This week the House Budget Committee gave its approval for a spending plan for FY 2013. In its recommendation, the committee reaffirmed eliminating a $28 million Medicaid-backed blind pension health insurance program. There was a public outcry several weeks ago when a subcommittee of the budget committee recommended eliminating the blind pension program as a way to restore funding cuts to higher education.
The Budget Committee, however, did soften the blow by creating a scaled-back program to assist the 2,000 blind Missourians with money that would come from elimination of tax exemptions for newspapers. A bill to eliminate the newspaper exemption was filed the same day by Budget Chair Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City).
The Budget Committee will now send the $23 billion budget to the full House of Representatives for more debate.