Parson cuts $131 million from Missouri K-12 budget, $41 million from higher education
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson cut an additional $209 million from the state’s budget on Monday, with by far the largest share coming from K-12 schools and public universities and colleges.
Parson had already withheld more than $220 million this year due to budget shortfalls resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Monday’s budget restrictions include $131 million from public schools and $41 million from higher education.
In addition to the cuts to education, Parson is restricting $6 million from a state program providing in-home care for seniors and people with disabilities. Several other state agencies are also seeing their spending trimmed.
The cuts come from the budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30.
“We could have never imagined that this is where we would be today, but we’ve had to face the reality of the situation and make some extremely difficult decisions regarding our state budget,” Parson said.
When fully funded, Missouri’s K-12 education funding formula totals around $3.5 billion a year. The state was set to send $313 million in state funds to schools in June. Now, it’ll be $193 million.
The cuts to higher education mean the state will not be sending funding to universities and colleges in June. The biggest share -- around $34 million -- will come from four-year institutions.
Both Margie Vandeven, commissioner of education, and Zora Mulligan, commissioner of higher education, said money from the federal stimulus plan approved by Congress last month could help offset some of these funding restrictions.
“We remain hopeful that these are temporary as the economy starts to recover,” Vandeven said Monday.
Parson said that between March and April alone, Missouri saw a decline of over 300,000 jobs – a decrease of over 10 percent. Missouri’s unemployment rate rose from 3.9 percent to 9.7 percent in April.
“As difficult as these decisions are, we are experiencing an unprecedented economic downturn,” he said, “which means we are having to make unprecedented adjustments in our budget.”
Democrats hammered the governor for the cuts, arguing that while COVID-19 certainly exacerbated the state’s budget woes, it was years of Republican tax cuts that laid the foundation for the problems.
“The governor’s devastating cuts to public education are as much a product of failed Republican tax policy as they are of the coronavirus pandemic,” said House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield. “Every time Republicans chipped away at Missouri’s revenue base, Democrats warned these short-sighted decisions would pay a terrible dividend when the next economic downturn hit, and there always is a next one.”
State Auditor Nicole Galloway, a Democrat who is running for governor this year, released a report in 2018 that concluded that the state was not adequately prepared for an economic downturn. She said the state hasn’t done a good job of maintaining a rainy day fund to offset revenue drops when the economy sours.
Last month, Missouri lawmakers put the finishing touches on a stripped-down budget for the upcoming fiscal year that saw revenues plummet because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dan Haug, Parson’s budget director, told legislators at the time that state revenues dropped when “the economy turned off like a faucet,” leading to massive budget shortfalls.
But even in trimming $700 million from the 2021 budget may not be enough, Senate Appropriations Chairman Dan Hegeman said shortly after the legislature sent its budget to the governor. He expects the General Assembly will be called back to work later this year to make adjustments.
Parson himself has said even more cuts will likely be needed unless the federal government steps in with a relief package for state budgets -- something Republican Congressional leaders have insisted they are not interested in.
On Monday, Parson said it was important he make cuts as soon as possible to ensure school districts can adjust before the next academic year begins.
“Our intent is to withhold now,” he said, “and avoid withholds once school begins.”
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 3:46 PM.
