Governor to sign emergency spending budget Monday afternoon

By Isabella Roberts

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Gov. Mike Parson is planning on signing the emergency spending budget Monday at 2 p.m. at the Harry S. Truman office building.

House Bill 14 is the supplemental budget for the 2022 fiscal year. It has funds for several state programs, including $149 million for the Department of Mental Health, $20 million dollars in school safety grants, $11 million to the Department of Public Safety and $275 million to the Missouri Disaster Fund.

What is possibly the most anticipated about this budget is the pay raise for state workers. Parson made the decision to fund a new state employee pay program, which will create an 8.7% cost of living adjustment and a $2 per hour differential pay for overnight workers at 24/7 facilities, such as correction centers.

Sen. Greg Razer said the pay raise is long overdue. 

"Missouri state workers are the lowest paid in the country," Razer said. "They deserve a raise if we want to keep up with the government that Missourians deserve, you have to pay for it."

In his State of the State address where Parson introduced this plan, he says that this is not an attempt the Missouri government to set up the market, but rather an attempt by state government to stay competitive with the market.

Parson also said the wage increase was the least they could do because of the more than 7,000 unfilled state positions.