MOScout Daily Update: Why MO Slow Growth? - Charter Bill to Gov Reform - General Laws Speedy Start - Scism Adds $150K and more...

General Laws’ Wrestles With Eminent Domain

The House General Laws Committee, chaired by Rep. Dean Plocher, shoots off to a speedy start.  Its Monday hearing at noon will feature two priorities of the speaker.

·         Rep. Jim Hansen’s HB 2033 seeks to prevent the Grain Belt from using eminent domain to complete its transmission lines: “Private entities shall not have the power of eminent domain under the provisions of this section for the purpose of constructing above-ground merchant lines.”

·         Rep. Travis Fitzwater’s HB 1963 amends the “Missouri Public-Private Partnerships Transportation Act” to accommodate the “Hyperloop.”  It adds “tube transport system” to the systems covered and it defines it… “pressurized pods… coast[ing] upon a cushion of air through magnetic levitation within a reduced-pressure or vacuum tube, propelled by electric power…”  But the Public-Private Partnership Act includes the power of eminent domain.

Senate Charter Bill to Emery

Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin’s SB 603 which would expand charter schools was referred to the Government Reform Committee.  That’s chaired by Sen. Ed Emery (and O’Laughlin is vice-chair).  That’s a friendlier committee instead of sending it to the Education Committee.

Sen. Gary Romine, who chairs Education, is more skeptical of charter schools.

Follow-up on MO’s Slow Growth

I spoke to or heard from a few folks grappling with Missouri’s slow economic growth (.8% annually since 2009, about a third the rate of the United States as a whole).  Here are some opinions…

·         Three words can explain Missouri’s lagging behind our neighbors: Broadband, Broadband and Broadband. Over 1 million Missourians do not have it yet, which is one in every 6 of us. Missouri cannot join the 21st century economy with that hand tied behind our backs. Broadband is also infrastructure. Missouri has not treated it as such.

·         You mentioned that “cutting taxes, weakening organized labor, and tort reform” have yielded subpar growth.  Missouri does indeed have low growth… But we really haven’t done much of the above.  The legislature has done quite a bit of tort reform.  But tax cuts have been pretty minimal, right to work was repealed, prevailing wage reform was very weak to begin with, and weakened further after the Department of Labor changed its regulations… You can’t say something doesn’t work when it’s not really happened.

·         The largest driver of GDP growth is population growth.  So it’s not surprising with anemic population growth we’ve had subpar economic growth.  States without a state income tax has shown faster population growth.  So rather than spending money to “bribe” companies to move here, we should try to lower our tax rate so people want to move here.

Scism Adds Another $150K

Kent Scism, the only Republican so far running in Senate 3 (Romine termed), contributed another $150,000 to his campaign committee.  This, in addition to the $100K he put into the committee last year, brings his total investment to $250K.

Galloway for MedEx

Nicole Galloway statement on Kansas Medicaid Expansion: “New leadership has given hope to thousands of Kansans who have lived with the insecurity of not having health insurance. There are nearly a quarter-million working Missourians living with the same fear of going broke because of medical bills they cannot pay, and they need that same kind of leadership here, but aren’t getting it…”

Catalyst Adds To Team

Press release: Danny Pfeifer and Greg Porter today announced Ethan Wilson and Jasmine Wells have joined Catalyst’s growing government affairs team… Wilson and Wells join Danny Pfeifer, Greg Porter, Alex Eaton, Becky Lohmann, David Willis, Ashley Montenegro, Cynthia Stern and Jeni Abel on the Catalyst government affairs team… Wilson will help lead Catalyst’s multistate government relations practice.  Before joining Catalyst he served as senior legal counsel and government relations manager for Turo, Inc. where he was responsible for developing and implementing Turo’s 50-state advocacy strategies… Wells will serve as a government relations associate for Catalyst and manage the firm’s Jefferson City, Missouri office.  Before joining Catalyst, Jasmine was a government relations specialist during the 2019 Missouri legislative session…

eMailbag Hodge Podge

·         People lucky enough to park in the Capitol basement (it’s a huge perk) are required to leave their keys in the car so they can be moved around because of the tight quarters.  No one can say, “I don’t use the valet.”

·         I like Jay Wasson, but someone might ask, doesn’t giving state $$$ directly to a private person/entity violate the state constitution?

·         If Jim Lembke is returning to the capitol to assist the conservative caucus, is that an in-kind contribution to CL PAC?

New Committees

Tax Fairly was formed.  Its treasurer is Martin Bennet.  It was formed to oppose a Kirkwood School District bond issue on the April ballot.  See the paperwork here.

Lobbyists Registrations

William Cummings added Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP.

Ashlie Kuehn added Juul Labs, Inc.

Steven Tilley, Thomas Robbins, and Jake Silverman added Health Care Management.

Doug Stone added Delta Quad Holdings LLC, JVM Realty Corporation, City Downtown Streetcar TDD, JPL Development LLC, Glen-Kearney Development LLC, Good-Otis LLC, Springfield Plaza CID, Shoppes at James River CID, Grace Holdings Independence LLC, Osage Beach Commons CID, 48th Place Associates, The Kansas City Main Street Rail TDD, Ward Parkway Center CID, Staenberg Group Inc, Ray Jagoda, and Springfield Plaza LLC.

Mark Rhoads deleted Metlife, Jackson Vaughn Public Strategies, First American Land Title Company.

Amy Blunt and Angie Schulte deleted Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc.

Andy Blunt deleted All States Dealer Licensing Inc, John Bardgett & Associates, Northeast Missouri Health Council, Trilogy Integrated Resources Inc., US Dealer Licensing, Rockwood Asset Management, and MTC Truck Driver Training.

$5K+ Contributions

Scism For Senate - $150,000 from William K Scism.

Missourians for Healthcare - $23,211 from The Fairness Project.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Senator Roy Blunt, Trevor Fox, Carmen Schulze, Jaci Winship, and Randy Jotte.