State budget in limbo as deadline approaches
Editor's note: Time elements of this story have been updated.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
About $50 billion hangs in the balance as lawmakers are approaching the deadline to get the state budget on the governor's desk.
Approval of the more-than $50 million budget needs to be approved by 6 p.m. Friday
Even though lawmakers started discussing the budget in December, before the legislative session began, the budget has yet to pass the Missouri Senate in the final days. The budget bills need to be approved by the Senate, any changes need to be compromised on in a conference committee meeting of both House and Senate members and then budget bills need to be approved again by both chambers.
If lawmakers are unable to get a budget passed this week, they cannot work on it again until a special session is called by the governor.
Traci Gleason, of the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization Missouri Budget Project, said a special session would be "time consuming and cumbersome, but possible" end quote. The benefit of a special session is less distractions; lawmakers would be required to only work on the budget.
Gleason said the most important this is for the budget to get passed before the fiscal year begins on July 1.
As filibustering and in-fighting have slowed the Missouri Senate, the budget sat untouched by the upper chamber for weeks after being passed by the Missouri House of Representatives. Even so, Sen. Lincoln Hough (R-Springfield), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, previously told ABC 17 News he's confident the legislature will pass a budget.
"Politics is a tough business these days, right?" Hough said. "Maybe it always has been. It seems more divisive, more mean spirited now than it ever has. Which is unfortunate, because I do believe the majority of elected people are up here trying to do the right thing for the people that they represent."
Rep. Peter Merideth (D-St. Louis), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, said he has been kept in the dark on what's in the current version of the budget, calling this the "least transparent" budget process in his tenure.
"Whatever they come out with, we're not even going to know what we're voting on for sure as we decide whether or not to approve the budget," Merideth said.
ABC 17 News reached out to Rep. Cody Smith (R-Carthage), House Budget Committee chair, to ask about Merideth's transparency concerns, but have not heard back.
The Missouri House of Representatives Budget Committee slashed some of Gov. Mike Parson's plans for the budget, but the Senate Appropriations Committee added most of it back in.
The Missouri legislature took until the final hours to pass the state budget last year.
