Missouri House Budget Chairman Dirk Deaton, a Republican from Seneca, defended his plan to overhaul higher education funding Thursday during a news conference prior to a vote on the plan (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).
A plan to overhaul higher education funding by tying state aid to enrollment squeaked through the Missouri House on Thursday and faces strong opposition in the state Senate.
The spending bill that would cut funding for some state universities by 40% or more passed the House 83-66 as 21 Republicans joined Democrats in opposition. A bill needs 82 votes to pass.
The plan for reallocating more than $1 billion in state support for community colleges and four-year universities was unveiled a little more than two weeks ago by state Rep. Dirk Deaton, the Seneca Republican who chairs the House Budget Committee. He said it is a response to decades of higher education funding decisions that created huge disparities in how much each school receives for each student being educated.
“We need to send the money where the kids are, where they’re going to school, and empower them,” Deaton said at a news conference before the House debate Thursday. “And that’s what this plan does.”
The current allocations have as much to do with past funding and political favors as they do with the particular mission of each school. Democrats said during debate that higher education funding needs a close look but Deaton’s change is too dramatic and the impact too severe.
“It doesn’t take an accountant to figure out that some of these institutions with this proposal would not survive,” said state Rep. Kathy Steinhoff, a Columbia Democrat. “It will leave holes in communities throughout Missouri.
The higher education funding bill was one of 12 spending bills approved Thursday in the House. Most passed easily, but two others —- one to fund the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and one to fund state elected officials that includes a controversial private school voucher program — also faced close votes and substantial Republican opposition.
The 12 bills spend $50.4 billion to fund state government operations in the fiscal year that begins July 1. Four other spending bills appropriating $2.6 billion to pay for construction and maintenance at state facilities were approved Thursday morning in the House Budget Committee and will be debated next week.
The spending plan, including capital needs, calls on the state treasury for $15.9 billion in general revenue, while the December revenue estimate projects the state will collect $13.6 billion in taxes. The deficit will be covered from accumulated surpluses, which will be almost exhausted when the fiscal year ends.
Deaton is leaving office due to term limits. Future lawmakers are going to have to make spending match revenue, he said.
“The General Assembly probably should stop passing bills with fiscal notes attached,” Deaton said.
Lawmakers also struggled with a cut to funding for services for adults with developmental disabilities proposed by Gov. Mike Kehoe. Hundreds of people came to the Capitol last month to protest the cut, and a bipartisan majority on the budget committee, including Deaton, voted to restore the funding.
It could be a preview if more severe cuts come in future years.
“Everything that’s in this budget is important to somebody, somewhere, to some member on this floor, and that’s what makes this so difficult,” Deaton said at the news conference. “It’s going to take a lot of hard choices and discipline, and the General Assembly needs to proceed with caution when it comes to fiscal policy.”
The budget approved in the House would:
- Maintain funding for public schools at current levels but is $190 million short of fully funding the state foundation formula. The budget also falls about $35 million short of fully funding transportation needs for school districts.
- Eliminate the only general state employee pay raise in the budget. Last year, lawmakers approved a 1% raise for each two years in state employment, capped at 10% for 20 years. Kehoe wanted to continue that plan by giving employees who reached a two-year multiple an additional 1%.
- Cuts $51 million from child care services by eliminating funds that pay enhanced rates to help providers cover costs of serving children with special needs, foster children.
- Cut $250,000 Kehoe requested for The 57 Foundation, set up “to educate the public on the history of Gov. (Mike) Parson’s life and administration.”
Deaton’s higher education proposal seems doomed in the upper chamber.
State Sen. Rusty Black of Chillicothe, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Thursday that opposition is strong and support is weak.
Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, in Black’s district, would see a 26% funding boost. Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, with a campus just outside his district, would see a 24% cut.
“I can’t make a guarantee to anybody what that will look like, because I work with 33 other people, but right now it seems like a difficult task,” Black said.
Black’s predecessor as appropriations chair, Republican state Sen. Lincoln Hough of Springfield, was more blunt in his assessment of the plan.
“That’s a complete joke,” Hough said. “You can’t cut institutions by half of their state appropriation in one year.”
Lincoln University in Jefferson City has lobbied successfully over the past several years to obtain state funds to match federal money available for its land grant mission. The funding for that match is $12.7 million and is retained in the House budget plan. But instead of $23.7 million in core funding, the school’s appropriation would be cut almost $9 million, to $14.8 million.
“We finally got them to where they need to be and should be, and now they’re going to get the rug pulled out,” Hough said.
The final debate and votes on the 12 bills consumed about three hours and many of the issues raised during debate revisited arguments made Tuesday, when amendments were offered.
The shortfall in school funding and the cuts to child care services made the vote close on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education spending bill. It passed 85-70, with 22 Republicans opposed.
The bill including $60 million in voucher funding for the MOScholars program, which is funneled through the state treasurer’s office, passed 84-61 with 13 Republicans opposed. The program received $50 million in the current year’s budget.
State Rep. Stephanie Hein, a Springfield Democrat, said she worries that the cost will grow even faster in coming years. Every child approved for a voucher can keep it throughout their school career because the state does not check family income against statutory limits after the initial grant, she said.
While future lawmakers will need to cut the budget, she said pressure will build to keep increasing the MOScholars program.
“It’s a big ticket item, and we need to be prepared for those decisions,” Hein said.
The fact that the program is growing shows the need, Deaton said in reply.
“Missourians are demanding these opportunities and this access,” he said, “and it’s disappointing to me that so many oppose it, but I totally support it.”
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX