Missouri lawmakers pass budget boosting funding for education and infrastructure

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers gave final approval Friday to a roughly $51 billion state budget that boosts funding for education and infrastructure projects around the state.

The spending plan for the fiscal year starting July 1 now goes to Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who had originally proposed spending more but can only cut — not add — to what the GOP-led Legislature gave him.

Lawmakers completed the budget just hours ahead of a 6 p.m. Friday deadline set by the state constitution, capping a sometimes tense and divisive debate among majority-party Republicans over how much to spend.

“The end product is a good, sound, fiscally responsible, conservative and prioritized budget,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Lincoln Hough said.

Democrats complained that the process was abnormally secretive and asserted that lawmakers should have spent more from the state’s budget surplus on schools and public services.