Tagged: Jay Nixon

Missouri House and Senate budget negotiators have crafted a final version of next year's state budget.

The nearly $25 billion spending plan includes a $66 million increase for K-12 schools, and a $25 million hike for state universities and community colleges.  It still does not include the Medicaid expansion proposed by Democratic Governor Jay Nixon, which disappointed committee member and State Senator Kiki Curls, also a Democrat, from Kansas City.

Republicans in the Missouri Senate have scaled back a proposal to cut state taxes in order to emulate tax cuts in neighboring Kansas and Oklahoma.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, a Democrat, has strongly objected to the bill's sales tax hike, saying it would hurt the poor and elderly the most.  That provision has been dropped.  

House Bill 253 would now cut the personal income tax rate by half a percentage point and the corporate rate by three points, and phase them both in over the next 10 years. 

Republican House Speaker Tim Jones has formed a committee he says will thoroughly investigate the Department of Revenue's scanning of source documents for driver's license and conceal carry applicants, and the release of the state's conceal carry weapons (CCW) holder list to the federal government.

Jones says the committee is necessary because the Nixon administration has not fully cooperated with lawmakers' efforts to get answers to everything that's happened and why.

The Missouri House has adopted Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) proposal announced Thursday to add $86 million to a capital improvements bill.

The Missouri Department of Revenue will cease scanning source documents for conceal-carry weapons applicants, also known as CCW’s.  This news comes a day after the resignation of now-former DOR Director Brian Long.

Missouri’s budget for the next fiscal year has been passed by the State House.  While Medicaid expansion has dominated most of the debate, spending hikes were approved in other areas.

The nearly $25 billion spending plan adds an extra $65 million for K-12 schools, although the spending hike still falls short of fully funding the state’s public school formula. 

Republican Mike Lair of Livingston County chairs the Appropriations committee on Education.