JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - The Latest on the Missouri House debate Tuesday of a proposed state budget for the 2017 fiscal year (all times local):
9 p.m.
The Missouri House has given initial approval to a state budget plan that boosts funding for public schools, cuts it for colleges and prohibits it for other things including abortions and drunken driving checkpoints.
The House endorsed the $27.8 billion operating budget for next year after a daylong debate. A second round of votes is needed to send it to the Senate.
The House plan would provide K-12 schools with more money than recommended by Gov. Eric Greitens. It softens his proposed cuts to higher education, though most institutions would still get a 6.6 percent reduction. The University of Missouri would be cut by 9 percent.
The budget bars money from going to DWI checkpoints, toll roads, Medicaid expansion and in-state tuition rates for students living illegally in the U.S. since childhood.
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4:30 p.m.
Missouri House members are using the state budget to say “no” to a variety of things.
Wording included in the budget plan being considered Tuesday would prohibit the Missouri Department of Transportation from using money for tolls roads or drunken driving checkpoints.
Other sections would prohibit public colleges and universities from providing in-state tuition rates to students living in the country illegally since childhood or requiring students to join labor unions.
Critics contend such restrictions wrongly use the budget to make law, but supporters say it’s an appropriate way of limiting the use of tax dollars.
The House was expected to give initial approval later Tuesday to the proposed $27.8 billion budget for the 2018 fiscal year.
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2:30 p.m.
Missouri House members are pressing forward with a budget that would cut funding to public colleges and universities while providing a record amount to elementary and secondary schools.
The House began debate Tuesday on a proposed $27.8 billion operating budget for next year that includes nearly $3.4 billion in basic state aid for K-12 school districts. The plan provides the full increase called for under a state school funding law and significantly exceeds the recommendation of Gov. Eric Greitens.
Higher education would not fare as well. The House plan would cut funding for most institutions by 6.6 percent and for the University of Missouri system by 9 percent, though that’s a smaller cut than Greitens’ originally proposed.
Representatives defeated several attempts Tuesday to cut even more from the university system.
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