In an unprecedented rise to leadership, State Rep. Cody Smith, Republican from Carthage, will become chairman of the powerful House Budget Committee at the start of his second term in the Missouri House of Representatives.
Missouri Speaker of the House Eljah Haar appointed Smith to the post just before Christmas after Missouri Governor Mike Parson named the current Budget Committee Chair, Scott Fitzpatrick, Republican from Shell Knob, to become Missouri State Treasurer.
Smith also follows in the footsteps of Tom Flanigan, the previous State Representative from Carthage who served as House Budget Committee Chairman from 2014-2016 before he left the House because of term limits.
“It was quite a paradigm shift for me to go from freshman member to vice chairman to chairman, and I’m still technically inside my first term, so it was exciting,” Smith said. “It’s exciting and daunting. It’s a tremendous amount of work and a tremendous level of expectations that I suddenly find myself in.”
The House Budget Committee is tasked each year with writing the state’s nearly-$30-billion annual state budget, determining the state’s priorities and how those dollars are spent.
According to the state constitution, all spending bills must be introduced and approved by the House, then sent to the Senate, which can change and edit them before sending them to a conference committee of House and Senate members where the differences must be reconciled. The two bodies must agree to identical appropriations bills, which are then sent to the Governor for his approval or veto.
Smith said one of the first steps in this process is for the House and Senate leaders and budget officials in the Governor’s office to come up with a “consensus revenue estimate,” which is the amount of money these officials believe the state will bring in over the coming budget period.
Smith said officials are working to come up with that number for the fiscal year 2019 now.
“It’s in the final stages right now, and it’s not official, but we feel like we know where it’s going to be,” Smith said. “The consensus revenue estimate is the next piece, then we’ll be talking about department requests with the departments.”
Smith said Gov. Parson will present his proposed budget at the State of the State Address later in January, and the House can use that as a blueprint, or go a different direction if it chooses.
