Missouri’s state legislature approved its biggest budget ever on Friday, at $49 billion. Nearly $3 billion in federal spending is freeing up state budget dollars for investments applauded by, among others, State Senate Appropriations Chair Dan Hegeman (R). One key win in the new budget: an increase in teacher minimum wages from $25,000 per year to $38,000 per year, raising one of the lowest starting teacher wages in in the country.
Projects funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) include statewide broadband development, improvement projects for colleges, and more than $1 million for sexual assault kit testing. As of April of this year, Missouri had a backlog of 7,000 untested kits.
