Friday, May 6, 2005
Contact: Spence Jackson, (573)751-0290
Blunt Lauds Passage of Fiscal Year 2006 Budget
Missouri Lawmakers Enact Majority of Governor’s Proposals
JEFFERSON CITY—Gov. Matt Blunt commended the Missouri General Assembly for answering his call to pass a budget that includes a significant increase in funding for Missouri classrooms, reduces the state bureaucracy for the first time in recent memory, and that lives within the taxpayers’ means.
The Fiscal Year 2006 (FY 06) budget will send $158 million more to Missouri’s public schools marking a 4.4 percent increase from the previous year. As a candidate, Blunt pledged to deliver more money to classrooms every year that he is governor. The budget maintains funding levels for higher education institutions in spite of efforts opposed by Blunt to significantly reduce funds for state colleges and universities.
The General Assembly also answered Blunt’s call to reform Medicaid by implementing needed eligibility changes and passing legislation to address problems with waste, fraud and abuse in the system. These changes will help sustain the program into the future and will still provide social welfare services for nearly one million of the state’s five million residents without changes in eligibility for children, pregnant women or the blind.
In his State of the State address Blunt called on state lawmakers to craft a budget based on revenues taxpayers already send to Jefferson City without one time sources of revenue or by imposing new taxes or raising existing taxes on Missouri’s working families.
The FY 06 budget also prioritizes the need for economic development by providing a $2.6 million increase for ethanol incentive payments to help Missouri farmers create environmentally friendly fuels that reduce the state’s dependence on foreign sources of oil.
"This fiscally responsible budget will help our state move beyond the old tax and spend form of government into a new era of responsible stewardship of tax dollars and efficient management of state programs," Blunt said. "I appreciate the diligent work by the members of the House and Senate in preparing this budget and thank them for embracing my call for change."
Here are other highlights of the FY 2006 budget:
- $1 million increase for Parents as Teachers
- $11.5 million increase for childcare for low-income working parents
- $25.1 million for a wage increase for providers of home and community based care for seniors and adults with disabilities
- $2.8 million for a wage increase for providers of residential treatment services for abused and neglected children
- $1.6 million in new funding to implement the DNA All Felon Program
- $1.3 million for a new 17-bed sexually violent predator treatment unit at the Southeast Missouri Mental Health Center
- $1.1 million to fully fund newborn testing efforts by the Department of Health and Senior Services
- $1 million for port authority capital improvements
- $57.8 million for additional highway maintenance and construction
- $1 million in new funds for distribution of a portion of the collections from the Athletes and Entertainers Tax as it was originally intended for the Arts Council, Humanities Council, the State Library Networking Fund, public television and radio stations, and for stabilization of historic properties across the state.