Official Ballot Title: Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to require the governor to pay the public debt, to prohibit the governor from relying on revenue from legislation not yet passed when proposing a budget, and to provide a legislative check on the governor's decisions to restrict funding for education and other state services?
Current Bill Summary: Upon voter approval, this constitutional amendment prohibits the Governor from determining estimated available revenues when making budget recommendations to the General Assembly using any projection of new revenues to be created from proposed legislation that has not been passed into law by the General Assembly. The Governor may include estimates of any unspent fund balances that constitute a surplus during the immediately preceding fiscal year or years for which the Governor is recommending a budget. New revenues cannot include existing provisions of law subject to expiration during the ensuing appropriation period.
The amendment prohibits the Governor from reducing any appropriation for the payment of public debt and requires him or her to notify the General Assembly by proclamation whenever the rate of expenditure for any appropriation is not expended in equal quarterly allotments or when the Governor reduces one or more items or a portion of an item of appropriation of money because actual revenues are less than the revenue estimates upon which the appropriations were based. The appropriation can be reconsidered in the same manner as a bill is reconsidered anytime the General Assembly is in session or when the next General Assembly convenes.