[Education and Welfare] Schaefer's focus is on education in Senate budget

[Denny Huff]

Schaefer's focus is on education in Senate budget

 

By 

Rudi Keller  

 

Sunday, March 25, 2012  

JEFFERSON CITY 

The Senate budget plan will focus available general revenue on education
even as questions are raised about how much money lawmakers will

have to work with, Appropriations Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer said. 

 

The $24 billion budget passed by the House last week altered Gov. Jay
Nixon's original proposal by shifting more than $69 million in general
revenue to

state colleges and universities. Nixon publicly campaigned against the
biggest shift, which moved $28 million from a state medical program that
covers

2,858 blind people, and he privately lobbied several GOP House members to
oppose the cut. 

 

Schaefer, R-Columbia, said Friday that he has not been contacted directly by
Nixon, but that Budget Director Linda Luebbering asked for the Senate to
restore

the medical program. "My position at this point is that I don't know,"
Schaeffer said. "We are going to look at it; we are going to look at
everything.

In a budget year like this, the worst budget year we have seen in modern
times, everything is on the table." 

 

Although general revenue - the portion of the state budget where Nixon and
lawmakers have the greatest discretion - has increased in the past two
years,

it has not returned to pre-recession levels. Nixon's original budget
proposal was balanced by Medicaid changes, cuts to higher education and
other stopgap

measures that covered a  $500 million hole. Nixon moved $198 million in
general revenue into public schools, for example, to replace federal
spending support.

 

 

The House budget reversed Nixon's cuts to higher education. And Schaefer,
who will need a happy University of Missouri constituency as he faces state
Rep.

Mary Still, D-Columbia, in this year's election, said he's not inclined to
change that decision. "I have had a lot of discussions with" House Budget
Committee

Chairman Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City, Schaefer said. "One thing this budget
is going to demonstrate is that education is a top priority for the state of

Missouri." 

 

But maintaining House funding levels for higher education might face bigger
problems than pressure from Nixon to restore the blind medical program. 

 

Last week, Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, vowed to block all
legislation that generates one-time revenue. He's demanding tax credit and
pension changes

and said because this is his last year in office, he will get them, or bills
that generate money already counted in the House spending plan will not
pass.

 

 

The biggest of those measures would generate $70 million through a tax
amnesty combined with more vigorous collection efforts. "I am going to
budget what

I believe are realistic numbers," Schaefer said. "Part of that assessment
will include the legislation needed." 

 

Nixon's lobbying effort with several House Republicans, although it didn't
pay off in votes against the budget bill cutting the blind medical program,
could

signal that he's ready to engage lawmakers. 

 

That lobbying, which took place after the House finished amending the
spending bills, would have thrown the budget process into chaos if it had
succeeded,

Silvey said. "Clearly, if the governor was actually interested in restoring
the funding rather than using it as a campaign tool, he would have engaged

earlier in the process with the people who had the ability to make those
decisions," Silvey said. 

 

State Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, had amendments prepared that would have
moved money from public schools, higher education and the Office of
Administration

to restore the blind medical program. He did not offer any of those
amendments. House members didn't like cutting education, and Nixon's office
didn't

like cutting the Office of Administration, Kelly said. 

 

"I ran all the traps very hard on it and I could find no votes and it was
clear I wasn't going to pass it," Kelly said.  

 

Reach Rudi Keller at 573-815-1709  or e-mail 

rkeller at columbiatribune.com.

 

 

 

____________________________________________________________________________
_

Denny Huff- President

Missouri Council of the Blind

P: (636) 262-1383

TF: (888) 362-1383

F: (314) 558-0298

Phone Cast: (816) 298-8969

 

DHuff at MoBlind.Org

www.moblind.org

The purpose of Missouri Council of the Blind shall be to promote the general
well-being of our members and legally blind people in Missouri, and to
support

or participate in other programs promoting the best interests of legally
blind people everywhere.

 

 

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE JOURNEY

Your host: Denny Huff

Listen live,

SUNDAY MORNINGS AT 8:00 AM CST

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