MOScout Daily Update: House To Go To Bat For Royals? - Hough Slows Senate - Moon and Trent for Alexander - MOIndy’s Reach - Algoa Suit and more…

Kehoe to Pitch Stadium Incentives

Tipster: Governor Mike Kehoe will be talking to the House Republican Caucus this morning to pitch incentives to keep the Royal in Missouri with a package for a new stadium. 

I wrote last week that SB 80 was being eyed as the vehicle for a potential $300 million package ($15 million/ year over 20 year).

·       Importantly, the bill currently doesn’t specify it’s for the Royals. It could also be used by the Chiefs as well. 

And

One Dem salivates at the optics: After a majority of house members voted with Kehoe to underfund their local schools. Only then to turnaround and give hundreds of millions to ensure wealthy elites have better Luxury Suites and the rest of us can’t afford to take our kids to a Royals game without a payday loan. It will make primary season more fun than usual - unless you’re an incumbent.

Hough Stalls HB 199

Sen. Lincoln Hough displayed his anger with the House’s failure to pass HB 19 yesterday by holding the floor for about three hours yesterday.  Hough indicated that he wasn’t going to be an obstacle all week long, but wanted a one-day pause.  He inquired of various senators who had projects in their districts in HB 19.

And Hough noted that House members lost as many projects as Senate members did in HB19: “When House members don't get everything that they want in the operating bills, they come over here to the Senate. Anyone who's been on the fourth floor next to my office... it sort of looks like a revolving door as soon as the House gets done with their operating bills. And it's not any different on this [capital improvements] bill.”

·       The Senate then moved on to a half-hearted roll-out of HJR 73, sending a repeal of Amendment 3 back to the voters.  It was filibustered for an hour or so before the Senate adjourned.

Committee to Rewrite the Formula Takes Shape

Press release: Governor Mike Kehoe announced today the full slate of members appointed to the Missouri School Funding Modernization Task Force. The Task Force, established by Executive Order 25-14, is charged with reviewing and recommending changes to Missouri’s K-12 school funding model and providing a final report to the Governor by December 1, 2026.

Kehoe’s appointments…

·       Matt Davis, of Eldon, was superintendent of Eldon School District.

·       Noah Devine, of Kansas City, is the executive director of the Missouri Charter Public School Association.

·       Emily LeRoy, of Hermann, is a senior advisor at Missouri Farm Bureau.

·       James "Jim" Meats, of Springfield, is the vice president of sales and marketing at Loren Cook Company and a licensed professional engineer.

·       Mike Podgursky, of Columbia, is the Chancelor’s Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri–Columbia and an affiliated scholar at Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research.

·       Donald “Don” Thalhuber, of Columbia, is the policy director for the Senate Minority Caucus.

·       Michael “Jeremy” Tucker, of Liberty, is the superintendent for Liberty Public Schools.

·       Chris Vas, of Kansas City, is a senior director for the Herzog Foundation.

·       Casey Wasser, of California, is the deputy executive director and chief operating officer for the Missouri Soybean Association.

·       David Wood, of Versailles, previously served in the Missouri House of Representatives from 2013 to 2020.

These ten appointments are joined on the Task Force by two members of the State Board of Education: Kerry Casey and Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge.

Senate Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin and House Speaker Jonathan Patterson appointed Sens. Rusty Black and Travis Fitzwater, Reps. Ed Lewis and Marlene Terry.

·       Black will chair the task force.

Suit Against Fitz

Kurt Erickson reports on a lawsuit against State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick.  Read it here.

Heather Stiles, who worked as an auditor and a supervisor, said she was fired by Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick after she alleged the office had failed to follow state and federal laws and guidelines.

·       Fitzpatrick said he plans to fight the allegations. “We will vigorously defend the policies and decisions made by our office that encourage our auditors to remain politically independent and objective in their audit work in accordance with Government Auditing Standards, and that require our staff members to meet an acceptable performance level in order to maintain employment with our office.”

Suit Against DOC

Inmates at the Algoa Correctional Center filed suit against the Department of Corrections claiming extreme heat.  See the suit here.

·       “If you want to know what Hell feels like, it is summer at Algoa.” 

·       2024 was the hottest year on record. Missouri summers bring devastating heat, including long stretches of hazardously high temperatures, and it is just getting hotter.  The heat index outside Algoa, a minimum-security prison, has reached a terrifying 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Even scarier, people incarcerated there report feeling hotter inside than outside.

·       There is no air conditioning in the housing units at Algoa and the materials used to build Algoa are notorious for holding and exacerbating heat.

Attorneys on the suit were from the MacArthur Justice Center.

Alexander Fundy

Sam Alexander, running in Senate 28 to replace termed Sen. Sandy Crawford is having a fundraiser on Saturday.  Interesting to see Congressman Eric Burlison as the special guest, and Sens. Mike Moon and Curtis Trent on the host committee…

Recession Watch

With President Donald Trump slowly walking back his tariff policy, Goldman Sach raised economic forecast a bit to 1% growth in 4th quarter.

Ballentine to Detroit

Summer Ballentine has left the Associated Press, and is now writing about auto issues for the Detroit News.  That leaves David Lieb as AP’s solo reported, but he’s not in the capitol full-time as he also covers national issues. 

What It Means

The steady attrition of the mainline news organizations is not news, but this latest tidbit reinforces my view that the Missouri Independent has supplanted AP as the most widely read news source in the state.  I joke that Jason Hancock, editor of the Missouri Independent, would be on my list of most powerful Missourians in politics.  But it’s only half a joke.  Whenever I stop in a small town, I always pick up the local paper – and there are always stories from the Missouri Independent in them.  Always.

Behind Every Quiet Alderman, a Vocal Wife?

Maryville Forum reports that “in a tense and sometimes contentious meeting of the Hopkins Board of Aldermen on May 5, the wife of an alderman dominated the proceedings and seemed at least once to influence her husband’s vote from the audience…”

·       Anna Mae Thompson, wife of Alderman Allan Thompson, continually and loudly commented from the audience throughout the meeting about nearly every topic discussed and interrupted often to ask direct questions of board members…

·       At the end of the meeting, her husband, Alderman Thompson, abstained from the vote to close the meeting — appearing to acquiesce to Anna Mae’s demands that the board instead address her questions and concerns…

$5K+ Contributions

AGC of MO PAC - $15,100 from Emery Sapp & Sons.

Safety and Justice Alliance - $13,802 from Decarcerate KC.

Citizens to Elect Gray - $6,150 from Citizens to Elect Gray.

Lobbyist Registrations

Tim O'Connell added Enterprise Holdings, Inc. DBA Enterprise Mobility.

David Sweeney added American Car Rental Association.

Eapen Thampy deleted Pate Group.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Maura Browning, Jamie Johnson, Beth Low, and Corey Jackson.