The last few weeks of the 2019 legislative session has brought a fast and furious pace.
Early on in session much of the legislative work is done in the various committees of the House and Senate. It is in committee where legislation is vetted and where expert witnesses can appear before the committee to testify in support or opposition of the proposed legislation. As the legislative session progresses more time is spent on the House floor where we debate, amend, and pass legislation.
Any bill passed by the House moves to the Senate where the process starts from the beginning in that chamber. Any legislation passed by the Senate also comes to the House and must go through House committees and be debated and passed on the House floor.
On Friday we passed HBs 1-13 which make up the state’s fiscal year 2020 budget. In total the state budget as passed by the House and Senate is $29.7 billion dollars. This budget includes more money for roads and bridges. Prioritizing state dollars is a critical need, and focusing on infrastructure is appropriate. We also increased funding for pre-K and K-12 education by 116 million dollars. This includes a 5 million dollar increase for K-12 transportation, which is a major help to rural districts like those in McDonald and Newton Counties.
The changes I made earlier this year to the state budget did survive the scrutiny of the budget process. This includes 332,500 to expand the nursing program at Crowder College. I am extremely pleased we were able to get these funds in the budget for Crowder. It will allow them to double the size of their nursing program at the McDonald County campus and start a new LPN program at the Nevada campus. Missouri Southern State University will also see a 1.8 million increase to help expand their healthcare and STEM programs. The fact we secured additional resources for Crowder College and MSSU will help benefit higher education in Southwest Missouri for many years to come.
In other news, the House and Senate truly agreed and finally passed HB 260 this past week. HB 260 specifies that the court may require any person found guilty of chasing, pursuing, taking, transporting, killing, processing, or disposing of certain wildlife in violation of the Missouri Conservation Commission's rules and regulations to make restitution to the state. Missouri has some of the lowest poaching fines in the country and this bill would increase the fines and by doing so will hopefully reduce poaching. Having a healthy wildlife population is something we place great value on here in our part of the state. Hopefully this bill makes sure the hunting of Missouri wildlife can continue for all Missouri citizens, and that our future generations will also have these opportunities.
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