Governor approves FY 2025 state operating budget
$50 billion spending plan provides funding for state departments and services
On June 28, the governor put his stamp of approval on a series of bills that make up the state's operating and capital improvement budget for fiscal year 2025. Totaling $50.5 billion, the budget passed by lawmakers and approved by the governor focuses on workforce development and infrastructure.
Governor Mike Parson acts on the bills that make up the state’s FY 2025 state budget. Photo courtesy of the governor’s office.
"Today, we signed a conservative and balanced budget that focuses on two priorities that we know lift every Missourian up: workforce development and infrastructure," Gov. Parson said. "By making strategic investments, using common sense and spending responsibly, we've maintained our AAA credit rating, achieved the lowest unemployment rate in Missouri history, added 163,000 jobs to our economy and cut income tax burdens by over 20 percent. We've done it all while making historic investments, like the Improve I-70 project, and leaving $1.9 billion on the bottom line."
In 2023, the governor signed off on a plan to rebuild and widen I-70 between St. Louis and Kansas City. Building off this project, the FY 2025 budget includes more than $577 million in funding to expand I-44 from St. Louis to Joplin. From an infrastructure perspective, the FY 2025 state budget also appropriates $1.5 billion for broadband investments in rural and underserved areas of the state, $290 million for road and bridge projects through the Statewide Transportation Improvement program, $100 million for Missouri's low-volume and lettered roads in rural areas and $27 million to upgrade airports throughout the Show-Me State.
"The fiscal year 2025 budget provides necessary funding to keep the state government operational and makes investments in infrastructure and capital improvements," said Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "We were able to accomplish this during a time of high inflation without increasing the burden on taxpayers and going into debt. The upcoming year’s budget is actually less than the year before."
The budget approved by the governor also makes several significant investments in education, both in K-12 and higher education, as well as workforce development. For the sixth year in a row, the state budget fully funds the K-12 education foundation funding formula. It appropriates more than $33 million to fund the Teacher Baseline Salary Grant program, which increases baseline public K-12 teacher pay to $40,000 per year. From a higher education perspective, the budget allocated a $32.5 million core funding increase for state higher education institutions.
In addition to putting his stamp of approval on the bills that make up the state's FY 2025 budget, the governor issued 173 line-item vetoes to the spending plan — totaling $1 billion.
"The use of the veto pen is not something I do eagerly, but today these vetoes represent the elimination of unnecessary pet projects and the protection of the taxpayer dime," said Gov. Parson.
For more information on the state's FY 2025 state budget, please visit oa.mo.gov/budget-and-planning.