Senate passes nearly $50 billion of budget bills

By Jackson Cooper and Hailey Sanford, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — The Senate approved $48.7 billion worth of budget bills during debate Wednesday evening.
The budget faced staunch opposition from Democrats and questioning from some Republicans over the nine-hour span of debate on the floor.
The bill most heavily debated on Wednesday was House Bill 2002, which provides funding for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The key sticking point in the bill was funding for the foundation formula, which determines how much state funding school districts receive on a yearly basis.
DESE estimates released early in the budget process requested $190 million more in funding above last year’s level to fund public schools. In his budget, Gov. Mike Kehoe did not increase DESE’s funding to cover the request.
DESE’s funding request was absent from the final version of the bill that passed the House last month, and at the end of the debate on Wednesday, the Senate did not add the $190 million in public school funding.
Sen. Rusty Black, R-Chillicothe, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, argued in favor of his decision to side with the governor and the House.
The state is gearing up to face budget shortfalls in the coming years. Of the nearly $50 billion passed Wednesday, $15.5 billion was sourced from general revenue generated primarily through state taxes. According to estimates for the 2027 fiscal year, the state is expected to bring in $13.65 billion in general revenue.
This is $1.9 billion less than the general revenue spending passed by the Senate on Wednesday.
Black said this budget pressure makes it irresponsible to deplete existing funds and potentially leave future budget drafters without alternative sources to pull funding from.
He said that he hopes future legislatures will immediately move to fund DESE to its full, requested level once it is more fiscally feasible to do so
“When we have that money,” Black said, “we will be able to immediately fill that hole. It would be my hope that we could immediately spend that money.”
Senate Democrats spoke out in opposition to the omission of increased funding to the foundation formula, arguing the decision would underfund public schools.
Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, D-Kansas City, said during dialogue with Black that decades of Republican leadership were to blame for the state of the budget.
“We’re talking 20, 25 years here of your party being in power,” Nurrenbern said. “And we’re starting to have (a situation) where we’re not able to fund what I would call basic fundamental services like public education.”
While Democrats widely disapproved of the underfunding of the foundation formula, the most vocal critic of the move was a Republican.
Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, said that education funding should be a central priority for the legislature. He introduced an amendment to the bill that would grant DESE’s exact funding request using money from the state’s $3 billion general revenue balance at the end of March, saying that he was yet to be convinced that accounting for the future was reason alone to withhold funding.
“I’m looking for something other than the doom and gloom of future years,” Hough said.
He sparred with Black for about 30 minutes, arguing that the state should sooner empty its coffers than underfund education.
“I can’t understand why being so afraid of the future holds us back from investing in the present,” Hough said.
Hough and Senate Democrats brought up the state’s Proposition C Funding, a one-cent sales tax that goes into the School District Trust Fund.
The fund is allocated to schools on a per-pupil basis by DESE and, according to Department of Treasury documents, stood at $192 million at the end of March. Some Democrats proposed finding a way to utilize these funds.
Black doubled down, maintaining that the state may need to lean on those funds as future budget concerns loom.
Black and Hough are no strangers, having previously served together on the Appropriations Committee. But that working relationship is now far less straightforward than in years past.
This is Black’s first year as chair of the powerful committee, a position Hough held for three years before him. Hough is no longer on the committee, as he was removed from his chairmanship last September after voting with Democrats against motions to cut off debate on midterm congressional redistricting and initiative petition reform.
Hough has over a decade of experience working on appropriations committees in both the House and Senate. He is term-limited from seeking reelection to the Senate in November, meaning that this is his final legislative session.
Hough’s amendment was short on supporters from within his party. The body voted down Hough’s amendment 20-10, largely on party lines, meaning that the final version of the bill includes no additional funding to DESE.

Democratic opposition
Sen. Karla May, D-St. Louis, offered amendments consistently throughout debate, largely focused on funding for specific social programs in her district. She maintained that her constituents deserved greater representation in the state budget given that the region generates a large percentage of state revenue.
“We are almost half of the state budget,” May said. “So these individuals should be getting a bigger return on their investment.”
All of May’s amendments were voted down by the body and not attached to the larger budget bills.
Throughout the budget process, Democrats raised concerns about how money was being allocated. Sen. Brian Williams, D-University City, noted that there were a number of community programs that received no funding when the Senate Appropriations Committee went over the budget last week.
Black added funding to 10 programs in the Senate substitute voted on by the floor on Wednesday. Two more programs received additional funding that the committee had not previously approved. In total, Black added $2,145,000 to these community programs.
“We’re not doing enough,” Nurrenbern said. “We’re not fully funding our classrooms. We’re not fully funding health care services. We’re not doing nearly enough for our thousands of state employees that are giving so much.”
Nurrenbern also took time to rail against budget changes brought down by House Resolution 1, which was signed by President Donald Trump on July 4, 2025. The resolution would require that Missouri’s Medicaid extension implement work requirements and increase vetting.
To implement changes required by the federal resolution, the state is expected to directly expend $294 million in combined state and federal money. An additional $62 million is expected to be expended to move the computer systems for Missouri’s Medicaid program. These two changes would constitute a total of $54 million in general revenue spending.
Nurrenbern said some of this money could be saved if the state no longer used Managed Care Organizations, which are private organizations contracted to manage MO HealthNet dispersal.
“We have the opportunity, a real opportunity, to save Missouri taxpayers $250 million annually by directly administering our Medicaid programs,” Nurrenbern said. “Instead, the (Managed Care Organizations) are taking a big ol’ chunk off the top.”