With four weeks to go before the Missouri Constitution says state lawmakers must approve the budget, the House last week passed its version of the $27.8 billion spending plan.
But the House version doesn't include a pay raise for state employees and still has cuts to the core budgets of Missouri's colleges and universities.
Now the bills go to the state Senate, where Appropriations Chair Dan Brown, R-Rolla, said Thursday: "We will start markup Tuesday morning. I want to get it done quickly."
Still, he said, senators on the committee, and then the full Senate in debate, will have to work out some compromises before conference committees comprised of five members from each chamber can agree on a final budget to send Gov. Eric Greitens.
And it must be done before 6 p.m. on May 5.
"We are in tough budgetary times," Sen. Jeanie Riddle, R-Mokane, said noting the problems lawmakers are facing this year. "As far as where we make cuts - you tell me."
She said people tell her not to cut from mental health, education or corrections.
"And we have to, like any family does, cinch in your belt where you can and in the places that are easier than others," Riddle said, "and nobody wants anything cut."
STATE EMPLOYEE PAY RAISES
Riddle long has supported pay raises for state employees but said in 2017-18, "I don't see that happening at this point, because we don't have the money to fund what we have."
Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, told the News Tribune he would prefer to see the Senate add money for state pay raises.
"As a caucus, we personally talked with the governor about state employee compensation at great length" during a Senate GOP Caucus meeting with Gov. Eric Greitens on Wednesday, Kehoe said. "And he is committed, as well as many of our members are, to try to work to fix this problem that we've been working on for a decade."
Brown added: "The governor has a long-range plan on employee pay. I'm willing to give him a little time to work on that."
During his State of the State address in January, Greitens talked about reducing the state workforce as a way to make more money available for employee salaries.
And Brown agrees.
"As you tighten-up state government and you eliminate a lot of these positions that haven't been filled - some of them for quite a long period of time," he explained, "and then, maybe, streamlining state government because technology is helping that. My advice, and what I think (Greitens) wants to do, is even though you reduce the number of state employees, we keep the same money in for salaries - and that gives them a pretty decent pay raise."
But, if that doesn't work out, he said, "As soon as we have money in the budget - I think that (pay raise) is a tremendous priority of a lot of us who serve in the House and the Senate."
State Rep. Mike Bernskoetter, R-Jefferson City, said he hasn't given up on the idea of state pay raises and has been working with Brown and Kehoe on having the Senate add money into the House-passed budget.
"What we have done is kept the health care costs flat," Bernskoetter said. "(Health care) is definitely a benefit because everybody knows about the costs of health care going up all over the place.
"So, we're putting quite a bit of money into the health care fund, to keep those benefits from taking more out of the paychecks of our state employees."
State Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, also hopes the Senate could add some pay raise money, adding: "But I also understand the current budget situation."
HIGHER EDUCATION FUNDING
The House-passed budget added more money than Greitens recommended for elementary and secondary public schools in the state, and it reduced - but didn't eliminate - cuts in higher education institutions' core budgets.
That could set up a confrontation with the Senate.
"What I hope to do is maybe not eliminate but reduce the cuts," Brown said. His district includes the Missouri University of Science and Technology, one of the four campuses in the University of Missouri system slated to lose almost 10 percent in core funding.
"Is fully funding the (elementary and secondary state-aid) formula a bigger priority than doing something (more) related to higher ed?" Brown asked. "To me, it's wiser to not go all the way with the formula and put (more) money in higher ed."
Kehoe said the Legislature needs to make sure school districts' transportation costs get more funding.
"Transportation is something they absolutely have to do" to get students into the classrooms, he said.
Kehoe told the News Tribune he's told Brown and other senators "the cuts to Lincoln are not acceptable to me and many others in this building. It is our second land grant institution; whether we can restore all of that or just some of that, I think we need to work on addressing that."
Barnes noted the House-passed budget includes $2.5 million as the state's match for LU's federal land grant funding.
"There's still a $4.6 million gap, that is true," Barnes said. "But $2.5 million was added, and that's real money."
As far as Lincoln's concerned, Brown said, "It's probably an issue for another year. However, it is being discussed more than it has been in the nine years I've been in the building.
"There's a lot of people who would like to see that (LU) land grant status a little more respected in terms of money."