Lawmakers also turned a blind eye to raising the state's cigarette tax and authorizing a sales tax on Internet sales. The top House Democrat on the budget committee, Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said term limits and campaign promises led to the inability to increase revenue.
The top House Democrat on the budget committee, Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said she was glad the cuts were reversed, but said the current funding trends could not continue.
House budget negotiators are planning to hold firm on the program's elimination and Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said she was removed from the conference committee because she would not agree to keep the cut to the blind. Lampe is a House negotiator on every other part of the budget.
“This bill touches every school throughout the state," Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said. "If you want to fix what you say you want to fix it needs to be specific to those districts.”
Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said the state has an obligation to provide adequate and equitable funding for all school districts and if action is not taken, some school districts will be winners and others will be losers.
Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said this budget reflected a choice between higher education and social services programs caused by a reluctance to raise taxes.
However, Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield said she was concerned that private management companies, like the group that operated the now-closed St. Louis charter schools, would take state money away from students.
Thomson said he wants to avoid a drastic change in funding which could result from the department dropping the adequacy target to compensate for inadequate funding. The technical changes to the formula are difficult to understand, Thomson said, but it's not necessary to understand them to vote on the issue. Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said she voted in favor based on how the change would influence the funding her district receives.
Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, and other members of the committee expressed concern that including multiple important issues in one bill could end up killing the entire bill.
A top Democrat on the House Budget Committee Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said she was concerned about the universities. Lampe said she did not know how the colleges would be able to survive such a cut without raising tuition.
Springfield Democrat Rep. Sara Lampe warned that the bill could open the door for profit-making, out-of-state charter school companies to undercut the financial base of a local district that ran into accreditation problems.
The top House Democrat on the budget committee, Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said she was glad the cuts were reversed, but said the current funding trends could not continue.
Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said this budget reflected a choice between higher education and social services programs caused by a reluctance to raise taxes.
Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said this budget reflected a choice between higher education and social services programs caused by a reluctance to raise taxes.
A top Democrat on the House Budget Committee Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said she was concerned about the universities. Lampe said she did not know how the colleges would be able to survive such a cut without raising tuition.
A top Democrat on the House Budget Committee Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said she was concerned about the universities. Lampe said she did not know how the colleges would be able to survive such a cut without raising tuition.
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