One day after giving it first-round approval, the Missouri House has passed a proposed constitutional amendment to place spending caps on the state budget.
During final debates, Democrat Jeanette Mott Oxford of St. Louis argued that limiting spending to the yearly inflation rate and population growth could make it very hard for lawmakers to address critical needs in the future:
“When we try through our constitution, through constantly amending our constitution, to figure out how to solve future problems that we can’t see right now, we wind up creating these unintended consequences that are truly, truly bad for our state.”
Eric Burlison, the bill’s sponsor, maintains that Missouri’s taxpayers have a right to see their dollars used wisely, and that the measure would insure that. It now goes to the Missouri Senate, and if it passes there it would go before voters this fall.
