Big supplement for state budget

By State Rep. J. Eggleston
Despite the extreme limitations put on gatherings, the legislature met this week to pass a much-needed supplemental budget bill (SBB). We did so with many members wearing breath masks, and with no more than ten members in the House chamber at a time. Normally, there are 163, so the proceedings were very limited and not something we hope to do on a regular basis. First, some background on the SBB. The Missouri budget works through a fiscal year from July 1 to June 30. Each spring, the legislature passes a supplemental budget bill to distribute any extra money and pay any unexpected bills that have come in during the fiscal year. This money will be spent in May and June before the end of the fiscal year. This year, the House passed an SBB in mid-March before the legislature shut down due to the coronavirus. The SBB at that time was about $413 million. Then during the break, the federal government passed the CARES Act, which authorized giving over a trillion dollars (a million million) to the states. For communities and health care providers to get access to this money, our state legislature needed to include this new money in the SBB. So, on the morning of Wednesday April 8th, the Senate added this money into the SBB, expanding it from $413 million to $6.2 billion. After the Senate passed it in the morning, the House approved the changes in the afternoon. This money will be distributed to a variety of efforts, including virus testing, healthcare workers, hospitals, nursing homes, personal protective equipment, crisis counseling, food delivery, public education, and local government (city and county) budgets. The SBB should provide our state the funding necessary to get us through the financial portion of the coronavirus crisis. Hopefully everything will get back to normal very soon.