Tourism, budget priorities and Medicaid served up at Eggs & Issues forum
BRANSON MO NEWS: Branson Chamber of Commerce teamed up with Century Link in hosting a legislative update – Eggs & Issues – on Thursday, Oct. 19 at Buckingham’s Clarion Hotel. Legislative speakers were Sen. David Sater, representatives Jeff Justus, Don Phillips, Lyle Rowland and Scott Fitzpatrick.
Central to most of the near-capacity crowd was the cut in funding for tourism and the ebb and flow of revenue into the state’s coffers.
“We have a spending problem in Missouri, not a revenue problem,” said state Sen. Sater. “Controlling our budget is important.” Missouri’s fiscal (year) starts July 1. July and August were great, September bottomed out.
Every state is having financial problems. “Medicaid is eating our lunch,” said the senator. “We did not expand Medicaid so we don’t have waiting lists for people with disabilities. Medicaid should be a hand-up and a last resort,” he added. “We don’t want dependency on the federal government. We want people to become independent.
“We need fewer regulations for businesses to thrive. Pro business legislation and the right to work. It’s good for Missouri and Missouri jobs. Enough signatures have been gathered by opponents of the Right to Work legislation for it to be put to a vote of the people.”
“This year will be our biggest challenge,” said Rep. Rowland. “We did fully fund the foundation formula. We restored some money for transportation, but the governor withheld that funding.” Missouri schools once received 75 percent of transportation funding reimbursement, but now it is 20 percent.
“We hope we make the right changes for education,” Rowland stated. “I’m thinking that what is good for Branson might not be good for St. Louis or Kansas City schools. Let’s make two boxes rather than try to jam everything into one box,” he said.
Addressing state pensions, he said, “Our …
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