JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Lawmakers have trimmed about $7.3 million from Missouri’s mid-year budget increase of nearly $500 million.

A House panel approved the reductions Wednesday along with limits on Gov. Jay Nixon’s travel expenses and less flexibility in how some health care funds are spent. Proposals for soil erosion projects and a grant program for ethanol-blended fuel pumps were also reduced.

More than $26 billion dollars had been budgeted for the fiscal year that ends June 30. But growth in Medicaid caseload and spending on medicine exceeded expectations, and those expenditures are mandatory. The additional $388 million for the Department of Social Services comprises the bulk of the governor’s supplemental budget request.

The supplemental budget will next go the House floor.