Members of the Missouri House and Senate met Wednesday for the annual veto session and left with only one veto override even attempted.
Gov. Mike Parson did not issue any vetoes of non-budget bills this session. The only vetoes the legislature could have overridden this year were budgetary.
In June, right before the new fiscal year began, Parson vetoed roughly $1 billion from the state budget.
That total is almost double what he vetoed from the budget in 2023.
Veto override motions must be offered by the chamber where the bill originated. Because all budget bills begin in the House, representatives must pass any budget overrides before they get the chance to be considered in the Senate.
This year, Rep. Deb Lavender, D-Manchester, wanted to override Parson’s veto of $2.5 million for an ombudsman program, which responds to complaints at nursing homes.
In his veto letter, Parson said while this supports the important goal of helping seniors in Missouri, “There is insufficient funding from the appropriated source to support this item.”
Lavender cited the work of the organization VOYCE in her argument for overriding the veto.
“Unfortunately, because of shortage of staff at VOYCE, which is just 22 of our counties, they're not able to respond to all of these complaints,” Lavender said. “And so we are now attempting to resolve complaints of seniors on the phone who live in nursing homes who probably don't have a phone in their room.”
However, Rep. Jim Kalberloh, R-Lowry City, who put that funding in the budget in the first place, spoke against overriding the veto.
“I'm taking it there's a reason why they did this, and I'm going to take the governor's office for good for that reason, but I'm going to keep trying on that. So when you hear this again next year, just keep that in mind of what one of our responsibilities are as a state legislator for Missouri,” Kalberloh said.
Because the House did not override any of the budget vetoes, the Senate was unable to consider them and the session ended.
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