The Missouri House of Representatives approved a nearly $2 billion supplemental budget Wednesday to fund the state government for the remainder of the current fiscal year.
Each year, the legislature passes a supplemental budget. Unexpected financial needs or program costs that exceed the projections approved in the previous year’s budget are not uncommon. When this occurs, the budget must be adjusted to ensure that everything is adequately funded.
Rep. Betsy Fogle of Springfield, the House Budget Committee’s top Democrat, praised the supplemental budget’s speed and bipartisan cooperation.
“We need to get these dollars out the door as quickly as possible,” Fogle told me. “I appreciate the chair’s work across the aisle in making sure we crafted a good supplemental.”
House Budget Committee Chairman Dirk Deaton, R-Seneca, stated that this year’s supplemental budget was less expensive than expected.
The allocations include approximately $300 million for public education, owing largely to last year’s comprehensive education bill, which passed late in the session and was not included in the budget.
New funds have also been allocated to the Department of Natural Resources for wastewater management, the Department of Mental Health to clear its waitlist for developmentally disabled services, and the Department of Agriculture to hire a staff member to respond to the current bird flu epidemic.
The current fiscal year runs through the end of June. The legislature must pass a full budget for the next fiscal year before the session ends in May.
The budget bill passed the House almost unanimously, 150-2. The bill will now move to the Senate.
