House budget chairman sees state shortfall between $120 million to $150 million
Missouri is headed for a budget shortfall of between $120 million to $150 million, House Budget Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick predicted Monday.
A shortfall could result in Gov. Eric Greitens making budget restrictions to programs funded by the state. To balance last year's revenue shortfall in the budget year that ends Friday, former Gov. Jay Nixon and Greitens withheld $346 million. Deep slashes were made to higher education and school transportation, as well as Medicaid programs.
With the fiscal year ending on Friday, Fitzpatrick, R-Shell Knob, said that current revenue trend showed that the state will not collect as much money as originally estimated. The consensus revenue estimate, which is what the state's budget is based on, was predicted at a 3.4 percent increase in growth over last year's revenue. As of Monday, revenue has only grown by was 2.1 percent.
"The gross collection numbers are not going to change all that much (in one week)," Tom Kruckemeyer, chief economist with nonprofit Missouri Budget Project, said Monday.
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