(From State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick)As Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe prepares to take action on the Fiscal Year 2027 state operating budget, State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick is urging him to take steps to proactively balance the budget now before more painful cuts are needed in the future.
Despite a warning from Fitzpatrick before the 2026 legislative session began, a new report from his office details how the fiscal year (FY) 2027 budget process resulted in an authorized increase, rather than a decrease, to General Revenue Fund (GRF) spending, and is projected to result in deficit spending of over $1.7 billion for the year. The state's General Revenue Fund balance, which stood at a high of approximately $5.8 billion in FY 2023, will be approximately $600 million by the end of FY 2027, and the balance will be completely exhausted early in FY 2028 based on current projections.
"The numbers are right there in black and white, and unfortunately lots of red, and they show a trend of deficit spending that cannot be sustained and that continues to jeopardize our state's financial health," said Auditor Fitzpatrick. "As someone who has served as chairman of the House Budget Committee, I know making spending cuts can be difficult and even painful, but if we can make a responsible, proactive course correction for our budget today these cuts will be far less painful than the ones that will be necessary in the near future. That's why it's disappointing that the situation has gotten worse, rather than better, since we released our first report in December 2025."
He added, "I'm confident Governor Kehoe will take the appropriate actions to get our budget back on track and there is no doubt he is more than justified in using whatever means necessary to bring state spending in line with ongoing revenue. He has a variety of options available - line-item vetoes, withholds, possibly even vetoes of legislation with large fiscal notes - and I urge him to use any combination of these remedies to right the ship and put us on course to protect Missouri's financial health."
The report released by Fitzpatrick in December 2025 documented how the state saw annual revenue increase 45.8 percent from fiscal years (FY) 2020 to FY 2025. However, as the report noted, this period of time also saw state expenditures increase by roughly 53.4 percent, which is more than twice the rate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase over the same time period (24.5 percent).
The report projected deficit spending of over $2 billion, $1.5 billion and $1 billion for FY 2026, FY 2027, and FY 2028, respectively. The report also described how the General Revenue Fund balance would be fully depleted in FY 2028 based on the current Consensus Revenue Estimate (CRE) projections.
Today's follow-up report details how the FY 2027 budget process resulted in an authorized increase, rather than a decrease, to General Revenue Fund spending and makes it clear action must be taken quickly to bring expenditures down to the level of ongoing revenue. The report also details how the budget situation could get even worse based on other challenges the state faces, including: Missouri's tax revenue not growing by as much as projected, the supplemental budget request being larger than currently projected, the current budget being balanced with one-time funds that cannot be used again, and the possibility of hundreds of millions of dollars in additional mandatory increases throughout the state budget in FY 2028 and beyond.
Today's follow-up report is available here. The original report released in December 2025 is available here.
Today's follow-up report details how the FY 2027 budget process resulted in an authorized increase, rather than a decrease, to General Revenue Fund spending and makes it clear action must be taken quickly to bring expenditures down to the level of ongoing revenue. The report also details how the budget situation could get even worse based on other challenges the state faces, including: Missouri's tax revenue not growing by as much as projected, the supplemental budget request being larger than currently projected, the current budget being balanced with one-time funds that cannot be used again, and the possibility of hundreds of millions of dollars in additional mandatory increases throughout the state budget in FY 2028 and beyond.
Today's follow-up report is available here. The original report released in December 2025 is available here.
8 comments:
This is the Republican plan!
What’s the Dem plan gender studies, DEI, more Covid BS that was money well spent huh
The Democrat plan is to tax everyone more, but say it’s more on the rich, and keep spending even more.
Democrats be like "But how are we going to feed our overweight children that we don't have because we're not reproducing in order to protect the environment against global warming that Jeffery Epstein's friends on private jets and yachts keep warning us about if they keep cutting the budget!?! Magats only care about the children in the womb, not the children outside the womb! How will my child learn about sexy drag queens and gender surgeries!!? How are we going to entice illegal immigrants to keep coming in, I need someone to pick my cotton for cheap!"
Hope you remembered to use flameproof material when you made your kkk hood and gown. Actually, maybe not.
1:00PM, Quick History Lesson. So sit back read, shut up, and try to understand if you can - We know it is hard - but try and learn something.
The Republicans, under President Abraham Lincoln, fought to FREE THE SLAVES - NOT THE DEMOCRATS. The Democrates - Started and Funded the KKK - to keep the Blacks - Enslaved and Under their Control - Which is what the Democrats have continued to do is to Enslave Minorities - by keeping them on Government Programs - Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/food stamps), and Housing Assistance - and maintaining that the Democrats have the Solutions, to their Problems (which they never do) - all the while just looking for their Continual Vote. Just look at the Statistics - were more Blacks better off since Obama was in Office - NO, there is more Black on Black Crime than in the Past.
The Fifteenth Amendment was passed by Congress and ratified in 1870 during the Reconstruction Era, when the progressive wing of the Republican Party dominated Congress during the decade following the end of the U.S. Civil War - African Americans were given the right to vote in the elections. It prohibited any state or local government from denying that right.
I'm assuming you're the one who has left this comment on numerous posts in the past and i want to congratulate you on your apparent encyclopedic knowledge of American history from more than a century and a half ago.
Apparently, you are unaware that when President Lyndon Johnson pushed through civil rights legislation in the 1960s, Republicans were able to use the dissatisfaction with the legislation to switch much of the south from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. Many Democratic politicians who were unhappy with the Voting Rights Act and the earlier civil rights legislation switched parties, including most noticeably Strom Thurmond, who had been the Dixiecrat presidential candidate in the 1948 presidential election after Minneapolis Mayor Hubert Humphrey was able to push through a civil rights plank at the Democratic National Convention. Thurmond left the party for that presidential run, returned, then left it for good in 1964 when he endorsed Barry Goldwater for president.
With many politicians, some racist or others seeing they would have a hard time being elected as Democrats, becoming Republican, the notion of the Republican party being the party most associated with helping minorities became a thing of the past, and thus has it remained.
Let me correct that. Thus it remained until you and others like you conveniently chose to ignore more recent history and continue to promote the myth that today's Republican Party is still the party of Abraham Lincoln.
That being said, I would prefer that you be more intellectually honest with your comments.
Randy, thank you for letting the truth be told 👏
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