The federal government is paying for the 800 new National Guard jobs Gov. Eric Greitens announced last week.
"In these units standing up (being created)," Missouri Adjutant Gen. Steve Danner said, "there's no (state) general revenue" being used.
"Here's how the federal government divides it up," Danner explained: "All the pay, all the training and all the equipment come from the federal government, from the Army's or Air Force's budget.
"The state's part of it is merely the physical part - for the armories."
And even that is a shared cost, Danner said: "Some of it is 25/75, some of it's 50/50 - in which the state and the federal government share the physical asset of the building itself of the armories."
That includes the armory building just off St. Mary's Boulevard, near the public schools' Southwest Early Childhood Development Center - but not the Reserve armories, such as the one on Tanner Bridge Road, near Ellis Boulevard, which are paid completely by the federal government.
And, to add to the confusion, Danner said, some Guard armories designated as "readiness centers" also are fully paid for by the federal government.
State lawmakers pass a budget every year that shows the National Guard receiving and spending much more in federal dollars than from the state's general revenue fund.
In many cases, the state's costs include the salaries of civilian employees who take care of the building and grounds maintenance at those armories, he said.
However, Danner said, those state budgets generally don't include or show the equipment costs covered by the federal government.
"I have about $1.5 billion, plus, for equipment" from the federal government, he said, while "the state's budget for the armories is about $3 million - divided up about 50/50 between maintenance and the civilian state employees who maintain the armories."
There are no purely civilian jobs among the 800 positions Greitens announced last Tuesday.
About 15 percent of the new jobs will be held by full-time National Guard employees, while the other 85 percent will go to civilians who have a part-time Guard obligation - the so-called "Weekend Warriors" who have a weekend training period generally once a month and an annual training period typically two-weeks long.
Danner said those new jobs will add about $15 million a year to the state's economy.
"That's just pay," he said. "Not only do our full-time and part-time soldiers have good pay, but they also bring with them educational benefits."
He added being in the Guard provides health benefits that are in addition to any benefits the part-time Guard members have from their civilian jobs.
One of the new units Greitens announced last week is a trial defense unit based in Jefferson City.
Danner said it's an additional unit, "that will be made up of JAG (judge advocate general) officers, who will represent soldiers in front of military boards - either disciplinary boards or medical boards."
And the lawyers in that unit "will be available for use for other states, also," he said.