While Missouri lawmakers duke it out with state budget problems, the governor waits on the sidelines for his chance in the ring.

One of the many jobs constitutionally required for the House and the Senate is to produce a budget for the governor to base the balanced budget he or she is to release each fiscal year. This session was in some ways different to prior years because of the magnitude of the budget.

The House took a different approach to solving this “budget crisis” by allotting each state department a certain amount of funding. The department heads will then be given the opportunity to make certain cuts to the programs they decide aren’t as important. The idea behind this is that the department heads would have a better idea than lawmakers in Jefferson City of what should be given a higher priority.

Rep. Bryan Stevenson (R-Joplin) said the House significantly reduced the amount of money that will be given to some of the state’s departments but not all. The House allocated a 3 percent cut for education in the next fiscal.

“In order to give the departments maximum flexibility we made a very risky decision,” he said.

“We gave them complete power and entrusted them to do the right thing with the money.”

Stevenson said he does not believe this was an irresponsible thing for the House to do.

He said they were forced to produce a “lump sum” budget this year due to the lack of money.

Rep. Rachel Bringer (D-Palmyra) said she disagrees with the way the House Republicans handled the budget.

“It’s our constitutional duty to serve the people who elected us,” she said. “A lump budget is not doing the job.”

Bringer said what the House did was send a “blank budget” to the Senate.

“You can’t do a line by line budget if the money isn’t there,” Stevenson said.

He said at the end of the process, several democrats voted in favor of the new budget style, and some were “furious” with the way it turned out. Stevenson said the cause of the frustration is the lack of control the Representatives will have on the amount of money for special interests that go to their districts.

Bringer said that “every single Democrat” was against the lump sum budget.

Currently, the senators are working on a line item budget.

Sen. John Russell (R-Lebanon), chair of the Senate appropriations committee, said the House’s lump sum budget didn’t directly add more work for the senators.

“I suppose if they had done it line by line we’d at least have something to compare it to,” Russell said.

Sen. Gary Nodler (R-Joplin) said the Senate’s main problem does not lie in the House’s decision, but in the enormity of the budget itself.

“Essentially, the problem is funds you really can cut are all in education, social service and mental health and corrections. That’s where the controllable (general revenue) money is,” Nodler said.

He said nobody has any desires to make cuts in those areas.

“Even if you get rid of all the waste and fat, you’re still $400 or $500 million short,” Nodler said.

He said he believes the responsible thing for the Senate to do is to pass a two-tier budget. One tier would base the budget on services available with existing revenue. The second tier would identify what items are necessary and the money that’s needed to attain them and create a revenue package. This would have to be sent to the voters.

The legislature constitutionally can only vote on a $75 million tax increase and the budget hole is $750 million, Stevenson said. So, any kind of legitimate increase would have to go to the polls.

“My guess is the Senate is going to send us a tax increase and my guess is the House won’t pass it,” Stevenson said.

“We don’t have the ability to pass tax increases to fix the problem; it would have to go to the ballot.

“The issue wouldn’t even make it to the ballot until November, and we can’t balance a budget on tax increases that more than likely won’t pass.”

He said he is confident the voters won’t approve any increase since they voted down three increases in the latest election.

“The voters have told us they don’t want a tax increase,” Stevenson said, “and if they do, then they need to tell us they want one.”

Since the Senate budget will be different from the House’s it will go to the conference committee, where a compromise will be made.

Some believe this will throw the Assembly into special session. No matter what, Gov. Bob Holden still has to sign a balanced budget by July 1.