BILL NUMBER: DATE: HB 2019 2/17/2026 COMMITTEE: Budget TESTIFYING: IN SUPPORT OF IN OPPOSITION TO FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES
WITNESS NAME INDIVIDUAL: WITNESS NAME: PHONE NUMBER: SARAH BERRY BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION NAME: TITLE:
ADDRESS:
CITY: STATE: ZIP:
EMAIL: ATTENDANCE: SUBMIT DATE: Written 2/13/2026 11:28 AM THE INFORMATION ON THIS FORM IS PUBLIC RECORD UNDER CHAPTER 610, RSMo. HB 2019 is styled as planning and capital improvements.
It is, in substance, a multi-agency land acquisition and construction authorization bill with broad category language and limited structural guardrails.
Scope Creep Through Drafting
The bill funds:
$40,200,000 to the Department of Conservation for land acquisition and development
$35,000,000 for National Guard facility design and construction
$17,645,032 for Missouri State Highway Patrol planning, land acquisition, and headquarters construction
$6,750,000 for State Parks capital improvements including “adjacent land purchases”
$680,040 for Camp Avery construction and upgrades
The operative language repeatedly includes: “planning, land acquisition, design, construction, maintenance, repair, and improvements…” Planning and acquisition are different authorities from maintenance and repair.
This bill collapses them into a single funding mechanism.
Capital expansion authority should be drafted with project-level specificity, cost ceilings, and phase delineation.
Instead, it uses broad construction language attached to lump-sum appropriations.
Structural Concern
Land acquisition and new structure authority are long-term fiscal commitments. Once land is acquired, maintenance obligations are permanent.
Once facilities are built, operational costs follow.
This bill authorizes growth in state physical footprint without corresponding operating cost transparency in this act.
That is not inherently improper. But it is not fiscally neutral.
Legislative Notice:
The use of consolidated capital language authorizing planning, land acquisition, design, construction, maintenance, and improvements within single appropriations materially expands administrative discretion beyond discrete project approval. Such drafting reduces traceable legislative intent regarding scope, sequencing, and lifecycle cost exposure. Long-term operational liabilities resulting from new construction and land acquisition are foreseeable but not expressly constrained within this act.
For these reasons, I oppose HB 2019. MISSOURI HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WITNESS APPEARANCE FORM
BILL NUMBER: DATE: HB 2019 2/17/2026 COMMITTEE: Budget TESTIFYING: IN SUPPORT OF IN OPPOSITION TO FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES
WITNESS NAME INDIVIDUAL: WITNESS NAME: PHONE NUMBER: ARNIE "HONEST-ABE" DIENOFF-STATE PUBLIC ADVOCATE BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION NAME: TITLE:
ADDRESS:
CITY: STATE: ZIP:
EMAIL: ATTENDANCE: SUBMIT DATE: In-Person 2/17/2026 11:29 PM THE INFORMATION ON THIS FORM IS PUBLIC RECORD UNDER CHAPTER 610, RSMo. Cut all unnecessary expenses and waste.