The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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Discussion

June 25, 2009

Governor signs budget, makes cuts

By Joe Hadsall

jhadsall@joplinglobe.com

A $25 million allocation for jobs in the Joplin area is among $430 million in cuts and withholdings by Gov. Jay Nixon in the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee said those reductions weren’t made because of politics.

“I think that the formation of the budget, at least from the Senate perspective, was done in a bipartisan process,” said Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin. “The governor’s withholdings are fairly consistent with that pattern.”

Citing tax revenues below projected levels, Nixon cut $105 million and placed on hold $325 million before signing the budget Thursday for the 2010 fiscal year, which starts July 1.

Nixon proclaimed the line-item vetoes a “near record” amount for Missouri, putting them in the context of a state unemployment rate that is at a generational high.

“Just as Missouri families are required to tighten their belts, so too must state government,” Nixon said at a Capitol news conference.

Nodler said the decline in state tax revenues has gone from about 3 percent to 5 percent in less than two months.

“There’s no question the revenue stream has continued to deteriorate,” Nodler said. “We’re well below the consensus revenue that we believed was a good number.”

Legislators passed a $23 billion operating budget for the fiscal year, plus a two-year, $600 million capital-improvements bill that includes various projects funded with federal stimulus money.

Among the withholdings is $50 million for the Missouri Job Creation Fund. EaglePicher Technologies was slated to receive $25 million of that for a job-creation program involving high-tech batteries. Nixon signed a copy of the bill at the company’s Joplin plant about two weeks ago.

Officials with the company did not return calls requesting comment.

Nodler said the withholding means that the Department of Economic Development will review the program to ensure it will net a profit for the state.

“And that’s not a bad thing,” said Nodler, who pushed for EaglePicher to receive the funding. “I don’t have a problem with another level of review, to make sure that it returns more dollars to taxpayers.”

Other cuts, withholdings

Line-item vetoes eliminate the spending authority for particular programs in the state budget. Governors also can leave items in the budget and withhold or delay the actual release of money when the state faces financial difficulties.

“This near record of line-item vetoes was not made lightly,” Nixon said. “These fiscally responsible steps are necessary to ensure that Missourians have a government we can afford without raising taxes, and without sacrificing our shared priorities of education, health care and jobs.”

Nixon said he is imposing $60 million of expenditure restrictions on state agencies, contracts and grants. He said that includes the elimination of 200 state jobs on top of the 1,244 positions eliminated in the budget passed by legislators.

Also placed on hold are about $48 million in maintenance and repair projects for state buildings, and a $21.5 million rate increase for in-home care providers.

Various projects at veterans homes and the Department of Natural Resources also were placed in the category of restricted expenditures, as were about $91 million worth of college construction projects that escaped a straight veto.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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