MOScout Daily Update: Dampf to O'Laughlin - McCreery PAC Drama - Inflation Powers Tax Receipts? - Rural Gun Deaths and more...
Your quick Friday update…
Dampf to O’Laughlin
As rumored, Drew Dampf will become Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin’s chief of staff. From O’Laughlin’s Facebook: I did hire Drew Dampf, formerly Chief of Staff for Senator Hegeman who has termed out of the senate. Drew is a very talented young man and since Senator Hegeman was Chair of Appropriations for several years Drew is used to a very heavy work load. He will finish out Senator Hegeman’s term but will also start working for me.
Drew is impressive and very good with legislation. Even more important he is good with legislators and I am looking forward to working with him…
Why It Matters
Dampf has a lot of respect in the building. There’s nothing tougher that juggling the gillions of budget items through the process. It gives O’Laughlin someone with the proven bandwidth to handle various ongoing demands under pressure.
McCreery PAC Bank Trouble
The campaign to elect Tracy McCreery in Senate 24 had a bit of drama in early October. The PAC supporting her, Serve Missouri, discovered bank fraud involving the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I’m told the fraud was caught immediately, and the FBI was alerted. There were some brief panicked moments, but the funds were quickly replaced.
Unfortunately, it appears the culprit – perhaps a bad actor in a foreign land – had not been nabbed.
Inflation Inflates Tax Receipts?
The Office of Administration’s numbers of state tax receipts shows solid growth again last month. That included hot sales and use tax collections. They were up 24.1% compared to October 2021, and year-to-date they’re running ahead of last year by 8.2%.
Part of what’s fueling this is probably price inflation of the goods being taxed. Here’s a chart from the Wall Street Journal that explains what’s happening…
Meadows Registers
Former state representative Tim Meadows is joining the lobbying corps. He registered to lobby for the Missouri Kansas Nebraska Conference of Teamsters.
Meadows served from 2004 to 2013.
The Rural Gun Problem
Daily Yonder has an article highlighting the problem of rural gun deaths. While it’s mostly the urban constituencies that are seeking tighter gun regulations, the tragedies that occur with guns impact rural areas just as much – even more. The difference is that while urban areas have a higher portion of homicides with guns, rural areas’ guns deaths more likely happen by suicide.
In 2020, the rural gun death rate was 28% higher than the urban rate… Although urban areas have higher rates of gun homicide, rural places have higher firearm deaths overall because suicides make up about two thirds of gun deaths nationwide, says researcher Michael Siegel, PhD, of Tufts University School of Medicine. Siegel says it is important to categorize gun deaths into three groups.
Gubby Appts
Acting Governor Mike Kehoe announced three appointments to Missouri boards and commissions on behalf of Governor Mike Parson while he is on a trade mission to Israel, the United Arab Emirates (the UAE), and Greece…
· Paul Kirchhoff, of Jefferson City, was appointed to the Alzheimer's State Plan Task Force.
· Rebecca Rupard, of Osage Beach, was appointed to the Missouri Route 66 Centennial Commission.
· Allen Serfas, of St. Charles, was appointed to the Alzheimer's State Plan Task Force.
Lobbyists Registrations
Gamble & Schlemeier added Wonderschool.
Timothy Gerard Meadows added Missouri Kansas Nebraska Conference of Teamsters.
Steven Tilley, Thomas Robbins, Brittany Hyatt Robbins, Christopher Schoeman, and Garrett Webb added Besa Hospitality Group LLC.
Garrett Webb added mLogica.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Nick Ragone, Randy Dunn (the big 4-0), Brandon Ellington, Charlie Puyear, and Tim Person.