Missouri government employees will get a 1 percent pay raise next January, under terms of the 2014-15 state budget lawmakers sent to Gov. Jay Nixon Thursday.
And the state will pay a $25 match per month for employees' deferred compensation plan.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, said the deferred compensation plan adds $9,574,740 to the budget, which totals $26.4 billion.
The 1 percent pay raise adds about $24 million to the total budget over a year, Schaefer said late last month.
He told colleagues Thursday the budget adds $43,396,583 for performance funding for higher education institutions, a 5 percent total increase for both the four-year and two-year public institutions.
The budget includes $4,715,538 in state money for the State Technical College of Missouri - the official name for Linn State Technical College after July 1.
Lincoln University is slated to get $17,638,222 in state aid.
LU also will receive $2.8 million in state money as a 50 percent match to money raised locally, for construction of a new student Wellness Center on Locust Street at East Atchison, south of the Scruggs Residence Hall.
LU Curators talked about the project last month, and said they're planning a formal groundbreaking ceremony during Homecoming next fall.
The new facility is intended to "house the Wellness academic program and provide students with a facility that supports healthy living," a memo to LU Curators explained.
It will have classrooms, a full-sized gymnasium with a basketball court - and space to build another court in the future - and is planned to be the new home for the Boys and Girls Club. The club must move from its present space on East Elm Street because of the construction of the Lafayette Street interchange with the U.S. 50/63 Expressway.
Schaefer said Thursday the state's share of the project is authorized by a bill passed several years ago, "which allows - if higher ed institutions can raise, privately, 50 percent of a project - that the state has the option in any given budget year to appropriate the other, 50 percent match."
The 2014-15 budget is the first year lawmakers are taking advantage of the program.
Sen. Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City, noted: "It shows there's local support for the project - that it's not just on some list because one or two people think it's important."
LU Curators last month approved a $75 per-semester fee for all "main campus, degree-seeking students," with the money going into a fund to be used to purchase state-of-the-art equipment for the facility.
The lawmaker-approved budget also includes $4.5 million to replace the Highway Patrol's vehicle maintenance garage next to the Troop F headquarters on U.S. 50-63 East and Shamrock Road.
An early morning fire on April 8, likely caused by an electrical spark, demolished the building and several vehicles inside it.