Senate Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer and some other state lawmakers want Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to release money for Cyber Crimes Task Forces around the state.
Lawmakers last year budgeted $1.5 million for those programs, Schaefer, R-Columbia, reminded colleagues last week, but the money remains tied up in the governor's withholdings.
"Just to remind everybody," Schaefer said during Tuesday's debate, "the Cyber Crimes Task Force is money that goes to law enforcement agencies, including sheriff's departments, to catch those online trolls - sexual predators who are online - looking for kids to, basically, exploit and rape.
"And this is their whole budget. So, without this it doesn't happen."
Schaefer added, in the 2016 budget currently being discussed in the Appropriations Committee, Nixon hasn't included any funding for the task force.
And, Schaefer told fellow committee member Dan Brown, R-Rolla: "I think we need to be perfectly clear as we stand here today, that we are calling on the governor to release that money - that $1.5 million for the Cyber Crimes Task Forces - release it now."
Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said, in an email: "The Governor's Fiscal Year 2016 budget (already) proposes $1.5 million for cyber crimes."
As for the withholds, Holste said: "The Governor has a responsibility to balance the budget. ...
"We can't spend money we don't have."
He pointed to a Jan. 5 Columbia Daily Tribune story, where new House Speaker John Diehl, R-Town and Country, said: "The amount (Nixon) is withholding ... lays bare the fact that we substantially over-appropriated last year."
But that's not how Brown sees it; he said Tuesday that there is money available for combatting cyber crimes.
Brown, a practicing veterinarian when he's not at the Capitol, said he was approached at a recent veterinarians' meeting in St. Charles, by the police chief-wife of another vet.
"One of her officers is one of the dedicated people that does this," Brown explained. "And she said, "Can't you guys do anything?' ... They're trying to get extra money to keep this thing up and running, because it has been so successful.
"They're getting to the tune of one conviction a day - and it's probably one of the most efficient units at preventing crimes to our most vulnerable population."
Schaefer has raised the Cyber Crimes Task Force budget several times during the early days of the 2015 General Assembly session.
Although now statewide, many credit Boone County's sheriff's department and Deputy Andy Anderson - who retired last year - with starting the first program years ago.
"I know firsthand from Dwayne Carey, the Boone County sheriff, that this is an issue of, if those funds aren't there, this enforcement's not being done," Schaefer told the News Tribune shortly after visiting with some law enforcement representatives seeking money for the cyber crimes work.
Schaefer disagreed with those who say the task forces unfairly entrap people.
"Keep in mind, entrapment is when law enforcement entices you to do something illegal that you were, otherwise, not inclined to do," Schaefer - who is an attorney - explained.
"But these criminals who are online, trying to have sex with children - they are out there, actively trolling to find kids, so it's clear that it's not entrapment."
Freshman Sen. Jeanie Riddle, R-Mokane, thinks people should be sending letters to the governor, urging him to release the withheld money.
"We have to take care of the citizens that we serve," she said.
State Budget Director Linda Luebbering told reporters during a Jan. 21 briefing - shortly before Nixon delivered his State of the State address - the administration continues to withhold money lawmakers budgeted last year because revenues haven't been enough to cover all the expenses the budget authorized.