Lawmakers pass $49 billion state budget hours before deadline

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Lawmakers in Jefferson City convened at the Capitol for a rare Friday morning session to work on the state budget, which is due Friday evening.

Both chambers passed all the budget bills they planned to pass hours before the deadline.

The deadline for all budget bills to pass the Missouri legislature is 6 p.m., a week before the last day of the session. The Senate and House of Representatives still need to pass the budget bills that came out of Wednesday's conference committee, House Bills 3002 through 3015.

The fiscal 2023 state budget is one of the biggest budgets in Missouri history. Rep. Peter Merideth (D-St. Louis), the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, says the increased funds may become a regular thing.

"It looks like that's going to be ongoing new revenue," Merideth said. "The economy shifted a lot in the last couple of years, and really thanks to the federal government helping keep things going really with a lot of investment during COVID has helped us come out stronger, at least in terms of revenue."

The House started discussing budget bills around 9:30 a.m. The Senate was scheduled to convene at 10 a.m.

Despite working until the last minute, leadership from both chambers remains confident lawmakers will meet the deadline. Gov. Mike Parson is also confident in their ability to get the budget done. Parson said he's glad to see many of his priorities make it into the conference version of the budget.

"You know, at the end of the day a lot of good things in that budget this year, a lot of things that mean a great deal to the state of Missouri when we start talking about workforce development and we talk about infrastructure, a lot of things in there, so we believe they'll get it done," Parson said.