MOScout Daily Update: Freedom Caucus Targets Budget - Gray Machines Hurting Lottery? - O’Laughlin on Solar Moratorium and more…
First in MOScout: Freedom Caucus Targets Budget
The Missouri Freedom Caucus will be issuing a press release later this morning reacting to “the good, the bad and the ugly” in Governor Mike Kehoe’s State of the State address.
· The good: The MOFC praises several priorities highlighted by the governor like supporting law enforcement, calling for an end to the income tax, school choice, and opposition to DEI.
· The bad: The MOFC disliked that there was “no mention” of changing the IP process or pro-gun legislation like SAPA.
· The ugly: Kehoe’s budget. The MOFC is “astounded that the Governor is proposing massive spending increases while President Trump is demanding lawmakers cut spending and reduce the size and scope of an ever-expanding bigger government on both the federal and state level. As we learn more about the proposed budget, our intention will be to strip out unnecessary and wasteful spending… Our goal continues to be to reduce the amount of money and power the government wields and to return prosperity and power to the people.”
What It Means
The budget is emerging as one of the focal points of this legislative session. On the right, the Freedom Caucus and others are wary of the spending which exceeds revenue. On the left, there’s resistance to general revenue being directed to pay for private school tuition. And in the background are concerns that declining tax receipts are pointing to harder budget times in the years ahead.
Senate Stalls on Trans Sunset
Freshmen Sens. Maggie Nurrenbern and Stephen Webber stood and stalled a bill yesterday after an amendment to remove the sunset on a transgender care law was added. They were later relieved by Sens. Steven Roberts and Brian Williams and Dems mounted their first filibuster. See the Post-Dispatch article on it here.
Sen. Stephen Webber, on the floor, argued removing the sunset was a violation of the previous deal worked out: While we are 100% in favor of this place functioning, and we were really excited the way it was functioning… this chamber works better when people are able to make deals, and when those deals are honored. And if they feel like those deals aren't being honored, then it's harder to collaborate, it's harder to negotiate, it's harder to make deals. So when there's a deal that is made and included in it is a sunset for a certain period of time, and then... is removed, you know, in, I guess, directly contrary to the deal that was made the year before.
House’s First Bill Next Week?
It looks like the Administrative Rules Committee is scheduled to vote out Rep. Melissa Schmidt’s HB 737 today.
That will tee it up for the House floor next week. Speaker Jon Patterson has highlighted this as his desired first bill out of the House. It would safeguard benefits for foster children.
Gray Machines Hurting the Lottery?
In the House Budget hearing on the Department of Revenue Rep. Darin Chappell asked lottery officials if gray machines were impacting their ticket sales.
Chappell: The VLTs, the slot machines, that are found in every gas station around the state, it seems, have those not impacted the sales of lottery tickets?
MO Lottery Director Lester Elder: So there's been a couple things that have really impacted the sale of lottery tickets this year. One is that we have not had a high Powerball jackpot. Nationwide, the Powerball sales are down 61.7%. And, you know, typically when the jackpots get $500 million and above, the news media picks it up and sales skyrocket, and we haven’t had a jackpot over $400 million for Powerball this year. So that’s really affected our sales greatly this year. The gray machines that you’re mentioning, they have definitely affected our pull-tab machines. We have authority to put 500 pull-tab machines into organizations. When I started in 2022, we were averaging around 460 to 470 machines out there in the field. We are now down to 412, and each time that they’re removed, we're told by the licensee, the retailer, that they’re making room for the gray machines.
Make Conservation Pay for Roadkill?
In the House Budget hearing yesterday with the Missouri Department of Transportation, Rep. Louis Riggs questioned whether the Department of Conservation should be paying for the removal of dead deer from the roadways.
Riggs: [A]s far as removing things… we have a, shall we say, a difference of opinion between Conservation and MoDOT about who owns all the deer that gets splattered all over our roads… thank you for getting those critters off our thoroughfares and making the roads safe. I’m just kind of curious what type of money is going into those removal efforts and if there’s any effort on the part of MoDOT to recoup that from Conservation since it’s their deer that you have to pull off our roads.
MoDOT Director Ed Hassinger: You know we’ve had that conversation with Conservation and there’s been a discussion whether they should do it. They’re not equipped to do it. They can’t do it safely, you know, working on the roadway. Once it becomes part of the road, it kind of falls to us. It does cost money, and we do have a dollar figure we spend on that every year. I can get that for you if you'd like it….
O’Laughlin on Renewables Moratorium
On Facebook, Senate Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin says she’d “like to see a moratorium on solar and wind” projects. “We need to invest in energy generation that is reliable. Neither of these are.”
Rehder to Axiom Lobbying Arm
Press release: AxAdvocacy, a leading public affairs and government relations firm, today announced the appointment of former Missouri State Senator Holly Thompson Rehder to lead its government affairs work in Missouri. The move underscores AxAdvocacy’s continued national expansion and engagement in state-level advocacy.
Rehder brings a unique blend of legislative expertise, business acumen, and personal advocacy to her new role…. During her eight years in the Missouri House and four years in the Missouri Senate, she led efforts to address domestic violence, combat drug abuse, and enhance support for struggling families…
Trump MO Hits
· Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, at the White House yesterday for the signing of President Donald Trump’s executive order on sports and transgender athletes, got a shout out from the podium: “One of the greats.”
· Last week Trump announced he was appointing Jared Novelly as ambassador to New Zealand and the Independent State of Samoa. Novelly is the son of St. Louis businessman Tony Novelly.
eMailbag on the Budget
Kehoe ain’t worried about spending cuts next cycle – at least he shouldn’t be – electorally. All that matters is that he fends off a serious primary. So long as he doesn’t raise taxes, that issue is a non-factor….
$5K+ Contributions
HNTB Missouri PAC - Federal Committee - $10,000 from HNTB Holdings Ltd. PAC (Sausalito, CA).
Lobbyist Registrations
Irl Scissors added CyberUP, Missouri Coalition of Recovery Support Providers (MCRSP); and deleted Keat Properties, Netflix, and National Strategies, LLC OBO COMPASS Pathways.
Ryan Gill added yes. every kid., Inc.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Rep. Doyle Justus.