Parson signs $52B budget, vetoes a local big-ticket item

Mike Parson vetoes improvements to I-44 in Springfield.

Last edited 12:51 p.m., July 3, 2023 [Editor's note: Additional information has been added.]

Gov. Mike Parson on Friday signed the state's annual budget into law.

The roughly $51.8 billion budget includes expected general revenue of $15.2 billion, according to a news release. The state's fiscal year started July 1.

"With this budget, our administration has done the right thing – the conservative thing – to make strategic investments and maintain responsible spending," Parson said in the release.

Parson line-item vetoed $555.3 million worth of budget items, including $28 million that would have been used for a facelift of a five-mile stretch of Interstate 44 in Springfield. Surviving budget items impacting Springfield include $8 million for repairs to the Jefferson Avenue Footbridge and $4 million for renovations at Hammons Field.

Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a separate news release that the passed budget addresses "big issues that concern Missourians."

"I believe this final budget uses the surplus funding available from the federal government and the monies entrusted to us by the people of Missouri to aggressively improve our state while remaining fiscally responsible with an eye towards the future," he said in the release.

According to reporting by the Missouri Independent, Parson issued his vetoes despite a record state general revenue surplus. The state treasury was holding $5.9 billion in general revenue on May 31 – about $1 billion more than the expected surplus when the fiscal year ended Friday.

But items large and small fell by the wayside, including several in Springfield, the hometown of Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Lincoln Hough. Parson cut out improvements for I-44, $34 million for improvements to LeCompte Road, $12 million for a sports complex and $2 million for a not-for-profit science center.

“This is a local responsibility with minimal statewide impact,” Parson wrote about LeCompte Road, repeating a sentence that is included with dozens of other vetoes.

In announcing his budget cuts, Parson highlighted spending on transportation and infrastructure, with $379 million for road and bridge projects in the Missouri Department of Transportation’s rolling five-year program, $248 million for broadband deployment within the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program and $60 million for safety improvements at rail crossings.