State lawmakers finish more than $50 billion budget, MU reactor money dropped
(Editor's note: The story has been updated with the total operating budget amount.)
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Missouri state lawmakers put their final touches on next year's $50 billion operating budget.
The appropriation bills will not go to Gov. Mike Kehoe for his approval. The governor could veto various line items in the budget ahead of the start of the fiscal year on July 1. The budget sports a $52.5 billion tag for FY 26.
House lawmakers did not pass an appropriations bill, HB 19, containing more than $500 million in various projects across the state. Rep. David Griffith (R-Jefferson City) told ABC 17 News that House lawmakers did not take it up because add-ons from the Senate exceeded their expectations.
That bill included $50 million for the University of Missouri's Radioisotope Science Center nuclear research reactor, $20 million for a new conference center in Jefferson and $15 million for work at the old Missouri State Penitentiary site in the capital city.
University spokesman Christopher Ave declined to comment.
The school announced last month it was working with Hyundai and MPR Associates to begin designing the billion-dollar NextGen reactor in south Columbia. An expansion is also underway at the school's current reactor on Providence Road. School and government leaders in Mid-Missouri have hoped the reactor development would turn the area into a high-profile radiopharmaceutical manufacturing hub for the world.
The budget spends more than $8 billion on K-12 education, about $400 million more than the House of Representatives first approved. The House and Senate agreed to keep in the Senate's increase to the foundation formula for schools. Kehoe and other Republican lawmakers have called for changes to the formula.
"Year after year, the costs to support education rise faster than the state can reasonably manage," Sen. Kurtis Gregory (R-Marshall) said in an emailed statement on Friday. "A new solution must be found and a change made to the foundation formula. Finding a sustainable solution will be a large priority of the Senate in the coming years."
A contentious conference committee hearing also kept $50 million in the budget for the MOScholars program. The money will go toward tuition for qualifying students at private schools, managed by the state treasurer's office.
Democrats criticized the move for taking money away from public school education. Rep. David Tyson Smith (D-Columbia) said the move could be challenged in court and found to be unconstitutional.
Universities across the state are also set to get a 3% increase in funding for the next fiscal year. That includes $251 million from general revenue to the University of Missouri.
Boone County is slated to get $2.5 million to help construct its first responder childcare facility near the sheriff's department.
