The House and Senate have been very busy finalizing the Fiscal Year 2016 State Operating Budget to send on to the Governor. An important change for Education will be the budget adjustments and addition of restrictive language to move Missouri toward new education standards and away from Common Core.
Additional highlights in the Legislative Update.
House and Senate Reach Agreement on Fiscal Year 2016 Budget (HBs 1 – 13)
After several long days of negotiations and discussion, the House and Senate finally worked out their differences and gave final approval to the Fiscal Year 2016 state operating budget. The bills now move to the governor’s desk a full two weeks ahead of the constitutionally-mandated budget deadline.
During the budget process, the Senate made significant changes to the House version of the state spending plan, including a lump-sum budgeting approach that included 4 to 6 percent cuts to health, mental health and social services programs. These changes drew the scrutiny of some on the House side and even lost the backing of leadership in the Senate as negotiations progressed. The final version of the budget approved by both chambers moves much closer to the original House spending plan, but does take some fiscally responsible steps to rein in the growth of the state’s social welfare programs. The final version of the budget does include the Senate’s plan to move Missouri’s Medicaid population to a system of managed care, but the transition will occur slowly and only after the plan has been reviewed.
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