MOScout Daily Update: Green Zaps COVID Rules - MO's Billion$$$ - Strickland Freed - Happy Thanksgiving...
Just a quick note about a few developments yesterday. Happy Thanksgiving. See you Monday….
Green Zaps Health Orders
Post-Dispatch reports on a huge ruling yesterday in the ongoing fight over COVID restrictions.
“Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green said all health orders related to the spread of COVID-19 in the state should be lifted because they violate the state constitution’s separation of powers clause affecting the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.”
The Attorney General’s office – which was on the losing end of the case, having to defend DHSS’s rules – isn’t appealing the ruling.
What It Means
· Obviously, an enormous victory for those who have argued that COVID restrictions amount to government overreach.
· Ben Brown, running for state senate, in the Schatz district was one of the plaintiffs. He issued a statement cheering the ruling. It’s a clear positive for his candidacy, though it does raise the possibility that the “COVID overreach” battle wanes in the coming months depriving him of his signature issue ahead of next summer’s primary.
MOIndy on Huge Surplus
Missouri Independent ran a very important story yesterday about the swelling state treasury. Read it here.
· “I don’t want to speak for the governor’s office, but I can tell you that they’re really interested in, you know, making a proposal that includes some of the big ideas that haven’t been within our reach in previous budgets,” Zora Mulligan, Parson’s higher education commissioner told the committee.
· The treasury already holds more than $4 billion in unappropriated funds… Money on the way is almost $4 billion more…
· The money with the fewest restrictions is general revenue. On Oct. 31, the general revenue fund held $2.3 billion, almost five times the balance two years earlier. Taxes brought in $1 billion more than expected above last fiscal year. That is enough to generate another $1 billion surplus in the current year because the budget was written with much lower expectations.
· Lobbyist Jim Moody: “The big challenge is, if you get a package that big, how do you make sure you are not creating ongoing obligations.”
Strickland Wheeled Out of Prison
After 43 years in prison, Kevin Strickland left in wheelchair yesterday, exonerated for the murder charge which robbed him of his freedom.
“They knew from Day One that I didn’t commit this crime,” Strickland said of police and prosecutors. Earlier in the day, Judge James Welsh exonerated Strickland and ordered his immediate release. It confirmed Strickland, who spent more than 40 years behind bars, suffered one of the longest wrongful convictions in U.S. history.
$5K+ Contributions
Legal Missouri 2022 - $20,000 from Good Day Farm Missouri LLC.
Missouri Senate Campaign Committee - $15,000 from Cheyenne International LLC.
Truth in Campaigns (pro-Rizzo) - $10,000 from Evergy Metro Inc.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Sen. Bill Eigel, Ryan Nonnemaker, and Dennis Wood.
Thanksgiving: Joe Lakin, Willis Jones, and Bill Deeken.
Friday: JaCinda Martin-Sutherland and Jane Dueker.
Saturday: Ward Cook.
Sunday: Sen. David Schatz, Rep. Jim Kalberloh, Janet Hirschman, Jeff Messenger, Lenny Jones, and Ed Schieffer.
MOScout Schedule
I’m off until Monday. Happy Thanksgiving y’all….