Friday, January 13, 2017
Greitens Tackles the Ice Storm
See video of him here, taking charge of the situation, declaring a state of emergency, and calling up the national guard.
First Test?
If the storm lives up to its billing, what’s at stake politically? Here’s on take by a MOScout reader: Folks will be watching. Remember: after his big wins in the '93 session, still-new Gov. Mel Carnahan faced historic floods and came out of it with a calm, cool, effective crisis management image. Jay Nixon was on the same track after the Joplin tornado, but then came Ferguson. Eric Greitens can help himself and all of us by doing a good job in the storm.
Meanwhile… the Budget Storm
Meanwhile the budget storm is rapidly approaching. Governor Greitens is apparently leaving Nixon’s budget director in place, and the legislature is anxiously awaiting a budget as they watch the days go by, reducing the amount of time they will have to work on it.
Yesterday, the Post-Dispatch reported that next year the budget hole will be greater than $400 million. See it here.
And while that’s never a good thing, there are possibly a couple of sources of low-hanging fruit to start to narrow the gap.
First, as I mentioned a few days ago the Facilities Maintenance Reserve Fund is an obvious target for withholds. It’s conceivable that between the current fiscal and next year, you could leave some money in there for “dire” building maintenance, and still take out $100 million to plug into the budget hole.
Second, a surprise line item that could also help is in the state’s cost of prescription drugs. It’s said that the state has drug cost is down significantly in the current fiscal year. I’m not sure what’s behind that development, if it’s a trend or an anomaly, but its will be a significant savings – tens of millions of dollars.
House Perfects Lobbyists Gift Ban
Rep. Justin Alferman’s bill to ban lobbyists gifts was perfected yesterday by a vote of 147-6. The 6 Nays were: Reps. Kurt Bahr, TJ Berry, Mike Moon, Jim Neely, Jeff Pogue, and Bryan Spencer.
House is moving on its priorities….
Schmitt Announces Leadership Team
Treasurer Eric Schmitt announced his senior staff. From the press release…
Christopher Wray - Deputy Treasurer - Previously practiced law at Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP and brings extensive experience as an accomplished attorney and certified public accountant to the position.
Matthew Panik - Chief of Staff - Previously served as Chief of Staff for Schmitt for the past five years in his State Senate office.
Jillean Long Battle - Assistant Deputy Treasurer - Previously served as Chief Deputy Treasurer and General Counsel to Indiana State Treasurer Kelly Mitchell.
David Pearce - Senior Policy Coordinator - Previously served eight years as a State Senator and six years as a State Representative.
Jonathan Hensley - General Counsel - Previously Deputy Director of the Missouri Division of Workers' Compensation.
Andrew Dziedzic - Policy Coordinator - Previously served as Deputy Campaign Manager for Eric Schmitt for Missouri and a policy analyst for the Department of Health and Human Services.
Garrett Poorman - Communications Director - Previously served as Digital Media Director for the Missouri Republican Party.
No Nixon Park?
Post-Dispatch reports that “Angry that a 1,200-acre tract in Reynolds County was named after Nixon just before he left office Monday, state Sen. Gary Romine of Ste. Genevieve and Rep. Paul Fitzwater of Potosi have filed legislation that would change the name to Proffitt Mountain State Park…” See it here.
MOScout News
The legislature is off on Monday (MLK Day) and so am I. See you on Tuesday….
eMailbag on Capitol Security
On inauguration night while they were looking through my very tiny bag - the patrolman made me stand on one leg while he ran the wand over me and then did the same thing while I stood on the other leg - in heels of course…. it was weird.
Today’s Events
Powered by Mary Scruggs’ indispensable events calendar:
Jeffrey Boyd Birthday Fundraiser – The Best Event Center, St. Louis – 5:30PM.
Lobbyists Registrations
Brian Bernskoetter and Randy Scherr added Conduent Inc and its affiliates; and deleted Xerox Business Services LLC and its affiliates.
Jeffrey Earl added Governor’s Office.
Kaycee Nail added Missouri Chapter Of The Association Of Public Safety Communications Officials, and Missouri Chapter of the National Emergency Number Association; and deleted Southwestern Bell Telephone Company DBA AT&T.
Russell Schomberger added Salesforce.com Inc.
Lou Hamilton deleted Missouri Clean Energy District / Renovate America.
$5K+ Contributions
MO Podiatry PAC - $8,335 from Bradley Bakotic.
District NO 9 PAC - $12,896 from Machinists Non-Partisan Political League.
Lyda Krewson for Mayor - $10,000 from The Simon Law Firm PC.
House Republican Campaign Committee Inc - $5,001 from Committee to Elect Jean Evans.
Birthdays
Happy birthday to mayoral candidate Jeffrey Boyd.
Saturday: Floor Leader Mike Cierpiot, former Rep. Margaret Donnelly, and Virvus Jones.
Sunday: Former Rep. Esther Haywood, and Brendan Cossette.
Monday: former Reps. Mary Still and Don Gosen.
Condolences
To Brent Hemphill on the passing of his father.