151st District, Missouri - Capitol News

Hello to you!!  It has been an incredibly busy week with less than a month to go of session.  I was at the Capitol late each night this week, I don't think I left the building before 10pm any night!  This week we finished the final debate of the budget with it now being prepared to be sent to the Governor.  I am glad to have this portion of our legislative work this far before May arrives.  I was very pleased with some of our accomplishments on the budget.  I will list just a few of these below:

Public Debt---ALL debt obligations will be met for FY 2016

Elementary & Secondary Education

• $5.78 billion for K-12 Education — record funding for our public schools

• Increased funding for the Foundation Formula by $84 million — $34 million more than the Governor’s recommendation

• Continued funding Parents as Teachers ($2.4m), Virtual Education for Medically Frail Students ($200k), Teach for America($1m) ...just to name a few of these programs with more of these being expanded to rural areas

• Defunded Common Core — that money must be used to create a MO-based testing system Higher Education

• $1.26 billion for higher education • Increased funding for 2 and 4 year public colleges and universities by $30 million

Dept of Revenue & MoDOT

• $200k for the implementation of a new registration and licensing system

• Cut travel expenses for executive agencies

• Funding for an I-70 tolling study

• $3m for capital improvements at Missouri ports

• $500k for transit providers Office of Administration & State Employees

• Cut travel expenses for executive agencies

• Eliminated funding across the budget for the Governor’s “Office of Community Engagement”

• $1.5m more than the Governor’s recommendations for IT security upgrades

I didn't vote to support HB 11 as I had some concerns with the expansion of Managed Care.  I am relieved that before this can be fully implemented there will be a complete study done with many meetings during the interim, which I will be attending, to ensure that this will be a positive for Missouri.

Committee work has been very busy.  I expect committee work to continue to be busy with this schedule becoming even busier as we count down to the end of session.  I have worked closely with several other committee members on various bills to make changes or study to ensure that these bills will have a positive impact on Missouri. 

The bill that I authored, House Bill 1262, regarding the Schools for the Severely Disabled, will possibly make the House floor this week or next week.  I am very excited about this.  With is being so late in session, I am also working to see if there is a possibility to add this bill as an amendment on another closely related bill to move it closer to the Governor's desk.

I will close for now but please free to call me or my office any time that I can be of service to you!!

Until Next Week,

Tila