How many employees work for Missouri state government?
State Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer told the Senate's Governmental Accountability Committee an easy answer to that question is not readily available now.
"I found out oftentimes, when I was a member of the Appropriations Committee," Mayer, R-Dexter, explained Wednesday, "that it was often difficult to ascertain just how many people were working at any given time, for a given department."
So, he wants lawmakers to require state departments to provide that information every fiscal quarter to the Senate president pro tem and the House speaker with a list of the number of full-time equivalent employees (FTE).
Committee members voted 4-0 to send the bill to the full Senate for debate.