The source of the cash is the apparent end of a long-running lawsuit involving the state and the 1998 settlement with major tobacco companies.

Although Missouri typically receives about $130 million annually, a special panel decided the state in 2003 didn’t properly enforce part of the settlement requiring smaller tobacco companies that didn’t sign the 1998 agreement to pay into an escrow account.

The high court’s 4-0 decision allows Missouri to recoup the estimated $50 million that was withheld from its 2003 payment.

Minutes before Greitens' announcement, Senate budget chair Dan Brown, R-Rolla, cautioned lawmakers from acting too quickly on money from the recent settlements.

"The governor may have a way he wants to go, we may have some ways we want to look at it," Brown told reporters on Thursday. "The tobacco money, we still run the risk of a federal district judge tying that money up. So I would be slow to book that money until we know for sure we're going to get it."

He also warned against using all the money on areas of the budget that require continual funding - suggesting spending half of it on one-time projects and half on higher education, which took the brunt of the cuts under Greitens' $27.6 billion spending proposal.