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House sends bill to governor renewing taxes critical to funding Missouri Medicaidby Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent A set of medical provider taxes that fund a large portion of Missouri’s Medicaid program won quick approval Wednesday in the House, two weeks after it took 41 hours for the bill to pass in the state Senate. The controversies that stalled the bill in the Senate received scant attention during Wednesday’s debate, except for being cited as an example of what to avoid in the future. The bill taxes hospitals, pharmacies, nursing homes and ambulance services to raise about $1.3 billion for Medicaid services and leverage nearly $3 billion in federal matching funds for the $17 billion program. “This shouldn’t be used as a hostage in a terrorist negotiation,” said House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat. The renewal bill extends the taxes for five years, one of the longest sunsets since the tax was first enacted in 1991. Since then, the levies have been renewed 17 times, most recently for three years in 2021 during a special session. For the second time, renewal of the taxes became enmeshed in the debates over abortion and whether Planned Parenthood can receive reimbursements for services covered by Medicaid. Members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus tried, and failed, to delay action on the provider taxes until a bill targeting Planned Parenthood was signed by Gov. Mike Parson and a proposal making it harder to pass a constitutional amendment is finished and set for a vote later this year. Parson did sign the Planned Parenthood bill, but almost a week after the filibuster ended. And the record set by the Freedom Caucus, by holding the Senate floor for 41 hours, has been surpassed by Democrats this week as they block a vote on the constitutional majority changes. As he asked for support, House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith, a Carthage Republican, said the bill’s importance to financing Medicaid was the only issue to concern members. The taxes, he said, “have become an integral part” of the Medicaid program and renewal “is very critical” to balancing the $51.7 billion budget passed last week The debate and 136-16 vote took about five minutes. Quade said there was no controversy in the House on the bill. “Most of us… absolutely, desperately want this passed today,” she said. Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter.
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50-hour filibuster forces more negotiations on GOP-backed initiative petition changesby Anna Spoerre, Missouri Independent A 50-hour Democratic filibuster forced the Senate’s divided GOP majority to finally yield Wednesday evening, stalling a vote ona bill seeking to make it more difficult to amend Missouri’s constitution. Democrats have blocked all action in the Senate since Monday afternoon, demanding that the legislation be stripped of “ballot candy” that would bar non-citizens from voting and ban foreign entities from contributing to or sponsoring constitutional amendments, both of which are already illegal. The Senate passed the bill without ballot candy in February. The House added it back last month. Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, an Independence Democrat, on Tuesday said the situation presented an existential crisis for the Senate, as Republicans openly considered a rarely-used maneuver to kill the filibuster and force a vote on the bill. “Are the bullies going to win?” Rizzo asked. “Or is the rest of the Senate finally going to stand up for itself and say ‘no more.’” He got an answer just before 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, when state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican and the bill’s sponsor, surprised many of her colleagues by asking that the Senate send the bill back to the House for more negotiations on whether to include “ballot candy.” Republicans simply didn’t have the votes to kill the filibuster, she said, and Democrats showed no signs of relenting before session ends at 6 p.m. Friday. “These policies are too important to play political games with,” Coleman said, adding that going to conference to work out a deal with the House was the only way to keep it alive in the face of unrelenting Democratic opposition. “In a perfect world, we would not be between a rock and a hard place.” The sudden change in tactics was not well-taken by members of the Freedom Caucus, who argued sending the bill back to the House with only two days left before adjournment puts its chances at risk. Tim Jones, a former Missouri House speaker and current director of the state’s Freedom Caucus, wrote on social media Thursday evening that Coleman “effectively killed her own bill today.” Ultimately, the Senate voted 18-13 to send the bill to conference, with nine Republicans joining nine Democrats in support of the move. If the bill passes, Missourians would have the opportunity to vote later this year on whether or not to require constitutional amendments be approved by both a majority of votes statewide and a majority of votes in five of the state’s eight congressional districts. Right now, amendments pass with a simple majority. A possible vote on abortion in November is a catalyst behind the battle over the bill, as a campaign to legalize abortion up to the point of fetal viability is on the path to the statewide ballot. Republicans have said that without raising the threshold for changing the state’s constitution, a constitutional right to abortion will likely become the law of the land in Missouri. Need to get in touch?Have a news tip?State Sen. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican and a member of the Freedom Caucus, tipped his hat to the Democrats’ “wherewithal” before scorning some of his Republican colleagues. “Unfortunately, this Republican Party has no backbone to fight for what is right for life,” he shouted from the Senate floor. “ … They will have the blood of the innocent on their heads. Shame on this party.” Coleman’s move also came as a surprise to state Rep. Alex Riley, a Republican from Springfield who sponsored the initiative petition bill in the House. “We’re going to have to have some conversations tonight to figure out what exactly it is they have in mind,” he said. “We will be having many conversations over the next few hours.” House Speaker Dean Plocher said he was pleased to see the impasse broken, adding that the House is ready to work on a final version that can be passed. He didn’t promise to remove the “ballot candy” added by the House.
Asked if Coleman made a tactical mistake in telling the House to restore the items removed during the first Democratic filibuster, Plocher said he hadn’t spoken to Coleman and declined to speculate on whether the outcome would have been different had she not. Democrats left the Senate Wednesday evening declaring victory. “This body by and large is a staunch supporter of democracy. That doesn’t just go for one side of the aisle. That goes for both sides,” Rizzo said. “This is not protecting the ballot for Democrats or Republicans or one issue or the other issue that you might like or dislike. This protects the ballot box for Republicans and Democrats alike for the future.” Rizzo maintained that removing the ballot candy is still the only way Democrats will allow the bill to get through the Senate if it returns from the House. “If you haven’t figured that out in the last three or four days, I don’t know where you’ve been,” Rizzo said, adding: “Hopefully sleeping.” As the Senate prepared to vote, state Sen. Bill Eigel, a Weldon Spring Republican and Freedom Caucus member, warned his colleagues not to be optimistic that the Senate will come back Thursday and pass other bills waiting in the pipeline. “If the hope is that this process is going to somehow lead us back to a place of engaging more legislation besides this, I’m gonna say this very clearly,” he said. “Don’t get your hopes up.” Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. Missouri governor signs $468M education bill that boosts teacher pay, expands chartersby Annelise Hanshaw, Missouri Independent Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed legislation Tuesday that boosts the minimum salary for teachers, changes the formula for funding public schools and expands a tax-credit scholarship for private schools. It also allows charter schools in Boone County and requires a public vote for districts seeking to go to a four-day school week. When fully implemented, the legislation is estimated to cost roughly $468 million a year. Parson signed the bill a day before the constitutional deadline to take action. His weekly schedule did not announce his intention to sign the legislation. In a brief press release, he focused on the raise for teachers, which would boost minimum salary from $25,000 to $40,000 a year. “I have and always will support Missouri teachers. Since the beginning of our administration, we’ve looked at ways to increase teacher pay and reward our educators for the hard work they do, and this legislation helps us continue that progress,” he said. “We ask a lot of our educators when it comes to teaching and caring for our children.” Dean Johnson, CEO of K-12 education policy group Quality Schools Coalition, focused on investments in pre-k and teacher pay in a statement sent to the press following Parson’s signature.
“For too many years, Missouri education policy has been stagnant, lacking both a commitment to reform and a lack of resources,” he said. “The law signed by Gov. Parson today smartly brings new investments in Missouri’s educational future and will directly lead to better paid teachers and better prepared students.” Johnson is one of few advocates for public education that has spoken in favor of the legislation. A collaborative of 41 school districts called the Southwest Center for Educational Excellence wrote a letter to the governor, first reported by the Webb City Sentinel, raising concerns about raising minimum teacher pay. The districts worried that the mandate to increase pay did not come with guaranteed funding to make it happen. “Increasing the minimum salary yearly per the consumer price index or inflation does not allow for a guarantee for state funding to follow indefinitely,” the school districts wrote. “Our member school districts are in complete agreement with this provision, except for the lack of any guarantees in the bill for required future funding.” The Missouri School Boards’ Association crafted letters for school board members to send to the governor. For school districts paying teachers under $40,000, the letter addresses fears that the raise is an unfunded mandate. “While there are provisions in this bill that increase statutory minimum teacher pay, the bill does not ensure state funding will be appropriated this year or any subsequent year to support such an increase,” the sample letter says. “Our district is funded in large part by local taxes, and I fear that if the teacher pay increase is funded at the expense of the foundation formula or school transportation or not funded at all, we as the board may be left to make up the difference with budget cuts or local tax increases.” Seven Boone County school superintendents, representing all the local districts but Centralia, wrote to Parson on Friday asking for a veto. The legislation authorizes charter schools in Boone County. Otherwise, charter schools are only allowed by state statute in Kansas City and St. Louis and in areas with unaccredited school districts. All of Boone County’s districts are currently accredited. “Our districts include a tremendous range in student size and local revenue,” the superintendents wrote “The opening of a charter school and the depletion of state and local funds from our urban and rural districts will have a devastating effect on some of our continued ability to operate.” They argue carving out Boone County might not pass legal muster. Much of the opposition from public schools and associated organizations centers on the K-12 tax-credit scholarship expansion. The law, when enacted, will open the program statewide and increase the low-income qualifications from 200% of the free-and-reduced-lunch eligibility to 300%. The income cap, for a family of four, would be $166,500, under this school year’s reduced lunch eligibility. The legislation began as a 12-page proposal to expand the tax-credit scholarship program, called MOScholars. Lobbyists representing public education entities testified in opposition to the legislation throughout the session. Senate Democrats led a filibuster of the legislation, leading to a compromise and a 167-page education package. The House did not amend the bill, since any changes would send the legislation back to the Senate for renegotiation. Lawmakers found a way to make requested changes by adding them to a separate House bill, clarifying things such as that homeschools are exempt from the state law that prohibits guns on school grounds. This fix calmed the Missouri homeschool advocacy organization Families for Home Education, which posted on Facebook that it now had a neutral stance on the bill. It had previously opposed the legislation, with many homeschooling families asking to be written out of the tax-credit scholarship program to avoid the potential of government oversight. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
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Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. Key lawmakers say Missouri budget talks close to completion as deadline approachesby Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent The most difficult Missouri budget process in years entered the final 48 hours before the constitutional deadline for spending bills with no final agreement on how much the state should spend in the coming year. Missouri House Republicans, who hold an overwhelming majority in the lower chamber, caucused behind closed doors Wednesday afternoon for about 30 minutes for a progress report from Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith. When he emerged, he said there are still several points of contention with the state Senate that need to be resolved. “We are moving in a good direction,” said Smith, a Republican from Carthage running for state treasurer. “My priorities are the balanced budget, the bottom line, those types of things, and as long as we can work within those parameters, working towards a solution, I think we’re in a good place right now.” Need to get in touch?Have a news tip?Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Lincoln Hough said the remaining differences were over the wording of restrictive provisions, some of which set maximum rates for services such as child care and others that are more general, including a provision penalizing cities that enact immigration sanctuary policies. Hough, a Springfield Republican running for lieutenant governor, said he still expects to meet the 6 p.m. Friday deadline for spending bills. “I don’t know what the timeframe is or I would tell you, but I think we’re gonna be in really good shape,” Hough said. “We’ll be in really good shape getting to the numbers that we all want to be at, like within the (consensus revenue estimate) and a healthy cash balance to carryover for next year.” Throughout Wednesday, there was anticipation that the Senate budget debate was at hand. The Senate convened at 9:30 a.m., then quickly recessed until 2 p.m. with Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin saying the debate would commence “if the budget is ready.” It was not ready when the chamber reconvened. After several hours of work on other bills, and another recess, the Senate adjourned for the night without action on any spending bill. The chamber is scheduled to return at 9 a.m. At that time, there will be 33 hours left to complete spending bills. This week’s negotiations began with significant differences between the House and Senate on how much to spend overall, whether to dip into the massive state surplus for ongoing programs and which of more than 300 earmarked items will make the final plan. The House-passed budget spends $50.8 billion, including $14.9 billion in general revenue. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $53 billion spending package, with $15.7 billion in general revenue. In the budget proposed in January, Gov. Mike Parson called for $52.7 billion in spending, with $15 billion coming from general revenue. If the regular process was being followed, the full Senate would have already debated the budget and this week would be the time for final negotiations in a formal bipartisan conference committee with members from both chambers. Instead, the rapidly approaching deadline means Smith and Hough have been negotiating behind closed doors, keeping Republican leadership informed but leaving House Democrats complaining they have been frozen out. Democrats have been told nothing about the negotiations between Hough and Smith, said state State Rep. Peter Merideth of St. Louis, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee. “This is just one more step in what has been the least transparent budget process in my time here,” said Merideth, who joined the House in 2017. Democrats complained during committee work that Smith delivered his plan late, with little time to go over the details before being forced to vote. Republicans knew going into the session that the budget would have to navigate through the political ambitions of key players and the stall tactics of the Senate Freedom Caucus, Merideth said. “We’ve known from the time we were elected what the deadline was,” Merideth said. “They’ve known from the beginning how to get it there. And again, Republicans have failed to do that.” GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
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The deadline, a week before the end of the session, has been in place since 1988. Only once, in 1997, have lawmakers missed that deadline and been forced to complete the budget in a special session. This year, the deadline is looming despite efforts that began in December to prevent last-minute votes. House appropriations subcommittees began meeting Dec. 5. But instead of sending its proposals to the Senate before spring break in mid-March, the House completed its initial votes on April 3, almost a week later than it did so last year. Factional warfare in the state Senate, including a 41-hour filibuster last week, means the Senate has yet to vote on any spending bills except one that provides $2.2 million to support a National Guard deployment to the Texas-Mexico border. Hough has been responsive to House Democrats, Merideth said, but the lack of participation in budget talks means they will be forced to choose between voting for the bills to help meet the constitutional deadline or voting against them because of uncertainty about what is included. “We’re all aware that we’re likely to have to vote on something that we don’t know the details of,” Merideth said. “And that’s not good government and I think any one of us would be justified in a no vote.” Hough said the process isn’t very different from previous years, lacking only the formality of a conference committee. “Essentially, we’ve been conferencing right since last week,” Hough said. “We just didn’t go through the show of a formal ‘let’s all sit down and show you this’ conference on all these differences.” A key point for Smith has been to set ongoing general revenue spending at or below expected revenue for the coming year. After more than two years of double-digit growth in revenues, receipts slowed last year. Growth continued, but at the reduced rate of 2.7% in the year that ended June 30. The consensus when the year began was that revenues would decline slightly in the current fiscal year and remain essentially flat the following year. Growth so far has defied that estimate, with revenues growing at 2.7% through April 30. If that rate is sustained until June 30, it would add about $500 million in unexpected revenue to the state’s coffers and again in the following year. Despite slower growth, the surplus of all funds available to lawmakers has not declined considerably in the past year. The state had $6.4 billion on hand on April 30, down from $7.8 billion at the end of the 2023 fiscal year. That does not include $1.4 billion set aside for construction on Interstate 70 or $300 million in a fund for major construction at the state Capitol Building. One way Smith got the House budget total for ongoing spending below the estimated revenue is by designating $807 million in the operating budget as one-time expenditures. The list includes big items, like $373.5 million for improvements on Interstate 44 and $100 million for low-traffic rural roads, as well as small ones, like $18,395 for operational expenses of the Agriculture Business Development Division in the Department of Agriculture. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST.
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Smith also designated the 2% boost his budget included for higher education institutions and about $14 million for public school transportation costs as one-time spending. That is a signal that the money may not be included in the following year’s budget. “Sustainability is the name of the game for me this year,” Smith said. “We need to have a balanced budget and by that I mean we need to balance our expenditures, our ongoing expenditures within the revenue estimates.” Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. Missouri Independent: Missouri Senate committee approves bill to expand college core curriculum5/1/2024 Missouri Senate committee approves bill to expand college core curriculumby Annelise Hanshaw, Missouri Independent Legislation that could expand the number of college credits universally transferable between Missouri’s public two-year and four-year institutions took another step towards becoming law on Tuesday as time runs short before lawmakers adjourn for the year. A Senate committee, in its last scheduled meeting of the legislative session, debated and passed a bill Tuesday morning that seeks to create a 60-credit-hour core curriculum in concert with Missouri’s higher education institutions. Currently, there is a 42-credit-hour block that transfers between all Missouri’s public colleges, created in 2018. The bill, sponsored by Republican Rep. Cameron Parker of Campbell, passed the House unanimously earlier this month. “This will eliminate some problems for students transferring from a two-year to a four-year. It reduces the cost,” Parker told the committee. “What we’re looking at is a seamless transition from a two-year to a four-year.” SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST.
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Parker’s bill calls for the coordinating board for higher education to craft the 60-hour block for “at least five degree programs with substantial enrollment.” Paul Wagner, executive director of the Council on Public Higher Education in Missouri, testified in “soft opposition” because the bill could exclude students outside of popular degree programs. “This only applies to a certain type of student,” he said. “That is a student that knows from the beginning that they want to major in one of the five degrees that are chosen.” It is going to be a large undertaking to get each public college to agree on a 60-credit-hour program, he said. “If we are going to put in that kind of work, we would prefer that there was a broader result,” Wagner said. State Sen. Lauren Arthur, a Kansas City Democrat who serves on the committee, said Wagner’s comment was “well-taken.” “I would like to see it more broadly applied,” she said. She voted in favor of the bill, along with the other nine members in attendance. Representatives from community colleges said the legislation would solve problems their students face. Brian Miller, president and CEO of the Missouri Community College Association, testified that there is a “high frequency” of students retaking classes after transferring to a four-year university. State Fair Community College President Brent Bates said his students have a similar frustration. “Each year students transfer from State Fair Community College,” he said, “sometimes they are surprised when they transfer to a public university in the state and the classes don’t transfer as they anticipated.” To make it to the governor’s desk, the legislation must pass the Senate before the legislative session ends on May 17. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
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Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. Missouri Independent: Attorneys for embattled Missouri House speaker criticize ethics investigation4/25/2024 Attorneys for embattled Missouri House speaker criticize ethics investigationby Jason Hancock, Missouri Independent Private attorneys hired by the top Republican in the Missouri House demanded on Tuesday that the ethics investigation into their client be formally dismissed. House Speaker Dean Plocher has still not publicly commented on the allegations of ethical misconduct that have hung over his final year in the legislature, or the later accusations that he pressured witnesses and obstructed the House Ethics Committee investigation. On Tuesday, he dispatched his attorneys — Lowell Pearson and David Steelman — to discredit the inquiry and criticize the Republican lawmaker appointed by Plocher to lead the ethics committee, state Rep. Hannah Kelly of Mountain View. In a letter to Kelly, and later at a hastily called press conference in the Capitol basement, Plocher’s defenders argued the investigation should have never occurred in the first place. The letter included affidavits from some of the key players in the scandals that have swirled around Plocher arguing in his defense. “This investigation was mishandled from the start,” Pearson and Steelman’s letter read. Since late last year, Plocher has faced an investigation, as well as calls for his resignation, over his unsuccessful push for the House to sign an $800,000 contract with a private software company outside the normal bidding process; alleged threats of retaliation against nonpartisan legislative staff who raised red flags about that contract; purportedly firing a potential whistleblower; and filing years of false expense reports for travel already paid for by his campaign. Last week, the ethics committee voted 6-2 to reject a report recommending a formal letter of disapproval for Plocher, that he hire an accounting professional to manage his expense reports moving forward and that he refrain from retaliation against any legislator or House employee who cooperated with the committee. After the report was defeated, it became a public document. Kelly has subsequently said the investigation was severely hindered because of Plocher’s efforts to undermine the committee’s work. Specifically, Plocher refused to speak to an attorney hired by the committee to gather evidence and would not sign subpoenas to compel witnesses to testify. In addition to the delays, Kelly also accused Plocher of making efforts to “threaten witnesses, block our investigation and prevent this process from reaching its natural conclusion.”
On Tuesday, Steelman pushed back on that narrative, claiming the hiring of the attorney was “unlawful” and that it was the committee — not the speaker — who chose to drag out the process. “It was a drummed-up exercise trying to get rid of a speaker,” Steelman said of the investigation. Steelman, an ex-state lawmaker and former member of the University of Missouri Board of Curators, told reporters the reason Plocher refused to sign subpoenas was because they were designed to compel both him and his chief of staff, Rod Jetton, to testify. Both were willing to testify without a subpoena, Steelman said. That wasn’t the reason cited in rejecting the supboenas in the three letters from the speaker’s office to the committee in March and April. And in one of those letters, Plocher’s general counsel noted the committee initially sought five subpoenas. Asked Tuesday why Plocher didn’t recuse himself from the start, or at least when subpoena requests started showing up to his office, Steelman said the speaker recused himself “when it mattered.” Steelman accused the ethics committee of failing to follow its own rules, including in how it hired an outside attorney. He suggested that it’s possible the speaker’s office could refuse to pay the attorney for her work if she was hired unlawfully. A spokesman for the speaker’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether the roughly $14,700 in legal fees will be paid. Ultimately, Steelman said the ethics committee must reconvene and finish its work — which he believes means dismissing the complaint and declaring Plocher exonerated. No ethics committee hearings have been held since the report was released to the public. Kelly has not commented publicly, beyond a post on social media declaring that “because of the efforts by the speaker to threaten witnesses, block our investigation and prevent this process from reaching its natural conclusion, there is nothing more that can be done.” “The report speaks for itself,” Kelly wrote last week, “as do the votes of the committee members.” Plocher is running for the GOP nomination for Missouri secretary of state. He currently leads his seven Republican opponents by a wide margin in fundraising, with more than $1.3 million cash on hand between his campaign account and allied political action committee. But nearly all of that was raised before the litany of scandals became public last fall that have dominated his last year as speaker of the Missouri House. After taking in nearly $400,000 for his campaign and PAC in 2023, he raised just $15,000 this year. Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. Missouri Independent: Missouri Senate amends House bill to ease passage of K-12 tax credit expansion4/18/2024 Missouri Senate amends House bill to ease passage of K-12 tax credit expansionby Annelise Hanshaw, Missouri Independent The Missouri Senate voted Wednesday night to ensure homeschool families are allowed to own firearms. On a 27-4 vote, lawmakers approved legislation that originally was focused on cleaning up issues with Missouri’s virtual school program. But over the course of a five-hour recess in the Senate Wednesday, Republicans turned that legislation into a catch-all measure aimed at ensuring the House approves an even larger education bill approved by the Senate last month. The bill approved Wednesday night was crafted to ease House concerns about a 153-page bill that passed the Senate to expand Missouri’s private school tax credit program and allowed charter schools in Boone County, along with other provisions aimed at bolstering public schools. That bill’s sponsor, Republican state Sen. Andrew Koenig of Manchester, told The Independent he would prefer the House pass the Senate’s education bill without changes and send it to the governor’s desk. Any changes in the House would bring it back to the Senate for debate, putting its changes at risk. After the Senate passed Koenig’s legislation last month, criticism began popping up on social media and in the Capitol about a myriad of issues — primarily that homeschooling families may face additional government oversight. Despite assurances from gun-rights groups, one concern focused on the idea that homeschoolers’ inclusion in the private school scholarship program would result in home educators being subject to laws banning guns in schools. The Missouri Firearms Coalition made a statement that it felt that gun-ownership was not threatened in the bill. And an attorney for Home School Legal Defense Association Scott Woodruff was adamant that he was not concerned about the provision. “The idea (the bill)…. would make the criminal penalties of (state firearm code) apply to home schoolers with guns in their home is supported, at best, only by a long, thin string of assumptions and implications,” he wrote. But House members were flooded with emails and social media messages expressing concerns, putting the bills’ chances of passing without being altered at risk. Koenig said Wednesday that the ability to own a gun was not threatened by his bill. “I don’t know that it was a problem, but this definitely makes it a lot stronger,” he said. “Anytime we can clarify something in statute, then we make sure that interpretation is stronger.” The bill applies the existing homeschool statute to particular sections of state law — avoiding applying the definition of a “home school” to the state code that prohibits firearms on school grounds. The legislation approved Wednesday night expanded beyond virtual schools to include changes such as connecting funding for K-12 tax-credit scholarships to state aid for public schools’ transportation. This is current state law, but Koenig’s bill separated the two. The bill also exempts Warsaw School District from taking a vote to reauthorize the district’s current four-day school week. If Koenig’s bill passes, school districts that have switched to a four-day week in charter counties or cities with at least 30,000 residents will have to hold a vote to continue with an abbreviated week. Similar provisions are included in amendments to Koenig’s bill filed by House members. Fifty-three amendments have already been filed on Koenig’s bill in the House. House Majority Leader Jon Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, told reporters on Monday that he would prefer to pass the Senate’s version of Koenig’s bill but there was not a guarantee to do so. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
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Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. Missouri Independent: Bills making it harder to amend state constitution proceed in Missouri House4/4/2024
Bills making it harder to amend state constitution proceed in Missouri Houseby Anna Spoerre, Missouri Independent Two bills seeking to make it more difficult to amend the state constitution through the initiative petition process advanced through the Missouri House this week. On Wednesday, legislation sponsored by Republican state Rep. John Black of Marshfield was approved on a 106-49 vote. The only Republican to vote against the measure was House Majority Leader Jon Patterson of Lee’s Summit. Earlier in the week, a House committee approved a different version of the bill sponsored by state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman that the Senate passed last month. If either version is approved by both chambers, the question would go on the statewide ballot in either August or November. Citizen-led initiative petitions currently require signatures from 8% of voters in five of the state’s eight congressional districts. To pass once on the ballot, a statewide vote of 50% plus one is required — a simple majority vote. Both the House and Senate versions make the process harder, but in very different ways. The House joint resolution would: The Senate joint resolution would: Require that constitutional amendments pass by both a simple majority of votes statewide and a majority of votes in at least a majority of the votes in Missouri’s congressional districts. Require the General Assembly to have the approval of at least four-sevenths of the members in each chamber to make any modifications to citizen-led constitutional amendments within two years of when it goes into effect.
‘This is about reproductive freedom’
Last May, House Speaker Dean Plocher, a Republican from Des Peres, said his party anticipated an initiative petition to legalize abortionwould be brought forward and would pass. Since then, acampaign to legalize abortion to the point of fetal viability in Missouri has raised millions of dollars, most recently bringing in internationally-known model and Webster Groves native Karlie Kloss to campaign on their behalf. Republicans in support of changing the initiative petition process have said their motivation is more wide-reaching than abortion and pre-dates the 2023 session, anti-abortion groups have been some of the main champions of the legislation. But the bulk of Wednesday’s conversation centered on the most recent citizen-led amendment to pass. Need to get in touch?Have a news tip?In 2022, Missourians legalized recreational marijuana with53% of voters in favor of the amendment. In that election, Black said, 15 counties carried the “yes” vote, arguing that urban voters “basically imposed their will on the rest of the state.” Republicans in favor of changing the initiative petition process have repeatedly pointed to the length of the state constitution, which includes 134 amendments, as a reason for reform. State Rep. Robert Sauls, a Democrat from Independence, countered that only 19 of the amendments came from initiative petitions. The rest came from the General Assembly. “This idea that the constitution has gotten out of control, well look in the mirror,” Sauls said. “We’re the reason that it has. Not these 19 amendments that the people have put on.” An analysis by The Independent found that under the concurrent majority standard, as few as 23% of voters could defeat a ballot measure. This was done by looking at the majority in the four districts with the fewest number of voters in 2020 and 2022. “You want a minority to be able to block a majority,” said state Rep. Joe Adams, a Democrat from University City. “That is shameful.” State Rep. Doug Richey, a Republican from Excelsior Springs, said with a simple majority, it’s possible for those leading initiative petition efforts to “ignore” congressional districts and still succeed. “That is a significant move to value the voices of people in the state of Missouri no matter where they happen to live,” Richey said. “No matter what their perspective is.” Reference to the current abortion initiative petition wasn’t raised until late in the debate by state Rep. Patty Lewis, a Democrat from Kansas City.“This is about reproductive freedom,” Lewis said. “And it’s about taking away our vote to restore reproductive freedom in the state of Missouri.” In approving Black’s legislation on Wednesday, the House made little mention of the “ballot candy” written into the resolution. The ballot candy, which refers to provisions added to ballot measures in order to win over voters, has become a major point of contention between Republicans and Democrats. In the proposed initiative petition bills, language has been included that would ask voters if they want to define legal voters as citizens of the US who live in Missouri and are registered to vote and whether they want to prohibit foreign entities from sponsoring initiative petitions. Democrats argue the inclusion of the ballot candy is an attempt by Republicans to mislead voters and distract from the effort to weaken the initiative petition process. In the Senate, a 21-hour filibuster ended with Republicans agreeing to remove the ballot candy in exchange for Democrats allowing the bill to come up for a vote. The House restored the ballot candy at Coleman’s request, setting up a potential showdown in the Senate if the bill makes its way back to that chamber. Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. Missouri House again votes to cut corporate income taxesby Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent The Missouri House sent a bill repealing the corporate income tax to the Senate on a party-line vote Wednesday, with Republicans saying it will boost economic growth and Democrats calling it a business giveaway. The bill sponsored by state Rep. Travis Smith of Dora would cut the tax rate, currently 4%, to 3% on Jan. 1 and make another one percentage point cut each year until the tax is eliminated in 2028. “When you reduce the corporate income tax you are helping workers more than anything else because the corporation is not going to be paying those taxes,” Smith said. “They’re putting it back in improving their facilities and paying wages.” The corporate income tax is paid by larger companies with many stockholders. A fiscal note for the bill estimates it would reduce state revenues by at least $884 million when fully implemented. The state collected $13.2 billion in general revenue in the fiscal year that ended June 30. The bill passed on a 100-50 vote with Republicans voting for it and Democrats opposed. “We are one of the lowest corporate income tax states in the nation,” said state Rep. Joe Adams, a University City Democrat. Legally, Adams noted, corporations are people with many of the same rights as humans. “As people they should pay part of the freight for the operation of the government of this state,” Adams said. Missouri’s corporate income tax for decades was 5%. In 1993, in a bill that increased revenue to pay for education needs, the tax was boosted to 6.25%. The rate was cut to 4% in 2018. This is the second year in a row that the House has voted to cut the corporate tax. Last year, the House voted to cut the rate in half but the Senate did not go along. A similar bill is awaiting debate on the Senate. Lawmakers in the past 18 months have cut the top rate on income taxes and excluded Social Security and other retirement income from the state income tax. Those cuts, when fully in effect, will reduce annual revenue by more than $1 billion. The state is sitting on one of its biggest surpluses in history, with about $6.4 billion on hand on Feb. 29. Revenues for the year, however, are lagging 1.45% behind collections for the previous fiscal year. To soften the impact of repealing the tax, the bill also bars corporations holding state tax credits from claiming them against corporate tax liability in years after the rate is cut to zero. Smith said he received information from the Department of Revenue that there are $600 million to $700 million in outstanding tax credits that could be claimed by corporations. “It just means no new tax credits will be given out and they will not renew the existing tax credits,” Smith said. The fiscal note for the bill, however, reports that tax credit redemptions applied to corporate income taxes totaled $89.7 million in the most recent fiscal year and that redemptions would shift to other taxes if the corporate tax is repealed. “Many of the state tax credits are allowed to be sold, transferred and assigned and it is assumed corporations would continue that practice,” the fiscal note states. The corporate tax rate isn’t a priority for businesses, said Rep. Kemp Strickler, a Democrat from Lee’s Summit. Corporations want well-educated workers and access to materials and services, Strickler said. “Is this a good return on investment?” Strickler asked. “Is that really helping or is this just a giveaway?” GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
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Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. Budget, Medicaid funding could dominate final weeks of Missouri legislative sessionby Jason Hancock, Missouri Independent Missouri lawmakers return to the Capitol Monday with a long list of policy priorities still in flux and only eight weeks to get it all done before the legislative session ends in May. Yet despite a host of issues dominating debate during the first half of the session, the two top tasks lawmakers must complete before adjournment aren’t in question: Pass the state’s roughly $50 billion budget and renew $4 billion in medical provider taxes vital to sustaining Missouri’s Medicaid program. A failure to do either would require a special session this summer. And factional infighting among Senate Republicans likely means neither will be easy. Need to get in touch?Have a news tip?Senate leadership and members of the Freedom Caucus have squabbled all session, a continuation of the fissures within the Senate GOP that has mired the chamber in gridlock for much fo the last three years. The Freedom Caucus wasn’t impressed with the $52 billion budget proposal laid out by Republican Gov. Mike Parson, and only mildly less dissatisfied with House Budget Chairman Cody Smith’s $50 billion alternative. “There’s a real disconnect between the fiscal conservative promises that a lot of Republicans are making in campaign season and what they’re continuing to talk about when we come down to the Senate floor and actually debate policy,” said state Sen. Bill Eigel, a Weldon Spring Republican and member of the Freedom Caucus. Eigel, who is also a candidate for governor, predicted a long slog through the budget this year. “It’s going to take a lot of work,” he said. Potential trouble also lurks in the background across the rotunda in the House. The GOP supermajority in the House is expected to work quickly through the budget this week, with the chamber avoiding the internal dissension that’s plagued the Senate. Yet hovering over the House as it heads into the session’s home stretch is the ongoing ethics investigation of House Speaker Dean Plocher, who is facing a litany of allegations of misconduct. The House Ethics Committee is scheduled to hold its fifth closed-door meeting Tuesday, with the timeline for issuing a final report unclear. Plocher has already faced calls for his resignation from some Republicans. If the committee concludes he engaged in unethical conduct, the fight over whether Plocher should keep his job could derail the session as lawmakers are trying to finalize the budget.
Federal reimbursement allowance
Even if a budget compromise can be reached, the Freedom Caucus has also raised concerns about renewing the federal reimbursement allowance, or FRA — the taxes paid by hospitals, nursing homes, ambulance providers and pharmacies as a mechanism for drawing additional federal funds and boosting payments for Medicaid services. A Senate bill to renew the taxes before they expire later this year has been stalled over Freedom Caucus demands that it include provisions excluding Planned Parenthood from providing Medicaid services. Including that provision, GOP leaders have argued, could put the entire program at risk of running afoul of federal law. In an effort to tamp down resistance to passing a “clean” FRA, a separate bill blocking Planned Parenthood from being reimbursed by Medicaid was passed by the House earlier this year. “It’s a bipartisan belief that we need to pass (the FRA) clean,” Plocher told reporters, later adding:: “I’m an eternal optimist, and I believe we get it done.” But time is running out, said Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, an Independence Democrat. The Senate should have taken up FRA legislation at the beginning of the session instead of waiting until the last minute. “I don’t understand why it hasn’t been brought up,” Rizzo said. “I don’t understand why it hasn’t had a really good debate. I mean, it seems like there’s a lot of things that have gotten a lot of time on the floor that are way less impactful than the FRA… Everyone in this chamber knows how essential the FRA is to health care, especially in rural Missouri.” If the legislature is forced to hold a special session this summer to renew the FRA — which is how it was last renewed in 2021 — it will be the Senate’s fault, said Plocher, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. “It won’t be because of the House’s actions,” he added.
‘Ballot candy’
Beyond the budget and FRA, Republicans are determined to make it harder to amend the state constitution through the initiative petition process. A version of the proposal cleared the Senate last month when Democrats agreed to end their filibuster in exchange for Republicans stripping out provisions labeled “ballot candy.” The bill would require a statewide majority and a majority vote in five of the state’s eight congressional districts to pass a constitutional amendment resulting from an initiative petition or a state convention. In addition to making it harder to enact constitutional amendments, the legislation included “ballot candy” that would bar non-citizens from voting and ban foreign entities from contributing to or sponsoring constitutional amendments. Democrats called the immigration and foreign entities provisions a misleading sleight of hand meant to confuse voters from the issue at the heart of the amendment. Republican leadership agreed to remove them, and the bill was sent to the House. But state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican from Arnold who sponsored the initiative petition bill, urged a House committee to restore the “ballot candy.” And she hinted at the idea that Senate Republicans were going to turn to a rarely used procedural move near the end of session to force the legislation through over Democratic opposition. Coleman’s bluster infuriated Democrats, who accused Republicans of going back on their word and undermining the negotiating process in the Senate. In response, Rizzo and his fellow Democrats used the filibuster to shut down Senate business for a day. Despite the setback, Rizzo said he hopes cooler heads will ultimately prevail. “I don’t harbor any ill will or animosity towards (Sen. Coleman),” Rizzo said. “Obviously, she made some mistakes in the House committee.” Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughllin, a Shelbina Republican, said Coleman “maybe just didn’t think before she made the comments. I think maybe she just didn’t weigh out what the results of that would be.” The House intended to restore the ballot candy, said state Rep. Peggy McGaugh, a Republican from Carrollton and chair of the House Elections Committee. But the specter of Senate Democrats upending the legislative session could change those plans. “They made it clear they don’t like the plan we’re working toward,” she said. “So there will be a lot of give and take there… and I don’t know exactly where we’ll end up.”
Education and child care
The most expansive bill to clear the Senate so far this year would expand the state’s K-12 tax-credit scholarship program and allow charter schools to open in Boone County. The bill also includes provisions boosting public school funding and teacher retention efforts. “This is a great package,” said state Sen. Andrew Koenig, a Republican from Manchester who is sponsoring the bill. “It’s a great package for parents. It’s a great package for kids.” Meanwhile the House passed open enrollment legislation that would allow a school district to accept transfer students from outside its boundaries. Its sponsor, Republican state Rep. Brad Pollitt of Sedalia, has argued that open enrollment “offers parents the opportunity to select curriculum options to better align with their personal beliefs.” How either bill will fare in the other chamber is unclear. “The House has focused the last few years on open enrollment,” said Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, a Columbia Republican. “The things that we’re focusing on are a little more involved or a little deeper or a little more holistic.” One of the first bills to win House approval this year would create tax credits designed to make child care in Missouri more affordable and accessible. The state continues tograpple with a child care crisis, with about 200,000 children living in parts of Missouri considered“child care deserts” because there are one or fewer child care slots available for every three children. The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Brenda Shields of St. Joseph, would create three types of credits: for taxpayers who donate to support child care centers, for employers who make investments in child care needs for their employees and for child care providers. It won overwhelming approval in the House, and is a priority for both Parson and Senate Democrats. But the Freedom Caucus has poured cold water on the idea. “What we’re focusing on is cutting the tax burden for everybody, not having targeted giveaways and tax benefits for certain groups of folks,” Eigel said. “I want to lower the tax burden for everybody.” Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. |
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