SEMO may avoid cut in state funding with amended budget proposal - ERIN RAGAN, SEMO News Service

Southeast Missouri State University could receive the same amount of state appropriations as last year for fiscal year 2013 if Gov. Jay Nixon signs off on an amended budget approved by a Senate committee Thursday. The $24 billion budget underwent approximately $86 million in cuts at the hands of the Senate Appropriations Committee compared to a version approved earlier by the House. Social services ended up taking the hit in the Senate with a proposed $28 million taken from a program that pays some medical expenses for nonqualifiers of Medicaid on the state's blind pension. Nixon's original budget called for a $106 million cut to higher education that would have reduced state appropriations to public universities by 12.5 percent.