Missouri Senate passed budget; so what’s next

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KY3) - Missouri State Senators filled the Missouri Capitol building late Wednesday afternoon after spending most of the early morning debating the budget.

One thing making it through $50 million in school safety grants. Democratic State Senator Brian Williams says keeping schools safe for students is a priority.

”I don’t want to think about sending kids to school and knowing that they may not make it home. So whatever we have to do to protect them. I think putting them in positions where guns aren’t a factor is a priority,” said State Senator Williams.

Republican State Senator Bill Eigel says there were things he wanted to add.

“I wanted to add a security resource officer to that line item. So that we could have armed guards in every school district in the State of Missouri, that would have been a total cost of about $88 million. You could have put an armed resource officer in every school district in the state,” said State SenatorEigel.

The final budget passed says school safety improvements but doesn’t specify school resource officers. One thing that did not pass.. defunding diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

“We tried to defund those positions and programs in our state government last night. That effort failed because not enough Republicans could support that. So I think that the Republicans that voted against that measure last night, joining with the Democrats and causing it to fail,” said State Senator Eigel.

”To be honest, it was just very offensive. You know, when I was elected to the Missouri Senate, I was the first black male in 20 years. To think that we’re still talking about someone being, you know, discriminated against because of the color of their skin, or their gender, or their ethnicity, or their background is pretty concerning. So I’m glad we worked through it,” said State Senator Williams.

This is now in the hands of the house before going to the governor. It needs to be on the governor’s desk by May 5.

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