Missouri House fine-tunes state budget

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s GOP-led House is advancing a state spending plan for the upcoming budget year. House lawmakers on Tuesday fine-turned the budget, which still needs several votes of approval to move to the Senate. Democrats say Republicans are being too stingy in spending billions of dollars in federal funding. But Republicans say they’re trying to be cautious and conservative in deciding how to allocate a massive amount of federal coronavirus aid. One point of debate is over teacher raises, which GOP Gov. Mike Parson and Democrats want. Republican House members have not included money for that in the budget.