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Missouri Legislature Passes Budget

St. Louis Public Radio
Published May 9, 2003 at 4:09 p.m. CDT

By AP/KWMU

Jefferson City, Mo. – The Republican-led Legislature pushed a roughly $19 billion state budget to passage early Friday.

The budget spreads cuts among schools and social services over the objections of Governor Holden and other Democrats.

Lawmakers say the spending cuts could lead to teacher layoffs at public schools and higher tuition at state colleges. The budget also is expected to result in the loss of government health care services for thousands of low-income parents.

Holden watched a couple of hours of House debate on the education budget. He criticized the $163 million reduction in basic aid to public schools, but stopped short of threatening to veto the budget.

Overall, the $19 billionbudget is slightly larger than the current budget. But it's $330 million short of what Holden had proposed.

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