Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Let’s start with this…  Boom goes the back end of Sen. Ryan Silvey’s parked car this morning…. See it here. Now stop complaining about your morning ok?....

Student Transfer to Nixon

The House and Senate both approved the conference committee compromise on student transfer, sending that bill to the governor’s desk.  Both had a spell or resistance to finding passage.  After much debate, Floor Leader Todd Richardson made his closing argument that amounted to the classic – don’t the perfect be the enemy of the good.  And the House passed the bill with 84 votes, a mere two vote cushion.

In the Senate, the hours of debate were led mostly by the Kansas City delegation that didn’t want Jackson County included in charter expansion. And the vote to adopt the conference committee report was a jumbled mess…

Those voting in favor of the compromise (20): Sens. Brown, Chappelle-Nadal , Dempsey, Dixon, Emery, Keaveny, Kehoe, Munzlinger, Nasheed, Onder, Parson, Pearce, Richard, Riddle, Sater, Schaaf, Schaefer, Schmitt, Sifton, and Wieland.

Those opposed (14): Sens. Cunningham, Curls, Hegeman, Holsman, Kraus, LeVota, Libla, Romine, Schatz, Schupp, Silvey, Wallingford, Walsh and Wasson.

The bill is not in the hands of Governor Jay Nixon as the legislature doesn’t have an override majority.

One supporter of the bill hopes that the Post-Dispatch’s recent expose of the wasted non-instructional atmosphere of the Normandy schools will push the governor to sign the bill.

But Rep. Clem Smith put out a statement after the bill passed that would give the governor cover to veto it as well… “Once again decisions are being made concerning the future of the Normandy school system without any input from those most affected. As the only member of the General Assembly who is a resident and taxpayer in the Normandy district, fixing Missouri's devastatingly flawed student transfer law is a top priority. But as has happened in the past, the House speaker refused to allow me to speak on this issue. The residents of my district deserve to have their concerns heard.  House Bill 42 completely fails to fix the transfer law and instead undermines public education….”

Kehoe Broadens Paper-Plastic Bill

The Senate passed Freshman Rep. Dan Shaul’s HB 722.  This started in the House as a bill to prevent local municipalities from outlawing plastic bags – in the name of consumer choice.  But other business interests quickly seized on the bill as a vehicle to prevent local (and sometimes more liberal) jurisdictions from regulating their conduct.

Democrats rebelled against the new expanding umbrella of the bill and labored for hours on the floor.  Sen. Jamilah Nasheed won a small victory by exempting out her “ban the box” effort, but in the end Sen. Mike Kehoe largely had his way.

Sen. David Pearce crossed over and voted with Democrats in what was otherwise a straight party-line vote.

And

Waiting on a conference committee for SB 5 – a start to cleaning up the St. Louis County municipal mess….  While I’m waiting, I’m singing… If it keeps on raining the levee’s gonna break…

Hanaway as Koster’s Dream Match-Up?

In the halls, one Republican makes the case that anybody but Catherine Hanaway will be a better match against Chris Koster in November 2016.  This is a reversal of the early talk on Hanaway – that a woman who be a good demographic challenger for Koster.  Hanaway’s stock has steadily declined over the last few months as her campaign seems to have never re-awoken after taking hiatus with the Tom Schweich tragedy.

This Republican explains: if Hanaway is the nominee, her conceal carry vote will push gun rights activists to Koster; her stadium stance will cause concern among fiscal conservatives; and the lingering animosity between her and the Schweich followers will never dissipate. Altogether it adds up to Hanaway ceding some portions of the Republican base to Koster – which will have a disastrous impact in the general election.

Bits

Chris Koster’s brother Matt makes the new of the St. Louis Business Journal in the type of dispute that signifies his status as a high financier.  Read it here.

NYTimes reports of an avian flu which is sweeping the Midwest… yikes!  Read it here, but hope it doesn’t come here.

According to LinkedIn, former Rep. Judy Baker is VP Business Development at SurgeryFlow, Inc.

Former budget chair, now freedom fighter, Carl Bearden gets a gentle fine of $100 from the Missouri Ethics Commission for forgetting a “paid by.”  See it here.

Gossips Bits

Dueks on the Move?  The Stinson Leonard website no longer lists “Steam Train Jane” Dueker among its attorneys, and one building denizen tips that former Holden chief of staffer is headed to Spencer Fane.  We’ll see….

A Dem texts that Missouri ProVote will be closing next week. The former standard-bearing organization for the Missouri left seems to have been replaced in recent years by a number of other active upstarts.  We’ll see…

Spotted in the Department of Revenue parking lot… former Auditor Trish Vincent’s car, leading to speculation that she’s moved on to that department.  It’s gonna raise the ire of some Dems if Governor Jay Nixon gave her a cushy spot. A number of them still remember her uber-partisan time with Matt Blunt.

Help Wanted

Joint Committee on Public Employee Retirement seeks Executive Director.  “The Joint Committee on Public Employee Retirement (JCPER) is a bipartisan, bicameral committee responsible for providing the Missouri General Assembly with information, analysis and recommendations concerning Missouri’s 130 public retirement systems. The JCPER conducts annual reviews and analysis of all state and local government retirement systems to determine necessary recommendations for changes in statutory law. The JCPER responds to fiscal note requests on all retirement related legislation providing pension impact statements identifying the actuarial impact and disclosure of the amortized funding obligations.  The JCPER prepares reports on pension issues including an annual report on the financial condition of retirement systems.”   See the ad here.

Today’s Events

From Mary Scruggs’ indispensable events calendar:

Farmer’s Insurance Lobby Day – 9AM to 1PM.

Rep. Chrissy Sommer Reception – 229 Madison, Jefferson City – 7:30-8:30PM or adjournment.

Lobbyists Registrations

Shawn D’Abreu added Midwest Innocence Porject.

Dave Berry added Track Group, and Freedom Monitoring Solutions LLC.

Kelly Byrne deleted Organizing for Action.

$5K+ Contributions

Koster for Missouri - $12,5000 from Democratic Governors Association.