The only member of the Missouri Senate who was never a public official before winning election had a scathing verdict on the budget debate he witnessed Tuesday night.
“I think this is one of the worst processes I’ve ever seen and been a part of,” said state Sen. Joe Nicola, a Republican from Independence. “I think it’s broken.”
Nicola spoke after watching the bitterest 20 minutes of the five-hour budget debate. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Lincoln Hough had just finished telling state Sen. Rick Brattin of Harrisonville that he would not support an amendment restoring 25 employees and $684,000 cut from Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ budget during committee work.
One of the reasons Hough gave for opposing any amendments to the bills was that many budget lines include both state and federal money, where Missouri taxpayers supply matching funds at varying rates.
Increasing the state money spent on one, Hough said, triggers changes in how much federal funding should be listed. It was all too complicated to change anything on the floor, he added.
“There is so much work that goes in behind the scenes and in the committee that when you come out here and you start — and you can laugh, if you would like — but if you come out here and you start changing, and you start amending the budget bills, you don’t understand the actual implications,” Hough said.
But Nicola’s complaint wasn’t completely about the scene he had witnessed. It was that he was lost trying to read the 13 bills appropriating $49.5 billion in large amounts for education, public safety, health and welfare programs alongside small sums for things described in often obscure language.
“Just pass it. We can’t put an amendment, very little debate, like we’re wasting our time,” Nicola said. “This whole thing is a dog and pony show. Absolutely ridiculous.”
With Senate passage of the 13 bills, they return to the House and the process to set up a conference committee to negotiate a final proposal will begin. The Senate Appropriations Committee must now turn to capital appropriations bills spending an additional $3.7 billion and get them ready for Senate votes.
The conference committee will have to reconcile differences over education funding that will test new Gov. Mike Kehoe’s ability and willingness to influence the outcome.
The Senate-passed budget allocates almost $300 million more than Kehoe requested for the public school foundation formula and omits $50 million the governor wanted to enlarge a scholarship program for private school tuition.
Overall, the Senate budget would spend $1.6 billion more than the House version and $575 million less that Kehoe requested. In general revenue — money mainly from income and sales taxes — the Senate plan would spend $15.7 billion, $491 million more than Kehoe proposed and $1.3 billion more than the House version.
Other significant differences between the House and Senate include:
- The state employee pay plan. The Senate and Kehoe propose a raise of 1% for every two years worked, capped at 10%. The House version is capped at a 5% raise.
- New child care funding. The Senate approved Kehoe’s request for $107 million to shift the child care subsidy program to prospective payments based on enrollment instead of after-the-fact payments based on attendance. The House did not approve the money.
- Higher education funding. Kehoe proposed a 1.5% increase for colleges and universities, the House agreed and added $28 million for one-time maintenance and repair and the Senate proposed an ongoing 3% increase.
- Earmarks for projects and programs. The House added 149 items to the budget with a total cost of $295 million. The Senate cut 57, totaling $126.3 million, and added 169 of its own to the operating budget at a cost of $441 million. There are 44 earmarks in the capital appropriations that have not had a Senate committee hearing yet.
The school funding differences in the budget will be the biggest item of contention in the conference committee.
When Kehoe, who is in his first year as governor, refused to fund an increase to public schools based on the statutory calculation of the foundation formula, he said the extra money was the result of bureaucratic processes that he distrusted.
The House, in the budget it approved at the beginning of April, went along with Kehoe, funding the public school formula at the $3.7 billion being spent this year.
As he presented the budget, Hough said the extra money represents a promise from the past that must be fulfilled.
“I see this as making good on the commitment that was passed by the legislature last year,” Hough said.
The element that will decide how much is eventually spent on the foundation formula is the state adequacy target, the calculation of the per-pupil amount spent in districts that are high-performing on state accountability measures. For the current year, the amount is $6,760 per student and the statutory calculation in the formula would make it $7,145 for the coming fiscal year.
The legislature can set the number in the appropriation bill and that is what will test Kehoe’s ability and willingness to influence the upcoming conference committee.
During debate, Democrats said even the increased funding was inadequate. State Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Democrat from Kansas City and a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Missouri needs to do more for schools.
“People ask me, ‘oh do you love the Senate version of the budget?’’’ Nurrenbern said. “No, I don’t love the Senate version of the budget, because we are putting less money into public education than nearly every other state in the nation.”
The discussion of the increase to the foundation formula was one of the longest of the budget debate. There was no discussion at all, however, of the cut to the private-school scholarship program.
And while most of the focus during debate on the bill funding education programs was on the increased foundation formula, discussion veered into culture wars when Republican state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman offered an amendment to bar all funding for the YMCA.
Kansas City police are investigating reports of an incident at the North Kansas City YMCA where a child reported an adult with male genitalia exposed was in a women’s locker room. WDAF Fox4 reported that the mother of the child said the person claimed to be a woman.
Coleman said she was upset by statements from the YMCA that “individuals are allowed to use the locker room or restroom that they identify with.” She also said she was offended when representatives of the YMCA, visiting her office, did not respect her concerns that state law was not being followed.
“The frustration that I have of a lack of taking seriously the state laws from a provider that is being paid from the state I thought warranted a vote on this defunding,” Coleman said.
Other lawmakers defended YMCA as a provider of important programs for children. Hough said the organization receives about $12- to $13 million a year in state funding, mostly for after school and summer camp programs through child care programs.
“Imagine if we came in and, for one weird incident, started penalizing across the board, removing all funding” from private organizations, Nurrenbern said.
Coleman eventually withdrew the amendment, but she forced a vote later in the Department of Corrections budget when she tried to cut $21,900 in funding to purchase drugs used for executions.
“These are Chinese made pharmaceuticals that are used to kill by the state those who’ve been convicted of the death penalty,” Coleman said. “And you know when I was first elected I think I would have said that I was in favor of the death penalty, and I have had a real evolution, as I have learned more about how inconsistently it has been applied, and I no longer support it.”
Brattin spoke against the amendment, arguing that he preferred public executions by firing squads.
“Mercy to those who carry out these sorts of acts is an injustice to the victims and their families,” Brattin said.
Coleman’s amendment was defeated 11-22.
The budget is balanced by tapping the state’s accumulated surplus. But with revenues declining more than 1% and uncertainty about future federal funding, the only member who was a lawmaker during the contraction following the 2008 financial crash warned his colleagues to be careful with the surplus.
State Sen. Stephen Webber, a Democrat from Columbia, was a House member from 2009 to 20017. In his first years in office, lawmakers made budget cuts, not increases.
“I’m just telling everybody it’s a lot more enjoyable when you’re adding money for worthy projects in your district, rather than when you’re trying to explain to folks in your district that even though you support the program, it has to get cut because there’s just no other money,” Webber said.
Hough, during a discussion with Nurrenbern, said that while there are dozens of projects in the budget requested by lawmakers, he has to draw the line somewhere. He noted he had turned down her requests to help child care providers in her district.
“I’ve had other members that have come in and said, you know, we need to spend X number of dollars on this courthouse,” Hough said. “Well, that’s great, but do you know how many courthouses there are in the state? And if we open that box, how do we ever bring it back in?”
The disagreement over the employees cut from Hoskins’ budget was a reminder of the factional fights that wracked the Senate over the last four years. Hoskins, a former state senator, was a member of the Freedom Caucus, and before it a group that called itself the conservative caucus.
During budget work, Hoskins would target employee slots that had been unfilled for lengthy periods. One of his factional foes, state Sen. Mike Cierpiot, a Republican from Lee’s Summit, used that logic to cut 25 of 63 open positions in Hoskins’ new office.
“I thought taking 25 of those 63 was a very reasonable, measured way to do things,” Cierpiot said while debating with state Sen. Ben Brown, a Republican from Washington
“But only with the person that’s now running a state office, that that may have had disagreements with you in the past,” Brown replied.
“No, only with a person who has talked about doing this for years in the past,” Cierpiot said.
Every statewide elected official’s office used less than its allotment of employee hours in the most recent complete fiscal year. The vacancy rate for the secretary of state’s office was 23.3%, lower than any other office except state treasurer.
Brattin complained that offices with higher vacancy rates remained untouched while Hoskins lost 25 slots and Lt. Gov. David Wasinger, who defeated Hough in the 2024 Republican primary, lost one of eight assigned to his office.
“It is below what I thought we had kind of gotten to, the place of the Senate this session, trying to let bygones be bygones,” Brattin said. “But it’s quite clear that that’s not what we’re willing to do here, and utilize their position and act as though we’re a bunch of imbeciles.”
