MOScout Daily Update: C of O Warns "Slippery Slope" - Kehoe to WH - Ellebracht Kicks Off and more....
C of O Warns of Title IX “Slippery Slope”
Jerry Davis, president of College of the Ozarks, comes out swinging against Title IX bill in a letter. See it here.
This will likely be used by conservatives who oppose the bill to show the unintended harm that changes to Title IX could have on conservative colleges in Missouri.
“[T]his bill would begin the process of placing the religious liberty of faith-based colleges, such as C o O, on a dangerous, slippery slope. SB259 and HCS 573 would require colleges to hand over these cases to state bureaucrats, as opposed to our measured Biblical approach currently afforded in these situations… I shudder to think what the Obama administration could have done with this legislation as its tool…”
Charter School Advocates Cheer Ruling
Doug Thaman, executive director of the Missouri Charter Public School Association, writes to supporters…
[I]n the sales tax desegregation funding case, Judge Autrey issued a positive ruling in favor of the state and charter school parents. Recall St. Louis Public Schools had argued that sales tax revenues should not be shared with the charter schools in St. Louis and that the state was in breach of the desegregation settlement agreement. Yesterday Judge Autrey ruled that the school district could not come to federal court with this complaint and he struck their motion. A copy of Judge Autrey's order is attached.
Judge Autrey does say that the school district may refile this suit in state court (or that the plaintiff class from the original suit could refile in federal court) so the issue may not be fully resolved. However, this is a good win for charter schools…
Will Huge Opioid Settlement “Jolt” MO Suit?
New York Times reports that “Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, and its owners, the Sackler family, agreed to pay $270 million to avoid going to a state court trial over the company’s role in the opioid addiction epidemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans over the past two decades. The payment, negotiated to settle a case brought by the state of Oklahoma, was far larger than two previous settlements Purdue Pharma had reached with other states. It could jolt other settlement talks with the company…
As headlines mounted, the company began exploring the possibility of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring, a step that could temporarily insulate it from big judgments…
Once a company files for Chapter 11 protection, only secured creditors, such as banks, can expect to be repaid in full. While an Oklahoma jury could potentially have hit Purdue with a stratospheric civil judgment, the likelihood of the state collecting even a significant portion from bankruptcy court — never mind how much appellate courts would reduce the award — would be remote and at some point far in the future. Legal experts said the settlement amounts to a bird-in-the-hand decision.
Legal experts said similar calculations could come into play in the 35 other state cases still pending against Purdue…”
End of the Quarter Coming
Just a few days until the end of the March campaign finance quarter. Interesting to see the money moving into the PACs…
And Rep. Mark Ellebracht holds his re-election kickoff tonight (7PM at the Tom Mendal Law Firm). Ellebracht has been a Republican target in the past and will get an early start to raising money. Headlining the host committee: Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker and Sen. Lauren Arthur.
End of the Month Coming
So far in March, the state refund expenditures are just down 6.1%, that’s about $14 million less than it was in March 2018 at this time. In other words, we’re not seeing the gap close as quickly as we might have expected with the withholding. But of course these final few weeks of the tax season could bring a tidal wave. We’ll see…
Gubby Appts
Governor Mike Parson appointed William “Bill” Monroe Abbott and Richard C. Peerson to the Petroleum Storage Tank Insurance Fund Board of Trustees; Aimee Agderian, Captain Benjamin C. Jones, and John W. Worden to the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission.
Tweet of the Day
Scott Charton shares this photo (see it here) taken by Charles Hinderliter of Realtors’ strongman Sam Licklider “in the Samuel G. Licklider Conference Room.” It’s an instant classic.
Bits
· Mike Ferguson tweets that he’s leaving the Show Me Institute, and “going back into full time media production (& some consulting work).”
· Springfield News-Leader has a photo gallery of their two state reps who lead their respective parties in the Missouri House, Speaker Elijah Haahr and Minority Leader Crystal Quade. See it here.
· Rudi Keller looks at the donors to the Brian Treece and Chris Kelly in their mayoral race. See it here. Former speaker John Diehl makes a cameo….
· LG Mike Kehoe – on Facebook – reports on his recent DC visit: I was proud to represent Missouri at the White House meeting with Ambassador C.J. Mahoney & SBA Administrator Linda McMahon on the importance of the United States -Mexico - Canada Agreement to agriculture and other Missouri industries. More than 234,000 Missourians are directly employed in support of our $9 billion export market…
eMailbag: More Committee Venting
[In these House] hearings this new crop of lawmakers spend an inordinate amount of time telling the room how they feel about issue x, y, or z. No questions, no information. Just several minutes of story time…
Help Wanted
Show-Me School-Based Health Alliance of Missouri seeks Executive Director. “The Show-Me School-Based Health Alliance (SMSBHA) is a new organization dedicated to improving health and education outcomes for children and youth in Missouri by advancing schoolbased health care. As an emerging statewide affiliate of the national School-Based Health Alliance, SMSBHA supports communities in building and sustaining school-based health programs. SMSBHA will ultimately applying for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status with the IRS and is fortunate to have significant initial financial support as well as the fiscal sponsorship of Washington University in St. Louis….
“The Executive Director reports to the Board of Directors and will direct the work of a staff team of three. As the leader of a start-up organization, the SMSBHA Executive Director must demonstrate an ability to connect, motivate, and engage volunteers not only around the importance of schoolbased health care, but also around the need for a state-wide organization to promote this important work. As the public face of the organization, the Executive Director must build and expand relationships with a broad network of partners, funders, and school-based health care providers…” See the website here.
$5K+ Contributions
American Dream PAC - $10,000 from Ameren Missouri.
Uniting Missouri PAC - $50,000 from Sam and Marilyn Fox.
MO Opportunity PAC - $15,000 from Kevin Knasel.
MO Opportunity PAC -$10,000 from Missouri Soybean Association.
Committee To Elect Reed - $10,000 from Gerald Clauch.
CWA-COPE Political Contributions Federal Committee - $5,330 from Communications Workers of America- COPE PCC.
MO Republican Party - $10,000 from Missouri Realtors PAC, Inc.
Lobbyists Registrations
Robert “Rob” Benjamin Schaaf added Show Me Integrity.
Alice Patricia Shores added AAUW MO.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Joe Fallert, Scott A. Lipke, and Marty Oetting.