MOScout Daily Update: Eigel Eruption - Election Results - Riggs' Task Forces - AFP Key Vote Alert - Crazy Palmyra Texts and more...

Eigel Eruption

Tongues were wagging yesterday about Sen. Bill Eigel erupting at MO Soybean Association’s Casey Wasser.  My best reconstruction…

Apparently, there was a meeting in Pro Tem Caleb Rowden’s office.  It was describe by one person as “an Ag meeting,” and another as a “small meeting on the foreign ownership issue.”

Upset at not being invited to the meeting, Eigel “crashed” the meeting, and things “got heated.”

It moved into the hallway where it drew a lot of attention…

·       I think just about anybody in the building probably heard him… he erupted like mount St Helens on Casey Wasser.

·       [Eigel] yelled at [Wasser] at a volume I’ve never heard in the hallway, loud enough for everyone to hear…

What It Means

It adds to the sense that the Senate is sitting atop multiple volcanos.  It’ll be an interesting final five weeks.

Election Results

·       In St. Louis… Rep. Rasheen Aldridge won his bid to become a St. Louis City Alderman.

·       In Jefferson City… Brad Bates won re-election to the Jefferson City School Board, and Mark Schwartz won his City Council race.

·       In Springfield… Judy Brunner and Shurita Thomas-Tate beat conservative candidates Landon McCarter and Chad Rollins for school board. One education lobbyist texted me: “This is really good news… sends a message to the crazies.”

Also…

·       A bond issue “Hornet Strong” in lobbyist (and school board member) Aaron Baker’s district passed with 70%, and Baker won re-election.

·       Former Sen. Chuck Purgason’s daughter-in-law, Jodi Purgason, lost her bid to join the West Plains School Board.

·       Former Rep. Chuck Basye lost his school board run.  And he was immediately trolled by Democratic Senate candidate Stephen Webber.

And

·       Scanning through results this morning, I didn’t see a marijuana tax which didn’t pass.  I’m sure it didn’t somewhere, but it looks like the vast majority of voters face with the question approved.  MoCannTrade put a statement on the widespread passage… “Unlike in so many other states, we are thrilled to see communities all across Missouri embrace having cannabis facilities as part of their local economy… today’s votes show that hundreds of communities in every corner of the Show-Me-State want to be part of one of Missouri’s newest and most flourishing industries.”

The Riggs Legislative Package

This morning the House Government Efficiency and Downsizing Committee (8AM, HR6) will hold a hearing on seven bills from Rep. Louis Riggs.  They are bills creating task forces to look at a variety of issues and ways government can perform better.

·       HB 310 –State Performance Audits.

·       HB 311 – 21st Century Innovation Hub Task Force.

·       HB 312 – a 21st Century Missouri Social Services Gap Analysis Task Force.

·       HB 313 – Cost of Complying with Federal Regulation.

·       HB 317 – Missouri State Technology Task Force.

·       HB 735 – Decentralizing State Government Task Force.

·       HB 737 – State Building Usage Task Force.

Tough Business: Rural Hospitals

The Heartlander reports on a hospital looking to expand.  It highlights the on-going fragility of healthcare in rural Missouri.  Read it here.

·       In an era of declining rural health care elsewhere around Missouri, a hospital in Hannibal is planning to expand to Kirksville and compete with an existing facility there, which some fear could endanger the financial viability of both…

·       A Memorandum of Understanding between Kirksville and HRHS [Hannibal Regional Healthcare System], which includes moving the city’s planned water tower on the site, says the “strategic collaboration” between the city and HRHS would “improve the quality of the delivery of healthcare services in the Kirksville community and surrounding service area.”

·       Credit agency Fitch Ratings announced in November it had revised HRHS’s ratings outlook to “negative” from “stable,” citing “uncertainty around capital spending and the potential issuance of new debt to address infrastructure issues at the system’s main campus …”  The agency added that “additional debt has not been incorporated into the rating, but given HRHS’ limited debt capacity at its current rating a downgrade is likely if a material inpatient or outpatient project moves forward.”

AFP Issues Key Vote Alert

Americans for Prosperity is issuing a “key vote alert” to House members today.

Jeremy Cady… “I urge you to vote YES on H.B. 136.  This vote may be recorded in our 2023 session legislative scorecard… H.B. 136 ensures protection for freedom of association on Missouri’s public university campuses.  Freedom of association is protected by the First Amendment and necessary for a free society.”

See HB 136 here.

What’s Going on in Palmyra?

Hell of a story in the Muddy River News.  Read it here.

“A review of three years of text messages between Palmyra teachers and administrators on a school-issued cellphone revealed multiple racial and homophobic comments, as well as comments showing disrespect and disregard for some of the students under their supervision and the teachers they worked with.”

·       Palmyra is represented by Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin, and Rep. Louis Riggs.

Lobbyists Registrations

James Harris added The Bedroom Store, and The Giddens Group.

Rebecca Lohmann added Missouri Eastern Railroad, and Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Services, Inc.

$5K+ Contributions

Legal Missouri 2022 -$270,574 from Steel, Wright and Grey PLLC.

UAW Region 4 Midwest States PAC (MO) - $12,000 from Midwest State Cap Exchange.

Freedom Principle MO Missouri First PAC - $7,350 from Freedom Principle MO.

International Brotherhood of Teamsters Missouri PAC - Federal Committee - $41,405 from D.R.I.V.E. (Washington DC)