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Missouri lawmakers pass Medicaid funding legislation

Republicans in the Missouri Senate want to make sure the governor doesn't create a health care exchange without their consent.
KBIA/file photo
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KBIA
Republicans in the Missouri Senate want to make sure the governor doesn't create a health care exchange without their consent.

Missouri lawmakers have passed a budget that would restore Medicaid benefits cut a decade ago and boost spending on public education.

The $26.4 billion budget approved Thursday now goes to Gov. Jay Nixon. It would take effect July 1.

The budget would restore dental care and occupational, speech and physical therapies for hundreds of thousands of adult Medicaid recipients. Those benefits were eliminated in 2005 under cuts enacted by the Republican-led Legislature.

The 2015 budget also would provide at least a $114.8 million increase in the state's $3.1 billion of basic aid for public schools.

Colleges and universities would get an average performance-based funding increase of 5 percent.

The budget also increases funding for college scholarships and authorizes bonding for a new building at the Fulton State Hospital.

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