One day left for Missouri lawmakers to decide fate of nearly $50 billion state budget

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Missouri lawmakers have only one day to decide how to spend nearly $50 billion. Even with slower-growing revenue this year, they’re putting more and more in the state budget.

A panel of lawmakers put together to compromise on the budget is approving hundreds of millions more than what the governor recommended. Most of that is going toward education - a total of $500 million for public schools and $50 million for private school scholarships.

The committee is meeting Thursday evening to discuss and debate what should be in the final version of the budget. After they get through it, both chambers have to vote and pass identical bills, then it goes to the governor’s desk. The governor has the power to veto line items in the budget and approve the rest of it.

If lawmakers do not meet the constitutional deadline for the budget tomorrow, there will have to be a special session. That’s only happened twice before.

Missouri’s budget analysts are predicting $13.35 billion in general revenue for this fiscal year’s state budget. That’s a 0.6% decline from last year’s general revenue. General revenue is the money left to be spent, there is more money that’s already been allocated to specific state departments.

Despite some extra spending, Senate Budget Chair Lincoln Hough, a Republican senator from Springfield, is still confident they’ll leave about $1 billion on the bottom line. While Hough said he’s spoken with Gov. Mike Kehoe about the budget several times, he does not know if the governor will veto some of the added funding.

“I haven’t specifically asked, ‘Hey, where’s your red veto pen, how’s it looking and how much ink do you have in there?’” Hough said.

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers, like Sen. Brian Williams from St. Louis County, are happy to see many of their priorities make it into the budget.

“I feel very confident that we will not only be able to balance a budget here at the state level but we’ll also be able to fund important services,” Williams said.

Lawmakers were working with slightly less this year - since one-time federal grants from the pandemic are running out and state income tax cuts passed in 2022 are slowing state revenue.

Copyright 2025 KCTV. All rights reserved.