51黑料

After months of waiting, the Senate Appropriations Committee鈥檚 work marks the beginning of the final push toward passage of a massive package of bills that keep state government operating, with money for schools, roads and social services.

Among changes promised by Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, who chairs the powerful panel, is the restoration of Gov. Mike Parson鈥檚 call for universities to get a 3% increase in their state funding, up from the 2% level endorsed by the House.

Hough also said the Senate version will offer a different approach to improving Interstate 44. The House budget called for $728 million to widen the heavily traveled, cross-state route in key spots near Springfield, Joplin and Rolla.

鈥淕overnor Parson and I met last week to discuss the plan and we agreed on some changes,鈥� Hough said.

Also on tap is the expansion of U.S. Route 67 near Poplar Bluff to pave the way for transforming the roadway into Interstate 57 to the Missouri-Arkansas border. The Senate plan would bring spending on the expansion to $60 million with the possibility of additional federal dollars on the way.

Left by the wayside is a request by the Missouri Department of Transportation to add Amtrak service from Kansas City to St. Joseph and Kansas City to southwest Missouri.

The $38 million passenger rail plan also would have added a third daily train between 51黑料 and Kansas City, but neither the House nor Senate funded the idea.

The Senate proposal, which will be debated at the committee level over the next two to three days, will give more than 40,000 state employees 3.2% raises, as was recommended by the governor.

Hough said his plan is to provide enough funding to boost pay rates for workers who care for developmentally disabled Missourians to $17 an hour as a way to bolster the workforce.

Hough restored $5.4 million to help build a new facility at the Missouri University of Science and Technology at Rolla to study minerals essential to national security. Parson had sought the funding, but it had been left out in the House version.

And, the Senate Republican plan keeps intact the governor鈥檚 plan to boost funding on child care as a way to get more people in the workforce at a time when unemployment is low, Hough said.

The committee is moving this week to finalize the spending blueprint in order to launch negotiations with the House within two weeks.

Other hurdles await.

Hough said he won鈥檛 bring the budget to the floor until the GOP-controlled Senate approves more than $4 billion in medical provider taxes that help fund the state鈥檚 Medicaid program.

But the six members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus are threatening to filibuster the renewal of the taxes if the House doesn鈥檛 pass a bill banning Planned Parenthood from receiving funding for providing health care services through the Medicaid program.

The House is slated to vote on the issue Wednesday, but Freedom Caucus members said last week that may not be enough to meet their demands. In addition to House passage, they want Parson to sign the bill, guaranteeing it will be in state law after years of successful constitutional challenges by the abortion provider.

Hough said the splinter faction is using the tax as a negotiating tool.

鈥淚n this environment, when people know you have to get something done then oftentimes they鈥檙e using that as leverage to get other things done,鈥� Hough told reporters last week.

The push to hammer out the spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1 comes as Missouri has a $6 billion surplus that was built up when federal pandemic relief dollars were flowing into the treasury.

The House blueprint reduces the proposal made by Parson in January by about $2 billion. Among items cut by the House is a nearly $53 million plan to redevelop the mostly abandoned Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City as a tourist site.

Missouri taxpayers also will be on the hook for $8 million for Parson鈥檚 decision to send National Guard troops to Texas as part of a Republican-led effort to highlight immigration as an election year issue.

The legislation is Hous