Missouri governor cuts $1 billion from state budget

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – After calling the spending plan “disingenuous” last month, Gov. Mike Parson slashed a billion dollars out of the budget lawmakers sent him.

Unlike previous years, this year’s budget process was anything but normal, which is why the governor said at some point lawmakers will have to fix it. Parson announced late Friday that he was cutting more than 170 items from the spending plan and by doing that, he is protecting the taxpayer’s dime and eliminating unnecessary pet projects.

“There’s just a lot of overspending,” Parson said. “I think there were over 600 earmarks in the budget.”

Back in May, lawmakers approved a nearly $52 billion budget to fund the state, but many, including Parson, said the spending plan was problematic.

“I don’t think the budget was exactly the reality of the number it should have been,” Parson said. “I think you’ll see one of the largest supplementals at the beginning of next year that you’ve seen.”

Normally, after each chamber approves their own version of the budget, a bipartisan committee meets to negotiate the differences, but due to the tight deadline, members had to forgo those meetings, leaving the budget chairmen from the House and the Senate to compromise on their own.

Some of the big vetoes include slashing nearly half a billion dollars to renovate the Capitol building. Parson writing in his veto letter that, with no detailed plan in place, the money is not needed at this time.

He also removed $6 million out of the $8 million lawmakers allocated to keep Missouri National Guard troops at the southern border.

Parson cut $150 million of the $727 million project to expand Interstate 44 from Rolla to Joplin.

“There’s a lot of reports saying that there’s a $5 billion surplus and all this money, but a lot of that money is already accounted for, but we do plan to leave about $1.5 billion in surplus for the next administration,” Parson said.

At the end of session, House Republicans celebrated that the budget they approved was smaller than what Parson requested in January. The governor saying that what lawmakers did by cutting money from programs within the Missouri Social Services Department that help vulnerable Missourians and not paying the state’s bills does not make it right.

“I think when you see the supplemental and you add the two numbers together, we’ll see where they are at, but I’m telling you, I think that was more of a political gesture than it was anything,” Parson said.

Parson blamed the cost of a large education bill for many of his vetoes, saying that legislation will cost the state $400 million annually to fund.

Other items vetoed in the budget include:

• $7 million to improve a terminal at St. Louis Lambert International Airport
• $5 million to build a behavioral health center at North Kansas City Hospital
• $12.5 million to buy land in McDonald County to create a state park
• $2.5 million for gun detection software in schools
• $3.1 million to launch a transit planning system and services for seniors, veterans and disabled in Platte and Clay counties and Jefferson City

As of now, the governor said he has no intention of calling a special session to address budget issues.

What Parson left in the budget included some items he requested from lawmakers, included a 3% funding increase for colleges and universities, a 3.2% pay raise for state employees, fully funding the foundation formula and school transportation costs for K–12 schools and $56 million for public and charter schools to provide pre-kindergarten programs for students qualifying for free and reduced lunch.

After Parson’s slashes, the state’s operating budget for fiscal year 2025, which started Monday, totals $50.5 billion.

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