MOScout Daily Update: Nichols in Senate 32 - ERs Without Docs - Cierpiot Jabs Wasinger - 2027 $$$ Issues Already Looming and more…

Feb 12

So you know… State offices are closed today for Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday.

Breaking… Carter Gets Primary Challenge

Sen. Jill Carter will face a primary. I wrote about this rumor a few weeks ago but yesterday it got real: Ellen Nichols formed a candidate committee to run in Senate 32.

Nichols is a neurosurgeon, and interestingly… the wife of former Sen. Bill White – who Carter ousted in 2022. White is serving as Nichols’ treasurer.

1 Big Thing: Great Lobbying Days Ahead?

Three big issues looming in 2027 could make having a lobbyist in the building absolutely critical for many folks. As you might expect, it’s all about money...

· Budget cuts – The angst that is being felt over this year’s tight budget is just a warm-up for next year’s budget. Even if the economy picks up, it’s hard to imagine revenues jumping to cover the expected billion-dollar shortfall. Everyone will be trying to keep their program or service off the chopping block.

· Sales tax carveouts – The roadmap that the Kehoe Administration has laid out is to pass the enabling constitutional amendment this year, and then focus on implementation of the income tax phase-out in 2027. Getting rid of the income tax means increasing and broadening the sales tax. Every currently exempt service industries will try to avoid getting snagged in the new scheme. And, there are dozens of current sales tax exemptions that will resist changing as well.

· Foundation formula rewrite – This, too, is slated for next year. There will be a blueprint from the Task Force, but when it hits the legislature, it will be a knives-out fight as each district looks to preserve their own piece of the pie.

Cierpiot Jabs Wasinger

In the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Mike Cierpiot jabbed Lieutenant Governor David Wasinger over his budget request.

· I believe we’ve all seen on Facebook you talking about the swamp and your attempts to drain it. And proud of you we all are.

· But did you know that we're reducing funding for families with children with disabilities, in some cases, by 30% this year? Imagine my surprise knowing that when I saw that you're trying to grow your personal swamp by two employees, a 10% increase, I believe. Surely, you can cover these services with the people you have in place now.

· I’m going to recommend to the chairman and to this committee that we maintain your office at the funding levels and the personnel levels you had last year. And at markup, if the budget continues to deteriorate, we may have to look at that for further cuts.

Needed: Rural Docs

Rep. George Hruza’s HB 2557 seems completely reasonable. It’s a one-sentence bill.

A hospital with an emergency department shall have at least one physician on site and on duty who is responsible for the emergency department at all times the emergency department is open.

Of course, an emergency room should have a doctor on hand. It seems nonsensical to suggest otherwise. And yet that simple proposition exposes the underlying canyon in available resources between Rural Missouri and Urban Missouri.

As opponents argued: mandate this, and you may see these ERs close entirely.

Jamey Murphy, of the Missouri Hospital Association, gave the stunning stats: 6 Missouri counties have 0 doctors living in them. Those counties are: Chariton, Maries, Ralls, Shannon, Shelby, Worth.

“To staff an ER 24-7, that's, roughly 8,760 hours. So if a doctor works 2,500 hours, which is more than the usual 2,080 that I would work a year, you'd have to have 3.5 FTEs. By that standard, currently, 26% of Missouri counties do not have enough licensed physicians living in those counties to staff the ER. That's assuming that all of the physicians that live in the county want to work in the ER and that they're not family docs or on all the different career paths they could take… 78% of Missouri physicians live in St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia, and Springfield.”

And

· In prior testimony before the House Budget Committee, the Attorney General’s Office stated that 9 Missouri counties currently have no elected prosecutor.

Sales Tax on Credit Card Fees

Rep. Jeff Coleman’s HB 1707 was heard in the House Commerce Committee yesterday. It specifically exempts fees charged on credit card transactions from sales tax.

In determining any tax due under sections 144.010 to 144.525 on the gross receipts, charges incident to the extension of credit shall be specifically exempted. Charges incident to the extension of credit shall include credit card and debit card processing fees.

There has been a tussle between the Department of Revenue and business organizations on this issue, and Coleman is seeking to put it to rest – siding with business.

Ray McCarty, president of Associated Industries of Missouri, gave fist-shaking testimony: This bill just makes it extremely clear for the Department of Revenue who seems to have difficulty reading that language.

Auditor News

It was a sort of homecoming for the former budget chair, Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick, yesterday as he detailed his office’s budget to the House Budget Committee. A few nuggets from the straight-talking auditor…

· Conservation getting more scrutiny since SCOMO decision. We are getting ready to release an audit of the Department of Conservation. When the Supreme Court decided that they didn't really have to ask you guys how to spend their money, we decided to start auditing them a little more frequently.

· Lack of Cooperation Lengthened Marijuana Audit. We’re going to release the marijuana audit. It’s taken a long time... But there was not a high level of cooperation in that audit and that dates back several years. So sometimes we get cooperation. And I mean, I would say a lot of times we do, but there's times where we don’t get a lot of cooperation.

· CPA Crisis Looming? We have a declining number of certified public accountants in the office. We’re down to 19. And 13 of those could retire, or are eligible, or working part time for the office. And so we're going to have a lot of retiring CPAs in the next ten years and we do need to backfill that. We have some people that are working on the test, but it’s a particularly high requirement to become a CPA. You have to essentially have a master’s degree and you have to take a four-part test… frankly, given the compensation that's sometimes a heavy lift.

Branson Police to Help ICE

Springfield News Leader reports that “Branson's Board of Alderman unanimously approved an agreement that will bestow upon Branson Police Department officers the powers to carry out immigration enforcement. The vote came after the tumultuous conclusion of about three hours of public comment, when a contingent of those who spoke against the contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement walked out in the middle of board comments, shaming board members who they said failed to consider public sentiment.”

$5K+ Contributions

KC Forward Progress - $50,000 from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City.

Lobbyist Registrations

Adam Eathington added National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Catalyst added Cambium Learning, Inc.

Lou Hamilton added Downtown North STL Community Improvement District Inc.

Shawn Rhoads added Professional Towing Association of Missouri.

Shanon Hawk deleted eBay, Inc.

Happy Birthday

Happy birthdays to Louise Tonkovich.

MOScout Schedule

I’ll be off this weekend for the Presidents’ Day weekend.