Nixon proposes cuts to higher education, eliminating positions

Intro:	Before his State of the State speech, Missouri's governor proposed a 7 percent cut in higher education funding.
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Wrap: The cuts would come in the fiscal year that starts in July.

In all, Nixon proposed slashing $64 million from the state's public colleges and universities.

The governor's budget director, Linda Luebbering, says the cuts are getting tougher to make.

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Description: "Nobody enjoys reducing funding for higher education. If we had more money, that proposal would not be on the table."

Luebbering outlined $700 million in cuts and revenue generators to balance the budget.

The longest-tenured member of the House, Columbia Democrat Chris Kelly, says the UM System was prepared for its part of the budget pain.

From the state Capitol, I'm Theo Keith, NewsRadio 1120 KMOX.

Intro:	As Missouri's governor calls for cuts to higher education, the Senate's Appropriations chairman says those cuts will push tuition higher.
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Wrap: Columbia Republican Senator Kurt Schaefer says Gov. Nixon's proposed 7 percent cut to public colleges and universities was on the higher end of what he expected.

While Nixon says...

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Description: "Now even if some schools impose modest tuition increases next year, we'll have protected Missouri families from the sharp tuition increases seen in other states."

...Schaefer says he's concerned that those modest increases won't be so modest after all.

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Description: "Nobody wants to see tuition go up and frankly the actual dollar-for-dollar impact on middle class families and lower income families especially be even higher because of a substantial tuition increase because of this 7 percent cut."

From the state Capitol, I'm Theo Keith, NewsRadio 1120 KMOX.

Intro:	As Missouri's governor promotes his plan to balance next year's budget, the reaction from legislative leaders was mixed.
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Wrap:

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Description: "We've had the roughest three years since the Great Depression and balancing the budget is the most important thing the governor does and it is the thing he has done the best."

That's Columbia Democratic Representative Chris Kelly, the longest-tenured lawmaker in the House.

Kelly says while the budget is balanced, he says he can't bank on some of the governor's proposals.

That's because those plans require legislative action to go through.

Republican House Budget Chair Ryan Silvey criticized Nixon for proposing cuts from higher education but no cuts to his own office's budget.

From the state Capitol, I'm Theo Keith, NewsRadio 1120 KMOX.

Intro:	Missouri's governor says he isn't cutting next year's funding for K-12. But the two lawmakers in charge of the budget process in the House and Senate aren't so sure.
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Wrap: Gov. Jay Nixon is proposing to ask schools to hold off on spending more than $100 million until next year.

If they do that, he says funding will stay the same between the two years.

Republican House Budget Chairman Ryan Silvey was skeptical.

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Description: "The idea that you can build it into your budget and ask them, 'Here's the money but don't spend it' ... and then claim that somehow that makes education funding level? Not 100 percent ready to accept that."

Silvey's counterpart in the Senate, Columbia Republican Kurt Schaefer, called it "a little bit of a shell game."

From the state Capitol, I'm Theo Keith, NewsRadio 1120 KMOX.