Missouri governor’s budget ax will drop at 11 a.m.
JEFFERSON CITY — Gov. Jay Nixon will reveal his latest round of budget cuts tomorrow.
Nixon and his budget director, Linda Luebbering, will detail the cuts at an 11 a.m. news conference in her first-floor Capitol office.
Budget-watchers expect Nixon to chop as much as $300 million to keep the state out of the red during the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.
Nixon already cut or suspended $430 million in spending. That would have been enough if if collections declined 1 percent for the year. But the gap is getting bigger.
Battered by a 16.3 percent slide in September, general revenue fell 10 percent in the first quarter.
Luebbering expects revenue collections to improve. Even so, assuming a 5 percent drop for the fiscal year means Nixon must cut $300 million. With an 8 percent decline, he would need to slash $500 million.
While details of the cuts remain under wraps, health care providers say the administration has warned them of potential cuts in Medicaid rates for nursing home services and in-home care for the poor, elderly and disabled.
More layoffs in the state work force also appear likely.
Nixon has said his priority is to preserve basic funding for public schools and higher education. But that promise will be hard to keep, since those two areas make up about 40 percent of the expenses funded by state general revenue.
Cut it across the board… just like we do.
At least three state employees will sleep very well tonight. They know that Nixon will never fire them - no matter how bad their job performances. http://tinyurl.com/yzx63og
I can’t decide what’s creepier - MOPNS (above comment) obsession with impersonating Combest or their obsession with taunting Cardetti.
The daily spamming of the Political Fix is getting old. Offer something besides the same old blog link or don’t post here.
How can there be a budget crisis? The stimulus is working….bailouts are working…jobs are being “created and saved”…..and we’re getting “free” health insurance for all Americans!!!!!
I just don’t understand how this can be happening?????
Yes this can’t be true. Joe Biden said the stimulus is working beyond his wildest dreams the other week!
Yup, sounds like all we’ve got to look forward to as long as Jay Bob Holden Nixon is in office…
How about consolidating state agencies like Conservation/DNR, Corrections/Public Safety, and Dept. Health/Social Services? And why is there a huge Dept. of Economic Development, when there really isn’t much of that going on right now? In this case, workers could be hired back when the economy improves next year. There really is alot of streamlining that could be done to save the state money, in both services and personnel. Hopefully this next round of cuts will be enough to stabilize the state budget for the next couple of years.
Did anyone look at salaries for the Highway Patrol?
A civilisn communications dispatcher is making $71,000 a year. Their corporals are making 60,000, sergeant is making 70000 and a lieutenat 80000. Capains major etc are outta site.
Add benefits to the salary totals and your talking $100,000 per position. Since they have 1400 employees I bet some savings could come from this agency. Oregon layed off 300 troopers and they provide 24/7 coverage.
I must agree with first time poster about MOPNS (say it out loud and giggle).
OK, we get it - MoP*nis is obsessed with Jack Cardetti. This is such insider stuff, and the man crush so strange, there is little wonder MoP*nis never gets any blog comments. Zero. Nada. Zip.
So MoP*nis slithers over from the failed and irrelevant MoP*nis blog to act out the Cardetti obsession here. Sad. Predictable. Fail.
Advice? Get some therapy. And stay on point when on Political Fix.
Where’s the person that keeps posting on every story about how a downtown entertainment district and performing arts center like the one in Dallas will cure all of the city’s troubles? Maybe we can build one in Jefferson City and use the revenue to solve the state’s budget crisis.