Veterans funding boost wins initial House approval

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Advocates for preschool programs and veterans services clashed Monday over legislation that detractors said unfairly pit the two groups against each other for state funding.

The bill, which won first-round House approval, concerns how the revenue the state collects from riverboat casino boarding fees is distributed.

Until 1998, 100 percent of the boarding-fee revenue went into a special trust fund for the construction and operation of veterans homes, cemeteries and related programs. A change in the law that year, however, shifted the bulk of the money to create new early childhood education programs, while capping the amount set aside for veterans at $3 million a year.

But with the veterans trust fund expected to go broke no later than 2006, veterans groups want a greater share of that revenue stream restored.

Under the current bill, $27 million a year would be set aside for early childhood efforts with $7 million going to the veterans fund. A National Guard scholarship program that at present gets $3 million annually from the fees would see its portion boosted to $4.5 million.

Once those minimum levels are reached, extra revenue would be divided evenly between early childhood and veterans programs.

Supporters of the bill said children's advocates should return the favor provided by veterans groups when they agreed to support the 1998 funding shift.

"It was veterans who willingly gave up this money to early childhood education several years ago," said House Speaker Pro Tem Rod Jetton, R-Marble Hill. "I think that speaks to the type of people veterans are."

After more than 2 1/2 hours of debate, the House approved the bill 117-32. All 13 Southeast Missouri lawmakers who were present for the vote supported the measure, which requires a second vote to send it to the Senate.

While sympathetic to veterans' needs, some lawmakers said education wasn't the right place to get the money.

"It seems to me this is a terrible decision at a terrible time," said state Rep. Barbara Wall Fraser, D-St. Louis.

The early childhood money is distributed through grants. The claim that early childhood programs would be cut simply aren't true, said state Rep. Denny Merideth, D-Caruthersville. Currently, the full amount appropriated for the grants isn't spent every year. Merideth said the veterans services need the money today.

"It's the right endeavor, and it's the right time to do it," Merideth said.

The bill is HB 444.

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