Senate Appropriations attacks Governor's Supplemental budget

Intro:	The Senate Appropriations Committee chair accused Gov. Nixon of holding back Medicaid budget numbers in the regular appropriations process.
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Wrap: Senator Kurt Schaefer attacked Gov. Nixon's mid-year welfare budget increase during his Appropriations Committee meeting.

To Nixon's budget director, Schaefer suggested the governor deliberately delayed a larger welfare budget.

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Description: You knew all along from the very beginning what the number was, you just were never gonna offer it in the regular props process because there's too much public discussion over a four month period so you just pull some of it back, wait till there's a supplemental, when nobody's really watching and we only spend a week on it and then you basically grow Medicaid by an awful lot of money that way.

Nixon's budget director attributed the size of the mid-year budget request to a decrease in payments from a tobacco industry lawsuit settlement and higher pharmacy costs.

Reporting from the state Capitol, I'm Shannon Shaver.

Intro:	Missouri's Senate Appropriations Chair attacked the state governor's plans to boost welfare spending by more than one-quarter of a billion dollars for the next few months.
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Wrap: The Senate Appropriations Committee accused the governor's mid-year budget hikes as being the largest they've ever seen.

Republican Senator David Pearce said they should work toward having no mid-year increase in next year's budget.

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Description: Quite honestly, I think that the goal for every one of us in this room is to have a zero supplemental bill next year, not just kick the can down the road and just say this is the way we budget, I think we all need to work on that, and to make sure that that's put in next year's budget.

The administrations budget director said decrease in tobacco industry lawsuit settlement payments is among the reasons the mid-year budget request is so large.

Reporting from the state Capitol, I'm Shannon Shaver.

Intro:	Missouri's Senate Appropriations Chair attacked the state governor's plans to boost welfare spending by more than one-quarter of a billion dollars for the next few months.
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Wrap: At issue is the governor's request for more Medicaid funds to cover the remaining months of the budget year that ends in July.

Committee Chair Kurt Schaefer charged Nixon was trying to hide future increases.

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Description: What the governor does is, and he's done this every year too, is massive growth in Medicaid in the supplemental and then six months later they carry that over for the new budget recommendation for the next year and say 'oh look, you know, it's the same as the supplemental, we're not growing it at all.'

Nixon's budget director said higher prescription costs were one of the reasons the mid-year budget request increased.

Reporting from the state Capitol, I'm Shannon Shaver.