The House votes marked the first step in the process of overriding vetoes. The Senate also would need to approve the veto overrides by a two-thirds vote for them to be accomplished; it was scheduled to meet later Wednesday to consider doing so.
Parson made 21 line-item vetoes totaling more than $12 million when he enacted the state’s $28.6 billion budget for the fiscal year that started July 1. The House voted to override four of those, including funding for a hospital certification program and public defenders who represent low-income juveniles facing charges.
The House override votes were somewhat unusual, because lawmakers don’t frequently override governors of their same party. Republicans hold two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate, though Senate Democrats picked up an additional member Wednesday when Rep. Lauren Arthur moved up following a June special election.
Parson is a Republican who previously served in the House and Senate and was lieutenant governor before taking over June 1 for Republican Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned while facing potential impeachment over allegations of sexual and political misconduct.
House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick said the veto override votes weren’t meant as a rebuke of Parson.
“I have a lot of respect for the governor. He came into office at a very turbulent time and did not have much time to review the budget before he had to take action on it,” said Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Cassville.
Fitzpatrick said he believed some of Parson’s veto decisions were “made with not enough information.”
The budget vetoes that the House voted to override included:
— $487,000 for juvenile advocacy units in the Kansas City and St. Louis offices of the public defender system. Fitzpatrick said the funding “could be the difference between a life completely derailed and not” for youths facing charges.
— $153,546 for a state program that certifies hospitals as time-critical trauma centers for heart attack and stroke patients. After the veto, Parson said the Department of Health and Senior Services would nonetheless continue providing the service. But Fitzpatrick and other lawmakers contend the governor lacks the legal authority to do so unless they reactivate the funding by overriding his veto.
— $100,000 for the Office of Child Advocate to hire two employees to conduct independent reviews how well local offices are doing in providing services to youth in the foster care system. The reviews were authorized under a 2015 state law, which Parson voted for as a senator.
— $45,000 for the Missouri Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to hire someone to oversee a program that provides grants to organizations serving the deaf and blind. The program was authorized in a 2016 law, which Parson voted for as a senator.
The House fell a little short of overriding Parson on another line-item veto that would have allotted $50,000 in grants for local law enforcement agencies to purchase tourniquets.
State Rep. Kevin Engler, a Republican from Farmington, opposed the veto overrides and had encouraged colleagues to do likewise. He said the amounts of money at issue seemed insignificant in the scope of the overall state budget.
“Overriding the governor on these items is not what our constitution was set up for in my opinion,” Engler said.
