Wednesday, May 3, 2006
Contact: Spence Jackson, 573-751-0290
New State Budget Honors Blunt’s Commitments to Education, Good Fiscal Stewardship
JEFFERSON CITY–Gov. Matt Blunt today thanked the Missouri General Assembly for passing a budget that lives within Missouri taxpayers’ means and honors his strong commitment to education.
“Missouri is moving in the right direction,” Blunt said. “This is a budget based on sound fiscal management, and the gains we have made would not have been possible without the responsible and in some cases difficult decisions we made last year. I commend the General Assembly for answering my call to once again make education the state’s top priority and for respecting Missouri’s working families who generously fund state government.”
The budget includes $173.4 million for elementary schools as part of Blunt’s new school foundation formula marking the second straight year schools have received a funding increase. None of the money budgeted for schools has been withheld.
In recognition that higher education is an investment in Missouri’s future, this budget includes more than $17 million in new state dollars for two and four year colleges and universities.
The budget provides an increase for in-home healthcare services. The spending plan for next year allocates an additional $400 million for road and bridge construction and maintenance along with plans for the use of more than $380 million in bond proceeds for the Department of Transportation made possible by Missouri voters’ adoption of Amendment 3 in 2004.
The budget also realizes Blunt’s goal of shrinking the size of government by reducing the number of state employees to below 60,000, the lowest since Fiscal Year 1999. At the same time, the budget recognizes the hard work of Missouri’s state employees by providing a four percent across the board pay raise proposed by Blunt. It also provides for additional pay adjustments recommended by the Personnel Advisory Board for critical state positions with high turnover and vacancy rates such as corrections officers, nurses and certain law enforcement personnel.
The Fiscal Year 2007 budget also includes $25 million for the first ever Healthcare Technology Fund, a $5.8 million increase for ethanol and biodiesel, funding increases for Medicaid, veterans, the highway patrol and funds for a new crime lab in Springfield.
###