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Mo. GOP senators win concessions, but state budget still faces shortfall

Conservative Mo. senators gained dozens of concessions, but the 2013 budget still has a $4 million shortfall.
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Conservative Mo. senators gained dozens of concessions, but the 2013 budget still has a $4 million shortfall.

Nine conservative Republican senators who held up debate on Missouri's budget plan had claimed it spent too much, relied too heavily on one-time revenue sources and needed a structural overhaul.

They won roughly a dozen concessions from Republican leaders before finally allowing the budget to pass last week.

But the result is that general revenue spending actually rose, and the budget plan now has a $4 million shortfall.

Despite their spoken concerns, many of the changes pushed by the group of senators had more to do with policy decisions than making big-time cuts.

Some of their changes merely shifted money from one program to another with no effect on the bottom line. Other changes inserted wording prohibiting state agencies from spending money on initiatives the senators opposed.

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