Missouri Infrastructure

The Senate begins work Tuesday on Missouri’s roughly $50 billion state budget, with questions still swirling around renewing a tax that funds Medicaid and a GOP infighting that could derail the process.

On Tues. July 18th, the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport announced that they were the recipient of a $350k grant for parking lot improvements to be completed alongside the new Passenger Terminal Building construction project.

The iconic low water crossing in Jackson City Park was recently replaced after several flooding incidents and years of use.

Bonne Terre, as well as many cities across Missouri are weighing the best use of ARPA funds, but a deadline for that decision looms.

Last year, the Missouri Supreme Court struck down a similar attempt to defund Planned Parenthood in the budget bill, and advocates say litigation will be filed again this time.

The proposed legislation would double the number of signatures required to get on the ballot and raise the thresholds to pass them from a majority to two-thirds.

Some 90% of the Rescue Plan funds go to local agencies, but Nicholas Munyan-Penney, senior policy analyst for the group 'Education Reform Now', pointed out how the State of Missouri will use the 10% it receives remains unclear. While Missouri plans to address lost instructional time, he noted the plan does not outline how it will do so.

More than half of Missouri families report paying more than $500 a month for child care, and child-care providers have been struggling to keep their doors open. Advocates for children say there are some promising actions the Legislature could take to improve both ends.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt requested that Springfield Public Schools provide records of where it incorporated elements of critical race theory in its training and class work. The district says Schmitt is using the courts “to attack public education."

State Sen. Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, is the sixth major candidate to enter the GOP contest to replace U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt.