rates were low — the rate of itemizers plummeted. The deduction covers state and local income and property taxes. Missouri's current tax forms subtract state income tax payments from the amount claimed, for those under the cap, allowing the rest. Itemizers who claim the maximum calculate the share of the tax payments that come from income tax, and subtraction a pro-rated amount from the $10,000 limit. For example, the owner of a home in Columbia that the assessor appraises at $1.5 million pays just under $20,000 in property taxes. If income taxes are 90% of the total state and local taxes included on that person's federal form, the owner would retain a $1,000 deduction for their state return under current law. With the cap increased to $40,000, the taxpayer would retain a $4,000 deduction. The net effect on state taxes would be a $141 cut for that taxpayer. 'The more the congressional bill raises that cap, the more relevant that provision becomes for states,' O'Neill said. 'Missouri is one of the states that has relatively high exposure to that change because of its rolling conformity to the federal tax code.' The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that Missouri taxpayers would see their federal tax bills drop by $9.1 billion, with more than one-fifth of that total going to the 1% of Missouri taxpayers who have an income greater than $689,300. Filers in that group would receive an average tax cut of $58,490. Taxpayers in the lowest 40% of filers would receive one-twentieth of the tax cuts under the bill. The new costs imposed by the bill include a possible $400 million annually to maintain the food benefits program known as SNAP. Missouri would have to pick up an estimated 25% of the cost of providing the aid because Missouri's error rate on payments was 10% in 2023, which would mean the highest cost share. Missouri will end the current fiscal year with an unobligated general revenue balance of $2.6 billion, the state budget office estimated when Kehoe's spending proposal was released in January. Even after spending $1 billion of the accumulated balance, it is historically large and almost $900 million more than was predicted a year earlier. Two factors played into that increase — revenues in fiscal 2024 that were almost $300 million more than anticipated and a gap between budgeted amounts and actual costs, mainly due to understaffing. Kehoe's January budget anticipates the surplus would fall to $1.4 billion by the end of the coming fiscal year in June 2026. In the coming special session, Kehoe will be under pressure to allow more money to be spent in the appropriations bill. 'I don't believe that it's the government or the state's job to accumulate a billion dollars to look at in the bank,' said state Sen. Lincoln Hough, the Springfield Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. 'I agree with a healthy reserve. I'm fine with that. But this billion and a half dollars that we have sitting in the bank while we've got hospitals that are closing down and child care facilities that need support… it's the whole list of projects.' There should be some allowance for lawmakers to add items to the bill, he said. 'I'm not naive enough to think we're going to put together a $513 million capital improvements package and drop that,' Hough said. The budget revenue estimate made in December anticipates a slight decline in revenue in the current year and a slight increase in the coming year. That estimate was made before lawmakers passed the tax cut worth about $285 million in the coming year by official estimates but forecast to be much more by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Missouri House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat, supports the legislation to keep the Chiefs and Royals in the state. She also said there should be more for the appropriations bill. 'We need to be concerned about where we're spending our dollars, but I also think that we have to be doing it responsibly,' Aune said. But she is also concerned about the revenue impact of the federal budget bill and the tax cut awaiting action from Kehoe. 'We are in a position right now where we are seeing revenues dwindling,' Aune said. 'With everything that has been passed recently, it has the potential to put Missouri in a much more difficult position.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Forbes
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
Missouri Passes Bill Ending U. Of Missouri's Exclusive PhD Authority
The Missouri General Assembly has passed a bill reducing the University of Missouri's exclusive ... More authority to grant PhD degrees. The Missouri General Assembly has passed legislation that ends the University of Missouri's exclusive right to grant research doctoral degrees in the state, giving permission to Missouri State University to award PhD degrees in subjects other than engineering. Under current Missouri law, the University of Missouri system with its four campuses in Columbia, St. Louis, Kansas City and Rolla has been recognized as the state's only public research university with the authority to grant PhDs and other postgraduate professional degrees. Earlier in this year's legislative session, Republican Senator Lincoln Hough from Springfield, the home of Missouri State University, had introduced Senate Bill 11, which would have repealed the University of Missouri's status as the sole public university that could grant research doctorates and first-professional degrees in fields like dentistry, law, medicine, optometry, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine. Hough's bill also would have removed the requirement that engineering degrees could be conferred only by the University of Missouri or another public university in collaboration with it. A similar bill was proposed in the Missouri House by Rep. Melanie Stinnett. The legislation that passed this week did not go so far as to repeal these restrictions. Instead, it granted an exception just for Missouri State University to 'have the power and authority to grant doctor of philosophy degrees in disciplines other than engineering and to grant bachelor of science degrees in veterinary technology.' The final vehicle for the legislation — House Bill 419 — was originally introduced by state Rep. Don Mayhew (a Republican from Crocker), as a measure to give military personnel and their families in-state status for the purposes of tuition charges. However, Hough added the MSU provision in the Senate, giving Missouri State University the right to offer PhDs, except in engineering fields. The House passed the Senate substitute for Mayhew's bill, which included other higher education amendments, by a vote of 149-7. It passed in the Senate by a margin of 27-4. It now goes to Governor Mike Kehoe for his consideration. (The same provision was also contained in Senate Bill 160, another higher education bill approved by the General Assembly.) Tension between the University of Missouri, the state's flagship institution, and Missouri State University stretches back for decades and has focused on the educational footprint and identity of MSU. Starting in the 1980s, what was then Southwest Missouri State University began to lobby the legislature for an expanded mission and name change. Those efforts were blocked by MU until 2005, when the Missouri General Assembly passed a bill that changed the name of Southwest Missouri State University to Missouri State University. Governor Matt Blunt, a native of Springfield, signed that bill into law, but it came with strings attached — namely that MSU would not offer doctoral or engineering degrees on its own. Since then, the two institutions have successfully partnered on joint degree programs. In 2006, the Missouri S&T-Missouri State University Cooperative Engineering Program was launched, allowing students in the Springfield area to earn bachelor's degrees initially in civil and electrical engineering, and later in mechanical engineering, from Missouri S&T in Rolla (in full disclosure, I was the president of Missouri State University who signed that agreement). Several years later, MSU teamed up with the University of Missouri at Kansas City to offer UKMC's PharmD program in Springfield. Despite those agreements, MSU and other public universities in the Missouri have sought more autonomy in their ability to offer doctoral degrees. In 2022, Missouri's Coordinating Board of Higher Education approved a new mission for Missouri State University that included conferring professional doctorates. However, the restriction on research doctorates and engineering programs remained in place. Former MSU president Clif Smart, who retired in 2024, argued that Missouri was the only state that limited engineering programs to its flagship university, and that it's also the most restrictive state in terms of giving one public university system a monopoly over research doctorates. As a result, Smart claimed that Missouri students often leave the state to study elsewhere, resulting in an avoidable brain drain and a hardship for area employers seeking to hire and retain workers with graduate credentials. His successor at MSU, President Richard Williams, has continued a similar theme, testifying that Missouri State University needed more flexibility to address regional and statewide workforce needs. 'This is relieving restrictions so we can be nimble,' Williams testified to lawmakers. As in years past, the two universities waged competing lobbying efforts over the latest turf battle. Advocates for ending the degree-granting restrictions claimed it was unfair for the state to grant the MU system full exclusivity over research doctorates degrees and also impose restrictive partnerships on other programs. Defenders of UM System's exclusive doctoral degree authority included the University of Missouri Flagship Council, which argued that the change would stretch the state's resources too thin and would be costly to students who would likely see tuition increases as a result. 'The bottom line is that starting doctoral programs at public universities without research funding will need to be propped up with significant state support,' wrote Chuck Brazeale, chair of the Flagship Council's board of directors. In the end, after conversations with MSU's Williams and MU President Mun Choi, a compromise was reached that did not completely end the University of Missouri's statewide control over doctoral degrees, but carved out a expanded role for Missouri State University instead. "That's how this process is supposed to work,' Senator Hough told the Springfield Daily Citizen. 'Two sides are supposed to get together and work out differences and figure out a compromise. Now, did that bill pass as was filed by myself? No. Did Mizzou get everything that they wanted? No. Did I get everything that I wanted for Missouri State? No. Is it in a better place, and does it offer more educational opportunities in higher ed than previously? Yes. So all in all, I think it's a good step in the right direction.'
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Missouri budget negotiators agree to spend $50 million on private school scholarship program
Missouri Senate Appropriations Chairman Lincoln Hough, right, discusses a budget item Thursday with House Budget Committee Chairman Dirk Deaton during negotiations over spending differences in the fiscal 2026 budget (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent). After a sharp, brief fight in which Democrats were outnumbered by majority Republicans, Missouri legislative budget negotiators agreed Thursday to spend $50 million to expand the MOScholars program that helps pay tuition at private and parochial schools. The general revenue support would be the first time state tax dollars have been appropriated directly to the program begun in 2021. The line item, a major part of Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe's budget proposal, found favor in the Missouri House but was rejected by the state Senate when it passed spending bills last week. The item was one of the last to be reached as budget negotiators worked through 13 spending bills paying for state operations in the coming year. All 13 bills, as well as three capital improvements bills awaiting a vote in the state Senate, must be passed by the 6 p.m. Friday constitutional deadline. Official figures were not yet available, but tracking by The Independent shows lawmakers intend to spend $53.5 billion in the coming fiscal year. Lawmakers negotiating Missouri budget add $300M to public schools spending State Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Kansas City Democrat, said she objects to providing tax money for the tuition program because the state doesn't prevent parents from using the scholarships to send their children to schools that are selective for academic achievement or religious beliefs. 'This is fiscally irresponsible, and quite frankly I think it's shameful to put $50 million into funds that can directly discriminate against the students they are supposed to be serving,' she said. The program provides stipends equal to the State Adequacy Target, the figure that drives how much money is needed for the school foundation formula, the basic aid program for public schools. Families with incomes 300% of the federal poverty guideline or less — $173,000 a year for a family of four — can apply for the aid. Republicans argue the direct appropriation is legal and needed to expand access to the program, which was set up to be funded by donations secured by tax credits for donors. 'This was one that was very important to the House and we passed it out very strongly,' said House Budget Committee Chairman Dirk Deaton, a Republican from Noel. The budget negotiating committees are 10 members, five from each chamber made up of three Republicans and two Democrats. State Rep. Marlene Terry, a St. Louis Democrat, appointed to the negotiation committee over objections of other Democrats because of her support for school choice bills, backed Republicans on the MoScholars funding. 'I believe in education and a good education for all children, whether it be private schools, charter schools, public schools,' Terry said. 'We want our children to get the best education that they can, and we want to give them the help to get it.' All of the differences, large and small, were reconciled over two days of public budget negotiations. Several big decisions were made Wednesday, including agreement to increase school funding through the foundation formula by $300 million, spend $107 million more on child care supports and to use Kehoe's pay raise plan that rewards longevity in state employment. The budget overall calls for spending about $210 million less than Kehoe recommended, approximately $1.9 billion more than the House version and $237 million more than the Senate voted for when it passed the budget last week. The legislative budget calls for spending $16.2 billion of general revenue, money mainly from income and sales taxes. That is $200 million more than Kehoe proposed, $1 billion more than the House spending plan and about $391 million less general revenue than in the Senate budget. The final budget finds savings over the Senate plan in large part by tapping a pool of almost $500 million in banked federal funds to underwrite the Medicaid program. The Thursday meeting focused on funding for health, social services and state official and judicial budgets. Some of the decisions finalized Thursday would: Set aside almost $93 million to pay off a judgment against the state for damages claimed by a vendor who worked on the state's computerized Medicaid enrollment system. A $23 million judgment grew to more than $50 million as the state appealed and interest accrued. The appropriation includes both state and federal funds to allow flexibility in the way the judgment is paid. Allow more than 300 near earmarked projects — items sought by lawmakers for their district or lobbyists seeking money for clients — with a general revenue cost of $600 million and an overall cost of $750 million. Cut 25 open employee slots from Secretary of State Denny Hoskins' budget and one from the budget of Lt. Gov. David Wasinger. The cuts were initiated in the Senate, where Hoskins served eight years and sought repeatedly to cut unfilled jobs, while Wasinger won his job after defeating Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Lincoln Hough in a primary last year. Hoskins had supporters on the negotiating committee but not enough to change the decision. State Sen. Barbara Washington, a Democrat from Kansas City, asked for five of the positions to be restored. And state Rep. Darin Chappell, a Republican from Rogersville, also backed Hoskins. 'I don't mean to belabor what appears to be a dead horse, but I would like to ask us to consider that the new secretary of state may need some time to be able to level out what he actually does need, and maybe a little bit of grace might be appropriate,' Chappell said. Despite the plea, Deaton made the cut stick. 'This wasn't a House position, but our Senate colleagues are pretty impassioned here,' Deaton said. After the meeting concluded, Hough said he is not concerned that the budget spends more general revenue than either Kehoe or the House included. The budget grows through the process, he said, as lawmakers seek help for community projects. 'A lot of members from the House and a lot of a lot of interested parties all over the state come banging on the Senate,' Hough said. 'They say, 'why would you leave $2 billion in the bank when we have investments that we'd like to see in our communities?'' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Push to allow online lottery ticket sales in Missouri adds new issue to budget talks
Missouri Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Lincoln Hough, right, and Vice Chairman Rusty Black speak with state budget director Dan Haug April 16 during a break in committee work (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent). A provision quietly tucked into the state budget last week to allow the bulk online purchase of lottery tickets has set off a flurry of lobbying on both sides of the issue as lawmakers finalize their work this week on Missouri's $49.5 billion spending plan. The change, which was added by the Missouri Senate Appropriations Committee without any public debate, would open the door for lottery courier services — companies that charge fees to buy lottery tickets on behalf of customers. The business model has proven controversial in other states, even sparking a criminal investigation in Texas. The Senate finished debating the state operating budget about midnight on Tuesday of last week and by Thursday, lobbyists were bending the ears of lawmakers with seats on the conference committee that will decide the provision's fate. Lobbyists working for casinos and the bill to allow video lottery games — groups generally at odds — are opposing it. The major lottery courier companies like Jackpocket and have hired veteran Jefferson City lobbyists to push for their interests in Missouri. 'I had six or seven people come pull me off the (House) floor to talk about that language specifically,' said state Rep. Betsy Fogle of Springfield, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee. 'They are concerned with doing it through the budget and making the argument that we're legislating through the budget and that should be a statutory conversation.' All budget decisions must be made before this week's 6 p.m. Friday constitutional deadline. Conference committees on 13 spending bills making up the operating budget must settle differences on hundreds of items, including the lottery language, and close the $1.6 billion gap between the House and Senate on total spending. The lottery provision in the Senate budget — about 125 words in all — directs the Missouri Lottery to launch a three-year pilot program 'allowing the digital delivery of lottery tickets by lottery couriers through a brick and mortar licensed retailer to adults physically present in Missouri at the time of order.' The language also exempts the sales from lottery rules barring retailers from altering the price of tickets. Courier services typically add a 15% to 25% surcharge on the cost of tickets. That is far more than licensed lottery retailers make selling tickets. Lottery retailers are paid a 5% commission on the tickets they sell and 2% for cashing tickets up to $600. 'It doesn't say that our Missouri lottery has to utilize this,' said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican. 'It just kind of opens it up for them to use it if they wanted to.' There are 45 states that have lotteries, but only nine allow lottery courier services. Some allow courier services to deliver their tickets anywhere in the world, while others, like the provision in the Missouri budget, only allow it for residents of their state. Questions raised about courier operations led the Texas Lottery Commission last week to ban ticket sales through couriers, Texas Public Radio reported. The issues being confronted in Texas included an April 2023 drawing won by a consortium led by London-based trader Bernard Marantelli, which bought all 25.8 million possible number combinations to win a $92 million prize. Lottery sales in Missouri fell by $50 million in the most recent fiscal year and transfers from sales to education programs are down 15% in the current year. The lottery provides about 4% of the state's total education funding. The Missouri Lottery, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on the proposal. Hough said he did not know about the issues in Texas when he added the language and the lottery director was indifferent to the idea. 'My guess is it probably comes out,' Hough said. State Sen. Joe Nicola laughs during his introduction to the Missouri Senate on the first day of the 2025 legislative session (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). Transparency complaints In the four months leading up to last week's debate, Hough met with a parade of visitors to his office where they discussed budget requests in private. Almost every change made by the Senate committee to the House's version of the budget was done by Hough directing the decision. He made cuts, stated the new sections for earmarks and the other 12 members generally were silent. In all, the Senate put 169 earmarked items into the operating budget while cutting 57 of 105 House earmarks. New state Sen. Joe Nicola, a Republican from Independence, complained at the end of the budget debate that the Senate should have more than five hours to debate the budget because of its complexity of the budget and the often-obscure language used to identify the target of earmarks. The lottery courier language that appeared in the budget for the first time in the Senate Appropriations Committee is an example of the issue he has with the process, Nicola said. 'The whole chairmanship and the whole committee, and the way senators have to ask for budget items, all of that is bogus,' Nicola said. 'It's all deal making, bogus stuff.' Hough defended the Senate budget process as transparent because each budget item, as proposed by the governor, was aired in a public hearing and the changes were announced in public. 'We run as open and transparent a budget process as there is in this business,' Hough said. 'We go through requests from not just specific senators but also representatives and stakeholders and advocacy groups all over the state in a very open way.' Nicola visited him to ask for budget items, Hough noted at a news conference Thursday. 'I visited with Senator Nicola a number of times on a number of specific items that I will more than gladly remind him are actually in the budget now, per his request,' Hough said. 'So, in my opinion, I think it probably worked pretty well for him.' Senate leadership from both parties said they are comfortable with that process and back Hough. 'I give credit to Sen. Hough, who's run a good process there,' said Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck , a Democrat fromAffton. 'Everybody has their say in it.' What to some may appear to be mysterious is actually hundreds of hours of work and attention to detail that should be admired, O'Laughlin said. 'We're in a strong position heading into conference with the House, and I'm confident that we'll finish with the budget that Missourians can be proud of,' O'Laughlin said. The biggest change needed in the budget process, Nicola said, is for the public to easily know which lawmaker or stakeholder asked for an earmark. In the U.S. Congress, members put their earmark requests on their web sites. U.S. Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, has six projects costing $21 million on his infrastructure list, while U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, a Republican from Tarkio, has $322 million on his list for the current fiscal year. The legislature should also publish the name of the lawmaker or entity requesting money, Nicola said. 'As much transparency as we can have, I am completely for,' Nicola said. 'Transparency to our constituents and to everybody else of what's going on here.' Missouri House Democratic Leader Ashley Aune of Kansas City makes a point Thursday during a news conference with other Democratic lawmakers (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent), Conference questions Missouri is sitting on an historically high surplus of general revenue, with $3.8 billion on hand at the end of April as well as another $1.4 billion that can be spent like general revenue. Both the Senate and the House spending plans would reduce that surplus. The Senate would spend $15.7 billion on operations, the House would spend $14.4 billion and both are well above the $13.6 billion estimated as general revenue receipts for the coming year. But with current revenues almost 2% from last year, the call on the surplus could grow. Based on revenues through Friday, that difference could be as much as $100 million. Before the conference committees meet, Hough and House Budget Committee Chairman Dirk Deaton will meet privately to find agreement on as many items as possible and present those decisions at the meeting, which has yet to be scheduled. The biggest issues that must be resolved are $300 million the Senate added money for public schools, plus $107 million for child care that the House did not approve. The Senate also spent more on state employee pay raises and higher education. The House approved $50 million to expand a tuition scholarship program for private schools that the Senate omitted. Democrats, who hold fewer than one-third of the seats in the General Assembly, are generally pleased with the budget, preferring the Senate version on several items. But House Democrats feel their negotiating position on two of the biggest — foundation formula funding and money for private school tuition scholarships — was undermined when House Speaker Jon Patterson rejected some of their selections for the negotiations. During a news conference last week, Democrats said most of their caucus supports the Senate spending proposals on public schools and child care and opposes the scholarship funding. But the party did not get its preferred representatives on the 13 conference committees — one for each spending bill — because instead of including the ranking Democrat from appropriations subcommittees, as recommended, Patterson chose another member. The biggest surprise was the selection of state Rep. Marlene Terry, a St. Louis Democrat who does not sit on the Budget Committee but has sided with Republicans on school choice bills. 'To come down to the very end of this process and feel disrespected at the end is a huge disappointment to me,' said House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Democrat from Kansas City. 'It's a huge disappointment to our budget team, and to say that I am a little frustrated by it would be probably an understatement.' Patterson said he appointed Terry because she is his Democratic appointment to a school funding task force created by Gov. Mike Kehoe and a long-time school board member. She also supports the scholarship funding, he noted. 'I want Rep. Terry to fight for school kids in the best way that she knows how. I think she is supportive of that,' Patterson said. The conferees must also determine the fate of earmarked spending — items delivering money to a specific location or program at the request of individual lawmakers, state institutions or lobbying interests. 'I wouldn't anticipate that all investments for our local nonprofits and for communities back home will see themselves across the finish line,' Fogle said.'But we as Democrats will be at the table to try to make sure that we're making the fiscally responsible investments in our nonprofits, in our communities back home, whether it be an infrastructure investment or an investment with a nonprofit whose whose goal is to provide pathos out of poverty for families.' Defending the earmarks at a news conference Thursday, Hough said that many provide only a portion of the money needed for a project and require local and private matching funds to spend the state funds. 'This invests,' Hough said, 'in apprenticeship programs, workforce development programs, infrastructure projects all over the state.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
