Schools up, SMS down in budget

[cornermouse]

Some more about cuts in store for Missourians.

Jefferson City — The Missouri House of Representatives has unveiled a budget plan that would provide more money for K-12 schools and slightly less for Southwest Missouri State University — not unlike Gov. Matt Blunt's recommendations.

The proposal also assumes large cuts to Medicaid but rejects the $1 million reduction Blunt proposed last week for a rehabilitation center in Mount Vernon.

...Democrats called the plan "near-sighted" and said it pitted education against Medicaid, students against the elderly.

"A budget reflects your values," said Rep. Margaret Donnelly, D-St. Louis, a member of the House Budget Committee. "And this budget continues to say that we are going to take care of our fiscal problems on the backs of the vulnerable, the elderly, the disabled and children."

...Legislation that has passed the Senate and a House committee would drop about 100,000 of the state's 1 million Medicaid recipients.

Democrats, noting a week of canceled Budget Committee hearings, criticized Republicans Thursday for stalling so they could use the impending budget deadline as a reason to push through proposed Medicaid cuts quickly, with less discussion.

Republicans said further budget work must wait until the House is finished with the Medicaid bill. That way, House members would have more accurate figures to use during budget discussions.

Regardless, House Speaker Rod Jetton, R-Marble Hill, said he wants the Medicaid bill to pass virtually as is.

Many of the cuts in the legislation, Senate Bill 539, would enact proposals Blunt has recommended. House budget writers haven't accepted all the governor's proposals, though.

They dismissed his plan to cut $1 million from the Missouri Rehabilitation Center in Mount Vernon, which serves patients with brain and spinal-cord injuries.