Following a tobacco company settlement last week, Gov. Eric Greitens is putting back $52 million he withheld from the fiscal 2018 budget.
Of the funding, $41 million will be used to fund home and community-based services, maintaing coverage for every patient currently in the program. His proposed budget earlier this month would have ended in-home care and nursing home services for over 20,000 people with disabilities.
Greitens cautioned the program is “growing at an unsustainable pace” and costing taxpayers nearly $1 billion per year. He said the settlement funding would give his administration time to work on overhauling the program.
“This is not a long-term fix — it is short-term relief,” Greitens said in a statement. “My team and I intend to use the coming months to do a thorough audit of how this program works: who it helps, where it’s broken and how we can deliver better services for fewer dollars.”
The remaining $11 million will be used for K-12 school bus transportation.
Greitens
visited Nixa Public Schools’ Early Childhood Center on Feb. 2 to announce a $27.6 billion budget that included $572 million in systemwide state government cuts.
Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the state could recoup around $52 million in lost tobacco settlement money through a 1998 agreement with major companies in the industry, according to
The Associated Press.
“This settlement is good news. But it’s important to remember that they are a lucky break. Sound budgets are not built on lucky breaks,” Greitens said in the statement. “The hard truth is that Missouri needs to get our fiscal house in order.
“We need to cut unnecessary programs, reform others and get maximum value from a minimum of tax dollars.”
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