Lincoln University is slated to get $500,000 as the state's match for its federal funding under the 1890 land grant program - less than the $1.4 million the school expects to receive during the current school year.
Lincoln administrators have said the school could receive nearly $7 million from the federal government - if the state provides a dollar-for-dollar match.
The House Select Budget Committee is set to meet next week before the budget bills go to the full House for debate. And state Reps. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, and Joshua Peters, D-St. Louis, have pledged to try to add money to Lincoln's land grant program budget during the House debate.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, said Thursday he hopes the complete House-passed budget reaches the Senate by March 10.
"As we said at the beginning of the session, we're going to move it quickly, just like we did last year," Schaefer told reporters after the Legislature ended its work for the week. "We're going to do that again this year - so it's going to move quickly."
And he supports helping Lincoln University get more funding.
"I think Lincoln University has a very legitimate complaint," Schaefer told reporters. "They do not get treated the same as the University of Missouri on the land-grant funding aspect of the institution."
The University of Missouri is a larger school and qualifies to receive more federal land grant money than LU.
But for years, MU's money has been a part of its core budget. LU's funds are a line-item add-on - easier for a governor to withhold or veto.
Schaefer wants to see MU's land grant monies listed separately from the core budget, as well as Lincoln's.
"I've met with Lincoln several times this year," Schaefer said. "And I think that's something that needs to be addressed.
"I think it needs to be fixed."
Still, the Senate budget leader said, "Ultimately, we'll have to see how much money we have on-hand in any given year - but I think we at least need to start moving to fix that problem."
LU President Kevin Rome long has been urging more money for Lincoln's land grant programs, including its cooperative extension program with MU.
"I agree 100 percent," Rome said during a telephone interview. "I think it comes down to acknowledging and valuing the contributions that Lincoln has made for many years in the area of its land grant mission, and it also deals with equity within the system.
"If we have two land-grant institutions, they should be funded proportionately."
And Senate Majority Floor Leader, Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, said he's been working with Schaefer and other lawmakers on improving Lincoln's budget.
"We've talked about that before with Sen. Schaefer," Kehoe told the News Tribune. "He's been supportive of trying to fix that problem, and I look forward to helping in any way that I can support that this year.
"It's about time."
Final funding won't be known for any of the schools until the budget is finalized.