MOScout Daily Update: Bean Asks O’Laughlin To Reject Wasinger Plan - What Wasinger Means - Prop A Talks Stall - Graves’ Car Tax and more…

Exclusive: Bean Asks O’Laughlin To Reject Wasinger Plan

In a letter to Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin, Sen. Jason Bean expresses disappointment in LG Dave Wasinger’s views on the Senate.  Read the letter here.

·       I am proud of how our freshman senators on both sides of the aisle have learned and embraced Senate decorum, rules, and tradition. Regrettably, the same cannot be said for our new Lieutenant Governor.  Lt. Governor Wasinger’s remarks indicate an unfamiliarity with the rules and tradition of our body…

·       I respectfully request that as the elected leader of the Missouri Senate and our Republican caucus, you direct non-partisan State Senate staff and our majority caucus staff to not take direction or participate in efforts by the Lieutenant Governor to change or influence Missouri Senate rules and the legislative process.

·       Previous Lieutenant Governors have benefited from experience in the Senate and presided over the chamber with a strong respect for and understanding of the rules and procedures of our chamber and the importance of relationship building and tradition to a functioning legislature.

And

MOIndy’s Rudi Keller writes a history of LG-Senate power struggles.  Read it here.  If Wasinger tries to exert some sort of authority over the Senate, he would run headlong into a five-decade old Missouri Supreme Court ruling that diminished the already meager role of the lieutenant governor… The opinion was issued in November 1973, just before the start of the 1974 session…  The lieutenant governor may hold the gavel if he or she wishes, but cannot use any power inherent in the role of presiding officer because those duties had been assigned elsewhere under the rules.

What Wasinger Means

One Republican says there’s a message in LG Dave Wasinger’s speech which should not be ignored: Wasinger won’t be successful in securing any rules changes due to the entrenched internal resistance, but he’s 100% on the right side of where a strong majority of Missouri Republicans are. 20 years of majorities and supermajorities and what conservative wins do we have to show for it?? Nothing that has put Missouri on the map as a national leader in the conservative movement. Our senate leaders turned us into the party of lobbyists (Gibbons/Dempsey/Rowden to name a few) and away from ideas. There’s a reason Eigel pulled 32% in the governor’s primary with just a fraction of the campaign funds that Kehoe had. It’s because conservatives aren’t happy with the status quo in Jefferson City.

Driving the Week

The center-ring event this week is the budget.  House and Senate budget leaders will huddle and try to bridge their differing budgets.  While the Senate eliminated Governor Mike Kehoe’s general revenue funding of ESA, I’d guess he gets some slimmed down amount in a compromise.

·       One reason the wrangling will be relatively easy: the state continues to have a healthy fund balance.  It’s easier to compromise when there’s enough money to say OK.

Prop A Talks Still Stalled

There still haven’t been an formal talks on finding a Proposition A compromise since they broke off in the middle of the night over a week ago.

It could be posturing, but some are thinking that Republican Senate leaders Cindy O’Laughlin and Tony Luetkemeyer are OK with forcing a change to the law through a PQ next week.

Forces in the mix…

·       Some business groups, sensing this is a possibility, are pushing for more than Dems would have accepted.

·       Because it’s been years since the Senate has experienced a PQ, folks don’t understand how poisonous it is to relationships.  It doesn’t wipe clean when a new session starts.  Dems won’t forgive and forget that they were willing to talk and GOPers decided to PQ instead.

·       One observer: The situation needs the governor – or another honest broker from the outside.  “The politics and policy are ripe for a deal, just missing the players.”

Graves $20 Car Tax

Politico reports…

·       GOP Rep. Sam Graves, the veteran chair of the House Transportation Committee, proposed a $20 annual fee for most passenger cars in America, pitched as a new way to pay for American roads and bridges that doesn’t depend on a tax on gasoline.

·       The proposal had a lifespan of less than 24 hours — when his committee marked up its piece of the GOP megabill intended to fund President Donald Trump’s domestic priorities, it stripped out the provision.

·       Yet it was still monumental in some ways. This signaled the first actual movement on a seemingly intractable issue from someone in a position to do something about fixing the structural deficit between revenues and spending in years, maybe even decades...

·       But implementing a new tax aimed at drivers is touching a political third rail in a car-loving nation…

MO Population Numbers

From the Census’ 2024 population estimates…

·       Fastest growing county: Lincoln County, up 10%, to 65,888.

·       Fastest declining county: DeKalb, down about 14%, to 9,884.

·       Largest county: St. Louis County.  Though with a 1% decline in population they’re back below 1 million residents, at 992,929.

·       Smallest county: Worth County with 1,872 people.  That’s down about 5% from 2000.

Lobbyist Registrations

Ron Berry added Tenex Software Solutions.

Peter Mayer added FWD.us.                     

Andrew Yates added ALEC Action.       

George Oestreich deleted Relias.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Michael Hafner, John Hickey, and David Day.