Mo. Senate Overises Nixon School Spending Vetos

(AP) – The Missouri Senate overrode Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of a school spending bill, just hours after the veto.
Nixon vetoed a measure Wednesday that would cap the targets state government uses to fund public K-12 schools, chiding legislators for approving a “broken promise” to students he said will pave the way for them to enact more tax breaks.

The measure would limit the growth of what’s called the state adequacy target, which lawmakers use when setting goals for how much money schools should receive. Although it wouldn’t limit spending, it would mean the target couldn’t increase by more than 5 percent every two years.

The move to change that formula comes after the Legislature and governor have failed to meet funding goals for schools for years. The formula used to determine how much money lawmakers should aim to spend on basic aid for K-12 schools included a 5 percent cap when legislators created it in 2005. Lawmakers dropped the cap in 2009, hoping to receive more money from gambling that never came.

Basic aid for K-12 schools next fiscal year falls more than $400 million short of funding goals in the spending plan lawmakers passed this year, even with a proposed $71 million increase.