MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY - Democrats kept Gov. Bob Holden's plan to use the rainy day fund alive Monday, but the victory may be short lived.
The fund, formally known as the Budget Reserve Fund, is part Holden's plan for balancing the state budget. In a 71-52 House vote where all but one Republican voted against, use of the fund received the simple majority needed for preliminary approval. However, that's 38 votes short of the two-thirds majority constitutionally required for final approval.
Even after millions of dollars in cuts, without using the fund the budget approved by the House last week is about $53 million over projected revenues. Where that money will come from without the fund remains uncertain, a point that further complicates matters as the budget process moves forward. While the governor originally identified areas ranging from mental health to transportation that were tied to rainy day funding, that's no longer the case. During the budget process House members moved those programs into the core budget and used rainy day as an additional source of funding for all general revenue programs.
That means the fate of rainy day could impact a wide range of programs, including UM funding.
"It affects the university indirectly by making more money available for the priorities identified by the legislature, and thus making it less likely that people will cut the university to get money for other programs," said Rep. Vicky Riback Wilson, D-Columbia.
Holden wouldn't say what programs would be cut if he was sent an unbalanced budget, but Monday's partisan vote caused him to call Republicans "fiscally irresponsible."
"They're cooking the books," Holden said. "I will not allow this state to become Enron."
Republican Floor Leader Rep. Catherine Hanaway, St. Louis County, disagreed with that characterization and said Holden's "fear mongoring" among elderly and disabled people doesn't help his cause.
"Republicans did the right thing by saying we need to live within the revenues we're going to collect," Hanaway said. "We believe that the governor has other options if in fact we don't collect all the revenues we need to keep this budget balanced."
Hanaway said that as of March 31 the state's revenue collections for this year are up over last year, as opposed to a decrease that had been estimated. She said if the economy continues its upturn next year's revenue estimates could also be underestimated, giving the state more money with which to work.
"I think we're so close that we're within the margin of error on having a balanced budget," Hanaway said.
House Budget Chair Rep. Tim Green, D-St. Louis, said he would wait a couple of days before bringing use of the fund up for a final vote.