JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - The Missouri House sent a supplemental spending bill to the Senate on Monday that includes $120 million in general revenue for the rest of this fiscal year.
The majority of the money requested by Gov. Jay Nixon is to pay for drug costs in the state’s Medicaid program, which officials have said is driven primarily by the high cost of a new hepatitis C treatment.
“Increased medication costs were drivers here,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Flanigan, R-Carthage, adding that part of the general revenue funding is needed because expected money from a tobacco lawsuit settlement did not come in.
The measure includes more than $90 million in general funds for the Medicaid pharmacy program for the 2015 fiscal year that ends June 30. It also includes about $6 million for children in foster care due to an increase in the number of children needing those services.
There’s also $4.5 million for overtime for Department of Mental Health workers and about $4 million to provide health care for people who are blind.
Rep. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, said during debate on the measure Thursday that Nixon should work harder to account for uncertainties and the possibility of higher costs in some areas.
“This governor refuses to budget for contingencies,” he said.
But the top Democratic member on the budget committee, Rep. Gail McCann Beatty of Kansas City, said the Legislature has reduced flexibility in the budget in past years to increase oversight and tracking of the money spent by departments.
House members approved the measure 151-3 and it now goes to the Senate.
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