MOScout Daily Update: Acrimonious Start to the Senate - Better Elections Hits $2M - House Chair Changes - School Boards Heat Up and more...

Acrimonious Start to Senate’s Session

Normally the opening day rhetoric is all sunshine and optimism.  Not so yesterday in the Senate where several Republican senators, led by Sen. Denny Hoskins, took to the floor to air grievances.

The criticism largely came from the Conservative Caucus and was lobbed mainly at Senate leadership: Pro Tem Dave Schatz and Floor Leader Caleb Rowden.

The display of acrimony showed that the fissure within the Senate Republican Caucus not healed during the interim. 

The special session in particular seems to have exacerbated the situation as CC senators continue to denounce a ruling from the chair that occurred during that session. 

Additionally, they expressed anger that Republican senators met without CC members over the interim – apparently to map out the coming session.

What It Means

·         With no business before the body, this is a relatively harmless episode. But still, it’s a bad omen for the session ahead.

·         And it foreshadows a Conservative Caucus challenger to Rowden’s bid to become pro tem.

House Committee Chair Changes

Several changes to chairmanships were announced yesterday mostly in response to recent resignations…

·         Speaker Pro Tem John Wiemann will chair the Insurance Committee, which had been Justin Hill’s committee.

·         Rep. Jonathan Patterson became chair of the Emerging Issues Committee.  He takes over for Aaron Griesheimer.  This wasn’t a surprise, but more interesting is Rep. Bishop Davidson was added to the committee and made vice-chair.  That’s a vote of confidence in the freshman.

·         Rep. Mike McGirl became chair of Ways and Means.  This was Wayne Wallingford’s committee. Rep. Tony Lovasco became vice-chair.

·         Rep. Sara Walsh, who has chaired the Subcommittee on Appropriations – Public Safety, Corrections, Transportation and Revenue was removed from the committee.  Perhaps to lighten her load as she runs for congress. Rep. Don Mayhew was appointed to the committee – and to the position of chair.

Better Elections Hits $2M+

I think everyone should put Better Elections on their radar.  It would appear that they’re receiving enough funding to successfully launch a campaign for an initiative petition.  It looks increasingly likely to me that this will be on the 2022 ballot.  Their proposal would be a major change in the way statewide elections are conducted.

Better Elections has received over $2 million from Article IV, an out-of-state non-profit, which doesn’t disclose its donors.

Their proposal would do away with the Republican and Democratic primaries, replacing them with one big open primary and ranked voting to determine who goes to the general election.

The initiative petition also includes “ballot candy” which could be very attractive to voters in the form of “election integrity:” testing voting machines, requiring paper ballots.

School Board Interest Heats Up

Victory Enterprises highlights running for school board in their latest email blast…

Here are the three reasons we think it’s important for quality candidates to run for school board:

All Politics Are Local… A candidate for school board has a very significant ability to be a difference maker in how your board operates, and that is an important role when deciding whether your tax dollars are being spent wisely or indiscriminately.

It’s A Stepping Stone To Higher Office… County and state political parties are always looking to invest in their “bench,” meaning those who serve at a more local level who have proven themselves qualified to serve a higher office. Elected positions are always shifting, so it’s usually just a matter of time before opportunity presents itself. When it does, you need to be ready.

School Board Issues Are Growing In Interest… Last year we saw a lot of news being dedicated to what is being taught in our schools and what the curriculum of a school district ought to be…

And

·         In Jefferson City, three well-known folks from the building are running for school board: Marc Ellinger, Adam Gresham, and Erika Leonard.

·         By the way, Gresham’s campaign tagline: “Expect Excellence. Stop CRT.”

STL Airport Gets Attention

St. Louis Business Journal reports that they’re talk of an overhaul of the St. Louis airport.

·         WSP, a consulting firm hired by the airport, on Wednesday presented to the St. Louis Airport Commission several ideas for how to improve the layout of Lambert. Its preferred alternative would include the eventual demolition or repurposing of Terminal 2, currently home of Southwest Airlines, to make way for a new, 62-gate terminal that's linear and totals 1.6 million square feet…

·         The ideas would represent a big change for one of the region's main economic engines. Lambert had experienced traffic growth until the pandemic, but has nevertheless been viewed by areas leaders as an asset in need of improvement. Yet how to go about upgrading Lambert — which is solely owned and operated by the city of St. Louis and carries a debt load of $60 million per year — has become a political boiling point. Attempts to privatize operations of the airport failed, including in 2020, while some leaders have said the airport should be managed regionally rather than by the city…

·         Improving, or reimagining, Lambert has long been high on the wish list of St. Louis' business community, as peer markets like Kansas City undertake large building projects at their airports…

And

This comes on the heels of the report from the Interim Committee on Greater St. Louis Regional Emerging Issues.  That report (see it here) which wasn’t signed by Democrats and made no recommendations, did highlight the importance of the airport to the St. Louis region.

Other than the issue of crime facing the region, the underutilization of the St. Louis Lambert International Airport was the second most mentioned issue discussed during testimony before the committee. The airport could benefit by regionalization efforts, but any efforts over the past several decades to innovate and grow the airport have failed to yield results. The committee is interested in further discussions concerning the coordination of state and federal resources to make it a nationally competitive airport

OA Budget: Oops!

Scratch that bit I wrote on Tuesday about the burgeoning sales tax receipts. 

“It’ll be interesting to see the final numbers when they come out today or tomorrow, but it looks like tax receipts were on fire in December.  In particular, sales tax receipts more than doubled from a year ago!  Revenue from sales tax in December 2021 was $202 million; this year it was $420 million.”

Yesterday the Office of Administration offered this footnote in its monthly release: “The amount reflected as the total for Sales and Use Tax was inflated by dollars that should have been allocated to other funds.  The Department is in the process of reallocating those amounts back to the applicable funds.  This reallocation will be addressed in the January monthly report.”

Lobbyists Registrations

Jacqueline Bardgett, Chris Roepe, and Erika Leonard added The City of St. Louis, and The City of St. Louis Port Authority.

Jacqueline Bardgett, John Bardgett, Chris Roepe and Erika Leonard added SD USA; and deleted Insurance Auto Auctions, Secure Democracy, FB Farming Co., Missourians for Healthcare, and Verify4 Incorporated.

Jacqueline Bardgett, John Bardgett and Chris Roepe added Osage River Gaming.

John Bardgett, Chris Roepe, and Erika Leonard added University Health Foundation; and deleted Truman Medical Center Charitable Foundation.

Mark Habbas added Osage River Gaming; and deleted Missourians for Healthcare, and Verify4 Incorporated.

John Bardgett deleted Hugo LLC.

Heath Clarkston, Doug Nelson, and Kurt Schaefer added Association of Health Information Outsourcing Systems, and Bally's Corporation; and deleted Twin River Management Group.

Nancy Giddens, Shannon Cooper, Joshua Mitchell Davis, and Rodney Hubbard added Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council; and deleted St. Louis - Kansas City Carpenters Regional Council.

Brent Hemphill and Liz Henderson added Freedom's Rest Family Violence Center.

Shawn D’Abreu added D'Abreu, Davis, & Silk, LLC.

Doug Galloway added Ford Motor Company.

Jon Mandel added Dish Network LLC.

Jessica Pabst added Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook).

Josh Thomas added Excellence In Education National, Inc., DBA Excellence In Education In Action.

Andy Arnold deleted Stray Dog Policy Inc, and Stray Dog Capital LLC.

Jim Brown deleted St. Louis Development Corporation.

Greg Johnston deleted Glenmartin Inc.

$5K+ Contributions

Missourians for a Better Tomorrow - $10,000 from Heavy Constructors Association.

Majority Forward - $6,000 from Charter Communications.

Citizens For Missouri Courts - $50,000 from Dowd Bennett LLP.

Missouri Health Plan Association PAC - $25,000 from Centene Management Company LLC.

Show Me Growth PAC - $7,400 from Franklin Melton.

Nexus PAC - $9,500 from Dellwood Acquisitions, Inc.

United We Stand PAC - $50,000 from Heavy Constructors Association.

Birthdays

Happy birthday to Sen. Bob Onder, Speaker Rob Vescovo, and Mike Daus.