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Nixon signs FY 2014 budget, withholds $400 million of spending

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Governor J. Nixon

  Missouri’s state budget for the fiscal year that begins Monday has been signed into law, but Gov. Jay Nixon also announced that he will withhold more than 400 million dollars in funding for several state needs.  He told reporters Friday that the tentative cuts would become permanent if Republican lawmakers override his veto of their tax cut bill.  Budget Director Linda Luebbering says Nixon's cuts includes cancelling pay raises for state workers as well as eliminating state jobs.

“We don’t have specifics on that, and won’t for quite some time,” Luebbering said. “I’ll be working with the departments to develop a plan to cut another thousand positions out of state government.”

The cuts also include $66 million from K-through-12 schools, and the entire Medicaid provider rate increase of nearly $46 million is being zeroed out.  Luebbering says it’s possible some cuts could become permanent even if the tax cut veto is not overturned, but told reporters that the Governor would restore the K-through-12 funding as soon as possible.  Republican lawmakers are calling the Governor’s actions unconstitutional and a political stunt.

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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