By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A compromise reached during the recently concluded Missouri legislative session should pave the way for big improvements to deteriorating bridges in the state.
State Sen. Dan Hegeman of Cosby says House resistance to Gov. Mike Parson’s $300 million bond proposal led to negotiations which resulted in a plan both the House and Senate could accept.
“So, we did seven-year bonding, $50 million upfront cash, you might call it a down payment,” Hegeman tells St. Joseph Post. “And, like I say, if we’re able to leverage them to get these grants from the federal government, then we will do $300 million worth of bonding to complete the 250 bridges in the state of Missouri.”
Missouri will apply for special federal funds to complete some of the more expensive bridge repairs on the state priority list.
A proposal to give General Motors $50 million in tax breaks to expand production at its plant in Wentzville complicated an economic development proposal by Gov. Parson that didn’t need any controversy added to it. Several of the governor’s fellow Republicans in the Senate held up approval of the workforce development plan, claiming it gave away too much state money and could be ripe for abuse.
Hegeman supported the mixture of business incentives and workforce training programs.
“Some of these were economic development programs that have been combined and reconstituted,” Hegeman says. “Some programs have been doing well for many years, just kind of with a different name and refreshed. But also, there are some new tools that we have given to our Department of Economic Development.”
Hegeman says the General Assembly must keep an eye on how the incentives are used.
As chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Hegeman, was proud of the state budget his committee recommended and the legislature approved this year.
The legislature adopted a $30 billion spending plan for the next fiscal year.
Hegeman notes the legislature approved $1 million increases to the core budgets of each four-year college and university.
“The state of Missouri has done core cuts of higher education, we have just not been able to put money into higher education the past few years,” Hegeman says. “I was proud that we were able to finally put some money into higher education and try to do what we can to bring down the cost of higher education for the citizens of the state of Missouri that are moving in that direction.”
An uptick in state revenue allowed the legislature to approve the increase to higher education as well as to fully fund the formula which pays for public schools in Missouri.