Four important numbers in Missouri’s FY 2025 budget

By Ezra Bitterman

Missouri News Network

The Missouri General Assembly met its constitutional mandate to pass a state budget Friday, sending to Gov. Mike Parson a $51.7 billion package that funds essential services like the state’s health care and public education system.

The final number is about $1 billion under what the governor proposed at the beginning of the year. He has the power to eliminate specific spending items.

Here are four key numbers you should know about the Fiscal Year 2025 state budget.

— $6,760 —

The state adequacy target is the baseline per pupil funding provided to school districts by the state. It was unchanged for four years until this year, when it was bumped to $6,760 from $6,375. The funding has failed to keep pace with inflation over the last 17 years. In 2007, the target established by the legislature was $9,575 per pupil after adjusting for inflation.

A major education bill raising minimum teacher pay to $40,000 a year and expanding charter schools to Boone County, among other provisions, passed this session. It comes with a hefty $468 million fiscal note once fully implemented and will cost around $200 million a year for the next few years.

House budget chair Rep. Cody Smith, R-Carthage, said that the steep increase in education spending required going forward wasn’t factored in while composing the FY 2025 budget. None of the mandates in the bill are connected to a funding source, meaning if the state can’t afford them, it would be on local governments to do so.

It’s unclear the likelihood of that possibility. At the beginning of the year the state projected a 0.5% decrease in general revenue over the rest of this fiscal year and the next one. Yet, up to date revenue receipts have shown a different picture. As of April, general revenue collections are up 2.7% year over year.

— 6 —

Six departments requested funds for programs or practices that involved diversity, equity and inclusion in some way. Republicans have targeted DEI in the appropriations process for years. Last year, the House defunded DEI in its version of the budget, but the Senate approved it, keeping it in the budget.

Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, who introduced the DEI amendment last year, again proposed an amendment to ban state spending on DEI several times while the budget bills were on the Senate floor. It failed by bipartisan votes each time.

Blocking funding to DEI isn’t the first time Republicans have attempted to legislate through the budget bills. The 2022 budget included a provision preventing any Medicaid reimbursements going to Planned Parenthood because it has affiliates in other states that provide abortions. That provision was later struck down by the Missouri Supreme Court.

Even as DEI was protected in the budget, a provision was added by Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, R-Parkville, to prevent any money from going to a city that has a sanctuary city policy that protects the identity of immigrants.

After failing to block state funds for Planned Parenthood and DEI in the budget process, Republicans have turned to changing statute. The governor already signed a bill passed this session to ban Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursements. A bill banning funds spent on DEI programs in state agencies got initial House approval last week.

Only six agencies have offices relating to diversity, equity and inclusion. Planned Parenthood is unable to provide abortions in Missouri because of the state ban on abortions. No city in the state has a sanctuary city policy.

— 0 —

No public comment was taken throughout the four-month budget process. In an effort to have the budget completed earlier, the process began sooner. Instead, the budget was completed three hours before the constitutional deadline, and the public wasn’t privy to the process’s inner workings.

Smith unveiled his budget plan mid-March, two months before the bills were constitutionally mandated to be passed. In a 30-minute hearing he laid out a $49 billion spending plan and gave committee members a few days to review the whole package and come up with amendments.

About a month later, the Senate held a hearing unveiling its own package without receiving public comment. Its version of the budget bills was unveiled less than two weeks before the budget due date.

A 41-hour filibuster by the Freedom Caucus on the federal reimbursement allowance, a bill that funds a large portion of the state’s healthcare system, further cramped the timeline.

With the clock ticking, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, and Smith decided to finalize the budget process themselves instead of in a public conference committee.

The new bills created by the budget chairs were brought before the Senate and House with no time for prior review by elected officials or the public.

Republicans and Democrats alike criticized the budget. Gov. Mike Parson said his office wasn’t privy to any of the budget discussions and called the process “problematic.” He also said that he didn’t want a large supplemental — when the legislature has to appropriate funds to departments to continue day-to-day operations.

Rep. Peter Meredith, D-St. Louis, who has served on the budget committee for eight years, said it was the least transparent process he’s ever seen.

— $558 million —

UM system got about $558 million in this year’s budget: $509 million of that is baseline funding for the system, with about $50 million appropriated for various university projects. The overall appropriation is a 3% increase from last year.

• $10 million was put forward to complete a $25 million meat laboratory on MU’s campus.

• $6 million was appropriated for a workforce incentive grant at MU.

• Around $5 million was given to the State Historical Society. That’s about $2 million more than last year.

Hough is proud of the budget despite the transparency concerns.

“It’s been an odd year, but it’s been a good year and I think the end product is something we can be proud of,” Hough said after the bills passed the Senate.