Services for the blind are again in the crosshairs of potential budget cuts in Missouri.
A budget recommendation by a House appropriations committee would eliminate funding for a program that provides vocational services for the blind. But the lawmaker chiefly responsible for the cut says she wasn't initially aware of its consequences and now plans to try to find money for the program.
Republican House member Sue Allen, of St. Louis County, says she thought she was cutting administrative expenses when her appropriations panel axed $2.5 million in general revenue spending for the blind vocational rehabilitation program.
Department of Social Services officials say that money would be matched with federal dollars to operate the program.
Last year, some lawmakers had sought to cut a health care program for the blind.