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House and Senate budget negotiations bode well for Mo. DMV

Representative Rick Stream, Republican of St. Louis County.
Jacob Fenston
/
KBIA
Representative Rick Stream, Republican of St. Louis County.

House and Senate budget negotiators have agreed to restore most, but not all, of the funding for Missouri’s Motor Vehicles division within the Department of Revenue.

House Budget Chairman Rick Stream says they’ve restored funding for only eight months, through February of next year, and that getting the rest of the funding will depend on whether they change their policy of scanning and storing source documents for driver’s license applicants:

“They need to stop that…it’s all part of the big picture of this whole plan of sending a message to DOR and the (Nixon) administration that we didn’t like what was being done with scanning of documents and sending information out of state." said Stream.

Stream says if Revenue officials comply, then the rest of the DMV’s funding would be included in next year’s supplemental budget.  The State Senate last month (April) completely de-funded the Motor Vehicles division over its scanning policy, and for releasing the state’s entire list of conceal carry holders to a federal investigator.  Governor Nixon last month ordered the agency to stop scanning documents for conceal carry applicants, but not for those seeking driver’s licenses and other licenses.

Missouri Public Radio State House Reporter Marshall Griffin is a proud alumnus of the University of Mississippi (a.k.a., Ole Miss), and has been in radio for over 20 years, starting out as a deejay. His big break in news came when the first President Bush ordered the invasion of Panama in 1989. Marshall was working the graveyard shift at a rock station, and began ripping news bulletins off the old AP teletype and reading updates between songs. From there on, his radio career turned toward news reporting and anchoring. In 1999, he became the capital bureau chief for Florida's Radio Networks, and in 2003 he became News Director at WFSU-FM/Florida Public Radio. During his time in Tallahassee he covered seven legislative sessions, Governor Jeb Bush's administration, four hurricanes, the Terri Schiavo saga, and the 2000 presidential recount. Before coming to Missouri, he enjoyed a brief stint in the Blue Ridge Mountains, reporting and anchoring for WWNC-AM in Asheville, North Carolina. Marshall lives in Jefferson City with his wife, Julie, their dogs, Max and Mason, and their cat, Honey.
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