JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Missouri House panel endorsed additional emergency spending authority Tuesday to account for funds depleted by the Highway Patrol and National Guard responses in Ferguson and also authorized additional funding for other disaster relief.
The House Budget committee approved an additional $8.5 million from general revenue for emergencies during the fiscal year ending June 30. The prior spending authority had partially been used up by the state's response to unrest in the St. Louis area following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, by a white Ferguson police officer.
"They have pretty much exhausted their emergency lines," Budget Committee Vice-Chairman Rep. Scott Fitzpatrick, R-Shell Knob, said. "If there's a weather-related emergency we want them to be able to respond appropriately."
The emergency spending authority must be approved by the full House and the Senate before heading to the governor for final approval.
Of the $8.5 million in general revenue approved, $5.1 million would mainly be used to match federal grants and $3.4 million would be used in the case of future emergencies such as tornados, floods or ice storms, budget director Linda Luebbering said.
Additionally, the committee approved $124 million of federal spending from the state's disaster fund. About $30 million of the federal money is slated to reimburse cities for local projects related to the 2011 tornado in Joplin, along with other severe storms that were declared disasters by Gov. Jay Nixon. The federal money has been held up because the state does not have the budget authority to "pass through" that money to local entities that have already spent the funds and requested the reimbursement from Missouri's State Emergency Management Agency, Luebbering said.
The remainder is an estimate for future local requests for federal money in the current fiscal year, she said.
House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Flanigan, R-Carthage, said the committee approved the spending authority because it's already been spent.
"These are things that have already been incurred," Flanigan said. "These people need to be paid."
The committee has yet to take up the rest of Nixon's supplemental budget requests for fiscal year 2015. Flanigan said he was still working on bills to address the $140 million in requests, which includes funding for current Medicaid needs.