Democratic Governor Jay Nixon on Wednesday warned Republican lawmakers that he’ll lay off state workers if full funding isn’t restored to the budget for the Missouri Department of Revenue’s Motor Vehicles division. GOP budget writers chose to fund the division for only eight months because of the continued scanning and storing of source documents of driver’s license applicants. Republican Senator Kurt Schaefer of Columbia says the practice is illegal and that the governor is being irresponsible:
"There’s absolutely no reason for him to lay off anyone, in that they have a full budget for eight months, until we come back (next year), and provided they comply with the law, which they’re currently violating still today, we’ll give them the rest of the year’s budget…but if the Governor wants to use it as an opportunity to cut state employees, he’s the Governor and he can do that,” said Schaefar.
It’s too late to amend any of the budget bills. However, if the Nixon administration agrees to stop scanning applicants’ personal documents before the budget is voted out Thursday, lawmakers could choose to allow the DMV’s budget bills to return to conference where they could be fully funded.