Missouri's tab for Joplin tornado, flooding totals $36M; far less than projected

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - Missouri's final tab has come in from a disastrous 2011 that included the Joplin tornado and widespread flooding. The costs are a lot less than what Gov. Jay Nixon originally anticipated.

Figures provided to The Associated Press by Nixon's budget office show that the state's share for the disasters is a little over $36 million.

That's merely a quarter of the $150 million that Nixon set aside for disaster aid in 2011.

Nixon's budget director, Linda Luebbering, says there was no dollar-for-dollar tracking of how the rest of the money was used. She says it simply got rolled into the general revenue pool for government operations and services.

Legislative budget leaders say Nixon's $150 million set-aside was an unnecessary budget manipulation.