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Conservative group urges state not to spend surplus on Medicaid

Missouri Capitol Building
j.stephenconn
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Missouri Statehouse in Jefferson City

Forecasters call for Missouri’s revenues to grow by just over 3 percent during the next fiscal year, and a conservative group wants any left over money to be returned to taxpayers or added to the state’s Rainy Day fund.  Democratic Governor Jay Nixon and Republican legislative leaders released the annual revenue estimate ahead of the 2013 legislative session. 

Patrick Werner heads the Missouri Chapter of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity.  He says any budget surplus should go back to taxpayers or to the Rainy Day fund, and not towards Medicaid expansion: “They talk about the federal government ends up paying the lion’s share of it in beginning years, and they reduce their percentage of it in the out years, but to when?  Are we guaranteed that that’s going to happen?  I mean, the federal government in and of itself is in financial distress.”

Governor Nixon wants to expand Medicaid to an additional 300-thousand Missourians.  Several Republican lawmakers have vowed to kill the proposal, saying it will raise everyone’s tax and debt burdens.  The 2013 state legislative session begins January 9th.

Missouri Public Radio State House Reporter Marshall Griffin is a proud alumnus of the University of Mississippi (a.k.a., Ole Miss), and has been in radio for over 20 years, starting out as a deejay. His big break in news came when the first President Bush ordered the invasion of Panama in 1989. Marshall was working the graveyard shift at a rock station, and began ripping news bulletins off the old AP teletype and reading updates between songs. From there on, his radio career turned toward news reporting and anchoring. In 1999, he became the capital bureau chief for Florida's Radio Networks, and in 2003 he became News Director at WFSU-FM/Florida Public Radio. During his time in Tallahassee he covered seven legislative sessions, Governor Jeb Bush's administration, four hurricanes, the Terri Schiavo saga, and the 2000 presidential recount. Before coming to Missouri, he enjoyed a brief stint in the Blue Ridge Mountains, reporting and anchoring for WWNC-AM in Asheville, North Carolina. Marshall lives in Jefferson City with his wife, Julie, their dogs, Max and Mason, and their cat, Honey.
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