MOScout Daily Update: Lege Triangle Cupps-JP-Bishop - Sports Betting Impact on Ed Budget - Law Enforcement for VLTs? - Burger Gets Taste of Senate and more…

Situational awareness: A winter storm is coming later tonight.  Governor Mike Kehoe signed Executive Order 25-17 to prepare for the weather.  We’ll see if legislative leaders decide to call it a short week and let lawmakers get back to their districts ahead of the weather.

Lege Triangle: Cupps-Patterson-Davidson

So… This is the best I can figure this all out…

Rep. Scott Cupps thought he was in line to be the House Budget Committee vice-chair.  That’s important because the vice-chair usually ascends to become chair.  And Budget is possibly the most powerful committee the building.  But Speaker Jon Patterson appointed Rep. Bishop Davidson to be vice-chair instead.  It was an unorthodox choice; Davidson wasn’t even on the Budget Committee last year.  He has a learning curve.

Cupps expressed his displeasure in several ways, one of which was to copy all of Davidson’s bills, and file the exact same bills.  It’s unclear what the end game was with this, but one lobbyist described it as “trolling.”  Another thought Cupps planned to “kill” Davidson’s bills in Rules – where Cupps is chair – leaving his copy bills intact.  Who knows.

I am told, though, that Cupps and Patterson had a meeting last week in which they yelled it out, and then maybe hugged it out, to get over the kerfuffle.

We’ll see.  In the meantime, because Cupps’ Rules Committee (there are two Rules Committees) has been inactive, the House only has four bills in the pipeline to debate.

Sports Betting’s Impact on Ed Budget

At yesterday’s House Budget Committee, The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Chief Budget Officer, Pam Victor, was running through adjustments to their proposed budget.  One line seemed to startle Budget Chair Dirk Deaton: $1,084,000, that is replacing lottery proceeds with expected sports wagering revenues.

·       Deaton: So it’s a million-eighty-four-thousand-sixty-six dollars is what of uh… that’s really something… of more than $3.6 billion. It’s $1,084,066. I got to go listen to those commercials again. That’s not what I remember. But anyway, thank you for drawing my attention to that…

Law Enforcement for HB 970?

These are ads running on social media supporting Rep. Bill Hardwick’s HB 970, which would update the framework for regulating video lottery machines.  Although the ads say that “law enforcement stands with HB 970,” there’s no record of their support in the House witness list from the hearing.

Here are the witnesses in favor: Charles Andy Arnold (MO Coalition for Video Lottery), Bruce Banks (Accel Entertainment), Alix Cossette (Torch Electronics), Kenny Dobson (Ware Brands), Kenneth D. Goins (MotoMart), Joshua Grant (Pit Stop Missouri LLC), Chuck Hatfield (Torch Electronics), Ron Leone (MPCA-MO Petroleum and Convenience Assn.), Leland Moloney (Warrenton Oil), and Troy Stremming (J & J Gaming).

And

One denizen thinks this battle is going to be the biggest of session.  They imagine that those who want to legalize VLTs will hire loads of lobbyists, and the casinos, who are opposed, will hire up on the other side. And we’ll end up with all the contract lobbyists in the building being on one side or the other by April. 

We’ll see…

Burger Gets Taste of Senate

Sen. Jamie Burger presented his SB 84 yesterday to the Senate floor.  The bill, which stiffens penalties for threatening an election official, wouldn’t seem to be controversial.  Burger explained it’s becoming hard to recruit election officials in an increasingly hostile environment.

But the bill didn’t sit right with Sens. Mike Moon and Joe Nicola, and after an hour or so of debate it was laid over.

Welcome to the Senate…

Kehoe Works Senate Bowl

Governor Mike Kehoe has kept up his retail politicking, making himself usually accessible to lawmakers.  He showed up at the Senate Bowl charity event last night with First Lady Claudia Kehoe and legislative director Drew Dampf.

·       Also on the scene: Lieutenant Governor David Wasinger.

Denied Plates

Springfield News Leader reports on vanity license plates denied by the Department of Revenue.  The department's rules require the denial of plates with letters, numbers or some combination of both that are "obscene, profane, patently offensive or contemptuous of a racial or ethnic group, offensive to good taste or decency, or would present an unreasonable danger to the health or safety of the applicant, or other users of streets and highways, or of the public in any location where the vehicle with such a license plate may be found."

·       See the list of denied plates here.

eMailbag on Hahn’s Testimony

MO PSC commissioners/chairman attend 3-4 regional, national and international conferences a year discussing best practices and policy modernization updates with their peers from across the country.   It shouldn’t be that unusual that commissioner/chairman returns from those meetings suggesting policy or statute update(s) for Missouri based on those discussions.…

eMailbag on Legislative Review’s New Role

The big point about Legislative Review Committee’s new role is that it circumvents the committee process and reduces the power of the committee chairs.

New Committees

Scott Spencer formed a candidate committee to run for House 60 as a Republican.  Spencer is on the Jefferson City Council.  House 60 is represented by Rep. Dave Griffith who is termed in 2026.

$5K+ Contributions

The Cigna Group Employee Missouri PAC - Federal Committee - $40,000 from The Cigna Group Employee Political Action Committee (Washington, DC).

Sarah Hough for School Board - $10,000 from Lincoln PAC.

Lobbyist Registrations

Aaron Baker and Fred Barnes added American Values Inc.         

Will Marrs and Kelli Richardson added CASA of Southwest Missouri.

Madeline Peterson added Conservatives for Lower Health Care Costs.

Brittany Hyatt Robbins added US Capital Development.

Mike Sutherland added Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives.

Mike Talboy added Greater Kansas City Building and Construction Trades Council, Guadalupe Centers, and BioNexus KC.

Nancy Giddens and Shannon Cooper deleted Human Rights Campaign.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Rep. Eric Woods, Amy Blunt, Doug Richey, Elad Gross, Steve Brown and Don Wells.