No. 3: Government sector impacts local biz landscape via state budget funding wins, ballot issues

Planned improvements to Interstate 44 were among local projects that got the nod for the state’s $50.5 billion fiscal 2025 budget, signed June 28 by Gov. Mike Parson.

The budget includes $14.9 billion in general revenue and 173 line-item vetoes by Parson, who is wrapping up his final year in office. Current Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe is set to succeed Parson in January after defeating Democrat Crystal Quade, the Missouri House of Representatives minority leader and representative for District 132 in Springfield.

The state budget includes $577.5 million for I-44 work from St. Louis to Joplin. That’s down from $727.5 million in the General Assembly’s version of the budget, as Parson vetoed $150 million from the general revenue fund to be transferred to the I-44 improvement fund.

Another local project that got the nod was $15 million for the Alliance for Healthcare Education, a partnership announced in 2023 of CoxHealth, Missouri State University, Ozarks Technical Community College and Springfield Public Schools. Officials say the funds would be used to renovate space at Cox North with work set to begin next year.

Additionally, Ozarks Tech officials say $46 million in state funding was approved for use at the college’s future $60 million student center, which was named in September after Parson. The college held a groundbreaking in September for the Michael L. Parson Student Center – formerly referred to as The Center for Workforce and Student Success. The three-story, 100,000-square-foot facility is projected by school officials to open in fall 2026.

The city of Springfield noted several projects as funding wins in the state budget, including $10 million for the Springfield Art Museum expansion and renovation; $3.5 million for Hammons Field improvements; $3.4 million for LeCompte Road improvements; and $1 million for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department’s Family Connects program.

On the statewide election front, a quartet of ballot issues received the nod from voters in November. They included Amendment 2, which legalizes gambling in Missouri; Amendment 3, which provides rights associated with reproductive health care, including abortion care and birth control; and Proposition A, which will increase the state’s minimum wage on Jan. 1, 2025, to $13.75 per hour, with an increase of $1.25 per hour in 2026, bringing the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Thereafter, the minimum wage would again be adjusted each January based on the consumer price index.

Locally, Springfield voters OK’d Question 1, a three-quarter-cent sales tax to continue paying into the city’s Police and Fire Pension Fund while also funding public safety initiatives and city projects. The tax will replace a three-quarter-cent tax that voters first approved in 2009 and renewed in 2014 and 2019 to cover costs of the city’s Police and Fire Pension Fund. That previous tax will sunset on March 31, 2025.