MOScout Daily Update: Budget Cuts - SCOTUS on Blaine - Shawan Ad - House Budget Votes for LIHTC - YAL PAC and more...

Budget Cuts

The new fiscal year starts today.  Yesterday, Governor Mike Parson announced over $440M in budget withholds for the new year.  See the list here.

·         Budget Director Dan Haug, describing the swift collapse of the economy, called it the “most difficult budget” he’s ever seen.

·         They removed almost all new spending, and kept in place the previous budget restrictions.

·         Education was spared further cuts. K-12 and Higher will receive same as last year (including restrictions).

·         Parson did sound cautious optimistic, noting that the numbers were better now than they’d feared they’d be back in May.  It’s their plan that there won’t be anymore withholds.  And if things rebound faster than expected they could reverse some of these restrictions.

Ed Reform Advocates Applaud SCOTUS

Wall Street Journal reports: The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that states can’t exclude church schools from programs benefiting their private, nonsectarian counterparts, bolstering a conservative drive to expand public support for religious education.  “A State need not subsidize private education. But once a State decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts… The case came from Montana, whose constitution, like that of more than 30 other states, forbids public support for religious schools. It “bars religious schools from public benefits solely because of the religious character of the schools,” the court said, running afoul of the First Amendment protection for free exercise of religion.

What It Means

Missouri is one of those thirty state with “Blaine” amendments in its constitution.  Legislative debate has often cited it when discussions of tax credits for education scholarships come up.  This ruling may give some more momentum to education reform groups looking to incentivize school choice in Missouri.  But it’s not clear that it changed the difficult dynamic of muscling something through the Senate.

Shawan Launches Ad

Rep. Jeff Shawan running in Senate 25 is rolling out his first television ad.  See it here.

He highlights his work with law enforcement as a former EMA Director and his work on conservative issues in the state legislature. 

The ad echoes his campaign motto: “Actions speaker louder.” The message is that he has a record of achieving real results while his opponents only talk about it. 

The commercial’s tag: “Now that’s hardcore” appears to be a jab at Eddy Justice’s ad.

Driving the Day: Tort Bill Signings

Governor Mike Parson will be in St. Peters (noon) and Springfield (2:30PM) to hold ceremonial signings of SB 591.

House Budget Votes to Restart State LIHTC

By a vote of 26-2, the House Budget Committee approved its Fiscal Year 2021 Tax Credit Motion.  See it here.

·         It zeroes out both the wine tax credit and the beef tax credit.  

·         It capped historic tax credits at $120M.

·         And it restarted LIHTC.

LIHTC advocate Jeff Smith cheers.  See it here.

OK Approves MedEx in a Squeaker

Oklahoma’s voters barely approved a ballot proposal to expand Medicaid.  From the NYTimes website:

Updated July 1, 2020 100% reporting

Answer            Votes               Pct.     

Yes                   340,279           50.5%

No                   333,761           49.5    

YAL PAC Formed

I’m expecting to see the Young Americans for Liberty endorsements any day now.  In the New Committees (below) they formed a Missouri PAC, Make Liberty Win-Federal Committee.  See the Make Liberty Win website here.

Watkins Bit

Al Watkins on CNN last night. See it here.  “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

New Committees

Make Liberty Win-Federal Committee was formed.  Its treasurer is Stephanie Bell.

Lobbyists Registrations

Jasmine Wells deleted Missouri Care (AKA Wellcare Healthplans Inc).

$5K+ Contributions

Uniting Missouri PAC - $135,000 from Ketchmark & McCreight PC.

Uniting Missouri PAC - $25,000 from Sterling Bancshares Inc.

Uniting Missouri PAC – $25,000 from GJ Grewe Inc.

Uniting Missouri PAC – $25,000 from GSSW-REO LC.

Uniting Missouri PAC - $10,000 from Koch Industries Inc.

Uniting Missouri PAC - $25,000 from Phoenix Home Care.

Change STL PAC - $30,000 from Diane Mantovani.

Change STL PAC - $10,000 from Julie Thome.

North County Alive PAC - $15,000 from BUILD St. Louis PAC.

Forte' For Jackson County Sheriff Committee - $20,000 from Darryl Forte.

A Better Missouri Political Action Committee - $15,000 from Anheuser-Busch Cos.

Missouri A/C and Mechanical Contractors - $10,000 from Hoffmann Brothers Heating Air Conditioning Plumbing.

Supporters of Health Research and Treatments - $25,000 from George Paz.

Missourians for Research and Innovation - $20,000 from James McDonnell III.

Doug PAC - $10,000 from UAW V-CAP.

Purple PAC - $10,000 from UAW V-CAP.

Scott Childers for Ray County Sheriff - $9,300 from Scott Childers.

Keep Government Accountable - $150,000 from Missouri and Kansas Laborers PAC.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Maida Coleman, John Bowman, Charlie Norr, and Connie Johnson.

MOScout Schedule

I’m taking a long weekend for the 4th.  No Update on Friday and no extras (Weekly Summary, Weekender, Sunday6).