Missouri Lawmakers Move to Boost School Funding (MO)

February 23, 2011

The Missouri House on Tuesday gave first-round approval to bills boosting state spending for the current year.

One allocates $189.7 million in federal stimulus money for use by school districts

The arrangement, agreed to by the House and Senate leadership and the governor’s office, is aimed at making sure that state aid to schools remains stable from this year to the next, said House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey, a Kansas City Republican.

The other bill contains $233 million and will pay for Medicaid health services for the poor and other state expenses.

Final House votes are expected later this week.

However, the federal dollars and the level-funding plan for schools may run into trouble in the Senate. Some conservative lawmakers there have suggested they’ll try to reject the money to signal their discontent with spending in Washington.

Sen. Chuck Purgason, a Republican from Caulfield, said he wished the state could send the money back. But he acknowledged such a step probably would be meaningless without agreement from other states and a promise from Congress not to spend the returned money elsewhere.

“We’re all in this together, and we’re going to have to all of us make sacrifices,” Purgason said. “But to ask Missourians to be alone in that sacrifice I don’t think is fair.”