MOScout Weekender: Property Law Gets Legal Challenge - Hallway on Voters Versus Legislature - Who Won the Week and more…

SB3 Gets Legal Challenges

A framework to limit personal property tax in Senate Bill 3, from the first special session this year, has drawn a legal challenge.  This bill also contained the stadium subsidies.

The lawsuit was filed by taxpayers, school districts, and a fire district.  See the lawsuit here.

Without rhyme or reason, Section 137.1055 separates out the 114 different counties of Missouri into three distinct categories. 72. Section 137.1055 treats those three distinct categories of counties differently, imposing on some, but not all, obligations related to elections and property tax credits.

Among the claims, the lawsuit says it violates the constitutional prohibition of “special laws.”

There is no conceivable state of facts that connects the five-percent counties.  There is no conceivable state of facts that connects the zero-percent counties. There is no conceivable state of facts that connects the excluded counties.

·       Jim Layton is the attorney.  He has argued more than 90 times before the Missouri Supreme Court.

World Cup Out of Bounds?

AP reports that “European soccer body UEFA is moving toward a vote to suspend its member federation Israel over the war in Gaza… Such a step would prevent Israeli national and club teams from playing in international competitions including next year’s World Cup… It is unclear whether world soccer body FIFA will support excluding Israel given the close relations between FIFA’s leader, Gianni Infantino, and President Donald Trump.”

·       Republican consultant Gregg Keller, on Twitter, warns that “existing Missouri law (anti-BDS legislation) would likely make it near-impossible for any [European] teams to play #WorldCup2026 matches in Kansas City.”

MOScout’s Hallway Index: Voters Vs Legislature

I asked lobbyists, “On these three issues (IP changes, Abortion ban, New congressional districts), how many will the Republican legislature prevail on?”  28 replies…

RESULTS

1. 0-3 (they get swept)… 57.1%

2. 1-3 (decent batting average)… 28.6%

3. 2-3 (aint bad)… 10.7%

4. 3-3. (MOGOP proves they have their fingers on the pulse of MO)… 3.6%

Sample of Comments

·       None of these have financial backing from Republicans. Zero. In fact, IP has Republican money working against them. Same for abortion. MRL won't spend a dime fighting this. Too busy fighting Republicans on purity.

·       Maybe abortion

·       They'll get swept on IP and New congressional districts. They may win the Abortion ban, especially if gender affirming care stays in the mix, unfortunately.

·       They may get maps, but that’s it.

·       Zero (0) But it won’t stop them from continuing to try.

·       The map gets overturned. The rest stick.

·       Too easy to put together a people vs politicians campaign to oppose the entire slate.

·       Total waste of the senate.

·       I think they will prevail only on redistricting

·       New Congressional districts, but they get tossed in the courts

·       The Clean Missouri (the first one) showing republicans how ballot candy works is going to come back and bite Democrats in the ass.

Who Won the Week?

Brian Williams – Adds $100,000 to PACs as he revs up his fundraising for the St. Louis County Executive race.

School choicers – By shoveling the MOScholars money out the door quickly, they may have made MNEA’s lawsuit moot.

Tracy McCreery – Dual re-election endorsements from both Police and Firefighting organizations months before filing even opens are a huge step towards taking this district off the table.   

Brittany Robbins – Gets out of the lobbying racket.  But don’t call her “retired.”  She still has a couple irons in the fire.

Find a downloadable version here.

Remington/MOScout Poll

No poll this week.

Gubby Appts

Governor Mike Kehoe announced four appointments…

·       Robert Goodrich was reappointed to the Missouri Propane Safety Commission.

·       Rachel Melson Marino and Ryan Kruger were appointed to the Drug Utilization Review Board.

·       Andrea Weisenborn was appointed to the Missouri Developmental Disabilities Council.

$5K+ Contributions

MoCannTrade PAC - $10,000 from GRC Moberly LLC.

Missouri C PAC - $25,000 from Protection Plus LLC.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Richard Moore, David Sweeney, and Paul Wagner.

Sunday: Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick, Rep. Betsy Fogle, Alix Cossette, Tommie Pierson Jr., Phil Arnzen, Nathan Cooper, and Dana Loesch.