Wed, Jul 09 2008
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Published May 04, 2008 10:37 pm - JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Alarms are sounding in the Missouri Capitol over a sudden downward spiral in state tax revenues. And those concerns already have scuttled millions of dollars of sought-after spending in next year’s budget. Missouri has just two months remaining in its 2008 budget year. As of April 25, things looked pretty good — net general revenues were up 5.7 percent over the same point a year ago. But in just one week, those revenue figures plummeted. As of Friday, Missouri’s year-to-date growth rate over 2007 had fallen to 1.9 percent, according to the Department of Revenue. Missouri tax revenues drop sharply The Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Alarms are sounding in the Missouri Capitol over a sudden downward spiral in state tax revenues. And those concerns already have scuttled millions of dollars of sought-after spending in next year’s budget. Missouri has just two months remaining in its 2008 budget year. As of April 25, things looked pretty good — net general revenues were up 5.7 percent over the same point a year ago. But in just one week, those revenue figures plummeted. As of Friday, Missouri’s year-to-date growth rate over 2007 had fallen to 1.9 percent, according to the Department of Revenue. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Gary Nodler has been ringing the alarm bell. As House and Senate negotiators hammered out the final details of the 2009 budget, Nodler warned over and over that although things seemed rosy when Gov. Matt Blunt outlined a budget in January, they may very soon turn gloomy. Nodler used his dire predictions of impending budget troubles to turn back numerous spending increases sought by either Blunt or the House. Denied were dental and regular eye-care checkups, therapy services and stop-smoking programs for low-income adults on Medicaid. Denied was a plan to expand classroom slots for health care students at Missouri’s colleges and universities. Denied was Blunt’s $375 million plan to expand government-subsidized health insurance to lower-income working Missourians now lacking it, though that was due partly to a policy dispute in the House. Numerous other programs got less of an increase than had been sought, including sheltered workshops for the mentally disabled, arts and cultural initiatives and the state’s Internet-based elementary-and-secondary school. As legislative budget negotiators debated the virtual school, Nodler warned: “We simply can’t sustain all these new program expansions.” Blunt had sought a $1 million increase on top of the current $5.2 million for the virtual school, mainly to expand what is now an elementary and high school program to also serve middle school students. Budget negotiators ultimately agreed on a $600,000 increase. That should allow courses to expand to middle school, but may limit the number of K-12 students who can participate in the program for free, said Shari LePage, chief budget officer for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Nodler kept ringing the financial warning bell as negotiations moved along. To more than one lawmaker, lobbyist or interest group, he resorted to an agricultural analogy comparing the budget to a field full of cattle and state revenues to their food. 
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