Parson approves emergency spending bill

BY TEGHAN SIMONTON

Missouri News Network

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri’s state employees will start seeing raises of 5.5% and K-12 schools will receive an influx of federal funding after both the House and Senate passed a $4.5 billion midyear spending bill and sent it to Gov. Mike Parson. Within hours, Parson signed the bill into law.

“This bill not only gives our dedicated state team members a long overdue pay increase, but also appropriates critical funding to our K-12 schools and child care system,” Parson said in a statement.

The House passed the bill on Thursday on a vote of 133 to 12. In addition to money for state employee raises, which are aimed at stemming high turnover at state agencies, the bill includes $1.5 billion for the Medicaid program and about $1.8 billion in federal education funding.

The governor had hoped the legislation, HB 3014, would pass by Feb. 1, but it was delayed by Republican infighting and filibusters in the Senate. That stalemate broke Wednesday night, when the Senate amended the bill and passed it on a vote of 25-7.

The Senate on Wednesday inserted wording allocating $0 to any clinic outside of a hospital that provides abortion services, effectively cutting off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood.

Democrats in the Senate objected to the provision. Missouri already does not fund abortion services in the state, except in extreme cases. The state Supreme Court in 2020 reversed a previous measure to defund Planned Parenthood. The year prior, the state had passed a law forbidding Medicaid reimbursements to any Planned Parenthood clinic, but the court found it unconstitutional. Since the 6-1 ruling, the state has been required to pay Planned Parenthood for its non-abortion services to Medicaid patients.

“You know, the courts have already told us that this legislation through this budget process is unconstitutional,” said Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Couer. “Why are we going forward again? Why are we wasting the taxpayers’ time and money?”

Schupp said the measure would cut off roughly 7,600 Medicaid patients from other reproductive health services provided by Planned Parenthood, including treatment for sexually transmitted infections and birth control. She predicted that other federally qualified health centers in the state will be overwhelmed by the increased demand if Planned Parenthood is defunded.

Schupp tried to remove the $0 allocation from the bill, but her amendment was defeated by a vote of 23 to 10.

The House had no discussion of the Medicaid adjustments. Both Republicans and Democrats supported passing the bill immediately, given a pressing need for more funding in K-12 schools.

The bill’s passage has been long-awaited by Columbia Public Schools, which expected to receive funds last October.

Earlier this month, District Chief Financial Officer Heather McArthur told the district’s Finance Committee that Missouri was the only state that hadn’t yet acquired this next installment of federal COVID-19 relief for schools.

The district expects to receive a total $23.5 million in ESSER III funds, intended to be used for transportation, technology, after-school programs and HVAC updates.

Missouri had until March 24 to allocate billions of dollars in federal education funding. The bill passed this week allocated nearly $150 million in ESSER II funds and $1.7 billion in ESSER III, both federal programs established to help schools overcome challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St. Louis, said his office had heard from schools this week that had run out of money to pay for meals.

“They need this money,” he said. “They need it yesterday. They need it a month ago.”

The progress with HB 3014 arrives after weeks of stagnation in the Senate, making the bill the first legislation passed by the Senate this session. The body has been stalled over disagreements on congressional redistricting and the chamber’s dress code.

“Eventually, things have to move,” Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, said Wednesday. “It’s clearly moving slower than I think people are accustomed to, but eventually it’s going to break loose … that’s going to happen. That has to happen.”

Weeks ago, the House had voted to scale back Parson’s plan and offer a baseline wage of $12 to most state workers and $15 an hour to those working in direct care services. But the Senate later voted to restore Parson’s proposed funding and remove any mention of a baseline wage, leaving it up to the market to determine. The budget allocates about $7.8 million to the raises.

In the House on Thursday, representatives accepted all Senate changes in about five minutes.

“It never ceases to amaze me, even with the epic dysfunction on the other side of this building, common sense succeeds sometimes better there than over here,” said Merideth, who had opposed the $12 baseline wage. “I’m glad that we’re willing to take the Senate’s changes, going back to most of the governor’s proposed supplemental here, getting those raises out to those that are desperate for them, getting these dollars to schools that are desperate for them.”

Sofi Zeman contributed to this report.