JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)

Missouri senators have passed a plan to prevent cuts to in-home and nursing care for seniors and people with disabilities.
Senators voted 28-5 Thursday to spend as much as $35.4 million to keep those services intact.

Republican Gov. Eric Greitens initially recommended reducing in-home and nursing care to save money.

House members earlier Thursday passed a proposed budget that softened those cuts. But more than 8,300 senior and disabled Missourians would be at risk of losing state help under that plan. Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick had pushed to end a tax break for low-income seniors and disabled renters to spare those cuts to in-home and nursing care.

But that proposal also met pushback.

Senators instead want to pull unused money from a wide variety of state coffers in order to protect the services for seniors and people with disabilities.