From Missouri Digital News: https://mdn.org

JEFFERSON CITY -In a show of bipartisan lawmaking, the Missouri House overturned every budget veto it considered during Wednesday's veto session. Budget items approved by both houses would provide more than $51 million in state funding to a variety of programs.

The Senate approved 47 of the 55 line items, including two non-profit alternative schools, emergency preparedness software for Missouri schools and a mentoring program for inmates' children. 

Still, some lawmakers questioned whether the money would even reach these programs, saying that Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon could withhold funds. Others said the state doesn't have the money in the first place.

House Speaker Tim Jones, R-St. Louis County, accused Nixon of abusing his office and vetoing bills out of political motivation. He said Nixon's vetoes and withholdings in the past year amounted to $800 million in unused state funds.

"That's where the money resides: in that governor's ever-expanding pockets of increasing the size and scope of his government, 'cause that's how he views it. Not the people's government. Not the representatives' government. His government," Jones said. "This governor has done more to expand and centralize the power of the executive than any governor in state history."

Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, agreed the funds would be withheld, but said Republicans were as much to blame as the governor.

"They're all gonna be withheld," Kelly said. "And why? It's because the majority drove the largest unbalanced budget in the history of the state of Missouri with their ill-conceived and sloppily drafted bunch of ramshackle tax decreases. Special giveaways to special friends."

Kelly said Republicans were leading the state toward "ruination."

The veto session marked both lawmakers' last time on the House floor.

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