MOScout Daily Update: Thomas Out at OOC - Utility Bill Passes Senate - Meals on Wheels in Danger - Hoskins Slows Sports Betting - Persistent Drought and more…

Feb 25

Utility Bill Passes Senate

After a fair amount of speechifying, Sen. Mike Cierpiot’s big utility bill was passed 22-11. The vote featured a lot of aisle-jumping.

· Dem Sens. Doug Beck, Karla May, Steve Roberts, Barbara Washington and Stephen Webber voted in favor, perhaps moved by the job-creating promise of the proposal.

· And Republican Sens. Ben Brown, Jill Carter, Brad Hudson, Mike Moon, Joe Nicola, and Nick Schroer voted against after voicing skepticism toward the Big Monopolies.

Thomas Exits Office of Childhood

A terse email from the Office of Childhood yesterday announced that Pam Thomas was no longer in charge. Although the email did not even mention Thomas…

There has been a change in leadership of the Office of Childhood at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

Effective February 24, 2025, DESE Deputy Commissioner Kelli Jones will serve in the interim as the main point of contact for the office….

· The Office had been in the news during the last year as childcare providers complained of delayed payments.

· However, one building denizen says, “The office was struggling on pretty much everything and has been for a long time. The subsidy debacle was just the most public and devastating of the problems.”

Notes from Yesterday’s House Budget Hearing

Missouri Drought Hurts River Traffic

Rep. Don Mayhew mused, “I can’t remember the last time I saw a tow go up the Missouri River. Why aren’t we utilizing that corridor?

John Ferguson, Chairman of the Missouri Port Authority Association and Executive Director of the Pemiscot County Port Authority: Well, the Missouri River historically has had some draft issues with water depth… Additionally, over the last 3 years, we have seen historic drought along the Midwest, impacting all of our ability to move freight at some point during the year… this persistent drought is something that I've never seen. We set a low water record in 2012. In 2022, we broke that record. In 2023, we broke that record again. And in 2024, this last year, we came within about a half a foot of setting a new all-time record.

Meals on Wheels In Danger

Rebecca Nolan, CEO of Aging Best, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Missouri Association of Area Agencies on Aging Board of Directors, sounded warning alarms about the Meals on Wheels program for seniors. I’d like to call your attention to a freight train coming down the track, which is meals for seniors. The Home Delivered Meal Program, often known as Meals on Wheels, provides crucial nutritional support to vulnerable older adults across Missouri. This program has been significantly underfunded for years… Because of rising costs of products and wages, the current meal reimbursement rate of $6.21 is not sufficient to keep this program sustainable. The recently released Mercer Rate Study Report, as well as a survey of our AAAs, agree the rate must be increased to anywhere from $10.07 to $10.99 per meal. Based on the 2.2 million meals provided by the AAAs to Missouri seniors, that cost would be an additional $3 million to $3.7 million in additional annual GR.

Performance Funding in Higher Education

Brian Millner, President of the Missouri Community College Association, spoke about the cost to implement performance funding in Missouri. The NCHEMS report came back with a number saying that Higher Ed in Missouri was underfunded by hundreds of millions of dollars. Now, I don’t know if that’s the right number, and I’m not asking you for hundreds of millions. If we’re going to do something on performance funding, the community colleges are supportive. We think we could easily provide the right metrics to the legislature. But we’re hopeful that it would come with some level of increased support in order to implement performance funding.

I think this is the report he’s referencing…

Driving the Day: Bax Before Approps

Jessica Bax, head of the Missouri Department of Social Services, is scheduled to be before the Senate Appropriations Committee this morning as part of the FY2026 budget review.

This comes on the heels of yesterday’s humdinger of a story from the Missouri Independent outlining deficiencies in the Division of Developmental Disabilities where Bax was director.

· A review of state records, court documents and department policies, as well as interviews with frontline employees working in the state, reveal a dysfunctional developmental disability system riddled of accusations of abuse, neglect, and in some cases, concerning deaths.

· From 2017 through 2023, 74 people with developmental disabilities died in some sort of accident while in state care, according to state records obtained by the River City Journalism Fund. Additionally, nine homicides and seven suicides occurred amongst this population during that time, according to the records. Another 2,200 died of natural causes and 392 had an “undetermined” cause of death.

· In total, from 2017 through 2023, 2,682 people with developmental disabilities died under the care of the state of Missouri — on average, one person every day.

Hoskins Slows Sports Betting

Post-Dispatch reports that “Missourians hoping to legally bet on sporting events will have to wait longer after Secretary of State Denny Hoskins slammed the brakes on the rulemaking process.”

· Hoskins statement: [T]he reality is that the rules do not meet the criteria for emergency action under RSMo 536.025. As such, the state must move forward with the regular rulemaking process, including a public comment period, review by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR), and filing permanent rules. This process ensures the people of Missouri are appropriately informed and have a say in the final decisions.

More on Luetkemeyer for Western District US Attorney

The current Acting US Attorney for the Western District of Missouri is Jeff Ray. He’s serving on an interim basis that expires on June 13. At that point, without a permanent replacement, the position would be filled by judicial appointment which the Trump Administration would presumably not want to happen.

· MOScouter: My guess is that Tony is the favorite and that something may get announced before session ends. If he has no significant opposition he’ll sail right through (last USAWD was confirmed by voice vote).

Kehoe’s Constituent Services Director

News Tribune profiles Shiela Leubbert…

· When a resident calls the Missouri Governor's Office with an issue, odds are they'll reach Sheila Luebbert. Luebbert is director of constituent services for Gov. Mike Kehoe. She leads a small team that fields about 155 constituent calls per day, in addition to emails and written mail.

· "I mean, I even helped a lady get an armadillo off a county road one day," Luebbert said with a laugh. She sent the concern along to the relevant state agency, and an employee who lived nearby moved the armadillo.

· Constituents call with a wide range of requests for help. Luebbert's job is to answer their questions, refer them to state agencies or offer other resources as necessary…

· The Governor's Office has specific contacts within state agencies. When Luebbert calls, the agency contacts know it's a phone call they need to handle within about 48 hours, she said…

Lobbyist Registrations

Amy Blunt added TPC Capital Solutions.

Patrick Lee Burns and Christian Robert Frankl added The Brick Industry Association.

Brent Hemphill added Kaleo Pharmaceuticals.

Jeremy LaFaver added The Forest Kansas City, LLC.

Blake Rollins added The Poultry Federation.

Ryan Rowden added American Chemistry Council.

Scott Swain added Missouri Charter Public Schools Association.

Tony Benz added C&C Produce.

Randy Norden added Missouri One Call System, Inc.

Erin Schrimpf added Missouri Budget Project.

$5K+ Contributions