The budget was passed on Wednesday May 6 before the constitutional deadline. How much is the new budget? Missouri independent is reporting a 50.7 billion dollar budget. KOMU TV is reporting a 48.7 billion dollar budget. Jefferson City News Tribune is reporting a 55.4 billion dollar budget. Who knows how much spending they actually approved! We do know that the budget includes two billion dollars of money that came from the federal government for Covid and has been sitting in a savings account.

Education funding was the biggest controversy in this cycle. K-12 funding is frozen at last year’s level. However last year, K–12 got a 500 million increase — the full amount requested by educators.

Higher education came under the gun for reforms. House budget chair Dirk Deaton proposed that higher education dollars be based on enrollment. A new formula based on Chair Deaton’s ideas passed the house. The senate removed it noting that some smaller colleges would see a 40 percent cut in funding from the state.

Senate Appropriations Chair Rusty Black spearheaded the Missouri Senate budget plan that rejected the House proposal to overhaul college funding, instead restoring traditional funding methods to higher education institutions. The final budget for fiscal year 2027 directs the Department of Higher Education to study new funding models by December 2026, rather than implementing immediate, drastic changes to enrollment-based funding

Rep. Darin Chappell, pushed back on criticism that the proposed budget cut education funding. “Only in government is the lack of an increase considered a cut,” Chappell said. (Missourian)

The conservative caucus is touting a 4.11 billion dollar reduction in overall spending. It is worth noting that they bragged about a three billion dollar reduction in spending in May of 2025. Then they quietly passed a three billion dollar supplemental spending bill in March of 2026 restoring the current spending to the prior level.

The budget is a combination of 13 different bills. Governor Kehoe has the authority to use line-item vetoes to make changes to the budget before signing. He must sign or veto the fiscal year 2027 budget bills by June 30.

The budget has passed based on revenue projections. However, April income is down. Net general revenue collections in Missouri for April 2026 dropped 10.7 percent compared to April 2025 (Missouri DOR).

Revenue is down and the state’s surplus rainy day fund is mostly spent. Interesting times ahead.

Friday May 15 is the last day of the 2026 Missouri legislative session.