During December, state tax revenues continued to fall short. According to Linda Luebbering, state budget director, revenues were down more than $170 million in December 2009, as compared to December 2008. The slide amounts to a 21.7-percent decrease. Despite the most recent decline, state officials say they expect tax revenues to bounce back slightly during the next fiscal year.

During the second day of public testimony, the committee heard the same message it had heard the day before from government agency representatives: Don't make additional cuts.

The requests weren't for more money, but for no additional budget cuts. On Monday, the Senate Appropriations Committee began a series of public hearings to hear various government agency representatives plead for maintained funding from the state. But more cuts will likely be made.

With state tax revenues down 10.8 percent the first quarter of the 2010 fiscal year compared with the first quarter of 2009, experts predict that revenues will continue to slide.

According to data posted on the federal government's stimulus tracking website, Recovery.gov, stimulus dollars have created or saved more than 15,000 jobs in Missouri. But some of those jobs seem to be located in state congressional districts that don't exist.

Nearly 40 local and statewide pension systems for public employees are under funded, according to a report submitted on Tuesday to the legislature's Joint Committee on Public Employee Retirement (JCPER).

State tax revenue collections continue to fall short. For October 2009, collections were down 14 percent, compared with October 2008, falling from $514.8 million to $442.7 million.

On Wednesday, Gov. Jay Nixon announced an additional $200 million in state budget cuts. The cuts come in the wake of low state revenue numbers for the first quarter of the fiscal year. In early October, the director of revenue's office announced that the state had taken in nearly 10 percent less in revenues than it had during the previous year.