MOScout Daily Update: Realtors Score Court Win - Burks Announces - St. Charles Aims At Grays - MU Health Monopoly? and more…
‘Ballot Candy’ Stripped From Proposed IP
It is unusual these days for a Cole County Circuit Court judge to rule from the bench immediately after hearing arguments in the circuit’s high-profile cases dealing with legislative and state government matters. But that’s what Judge Daniel Green did yesterday afternoon.
After an hour of listening to arguments, Green ruled that three bullet points of legislatively written “ballot candy” should be stripped from House Joint Resolution 3.
HJR3 is the state constitutional amendment proposed by lawmakers that would change the state’s initiative petition process. Rather than the current simple majority, it would require majorities in each of Missouri’s eight congressional districts for passage. Failure in a single district would defeat any proposal. It’s a threshold most observers consider to be incredibly difficult.
The Missouri Realtors’ Missourians for Fair Governance campaign committee backed the legal challenge to HJR3. Realtors’ superlawyers Chuck Hatfield and Greta Bax argued in court and in briefs that HJR3’s three “ballot candy” bullet points were written by lawmakers because of their political appeal; those three provisions merely duplicate provisions already in law. They pointed to a 2025 appeals court ruling that a ballot summary statement is misleading if it “leads voters to erroneously believe a measure would change existing law when it did not.”
The ballot summary bullets Green is deleting…
· “Stop foreign nationals and foreign adversaries of the United States States from providing funding to influence ballot measure elections, and allow criminal prosecution of violators…”
· “Punish initiative petition signature fraud as a crime …,”
· “Require public hearings to be held to get public comment before initiative petitions are placed on the ballot.”
Green told the Realtors’ lawyers to draft revised ballot summary language and submit it to him by February 27 for consideration. Green said he would issue a formal ruling with his own language for the ballot summary by March 4.
Scott Charton, spokesman for the Realtors’ Missourians for Fair Governance committee: “We are grateful the court agreed with our arguments and is stripping the misleading, unfair and prejudicial ballot candy from this bad measure. Missourians deserve clarity in what they are voting on, especially when they are being asked by lawmakers to give up their citizen initiative power, a constitutional right they reserved for themselves more than a century ago. We will continue building a campaign coalition to protect our citizens’ initiative petition rights and defeat this terrible proposal at the polls.”
· Lead consultants for the Realtors’ opposition campaign are Scott Charton, Jon Ratliff and David Barklage.
St. Charles To Target Grays
The Post-Dispatch reports that the “St. Charles County Prosecutor's office said it will start cracking down on illegal gambling machines following a federal judge's recent decision. Starting April 1, any person or business with a ‘no-chance’ gambling machine in St. Charles County will be criminally prosecuted.”
And
Attorney General Catherine Hanaway offered more tough talk on VLTs in the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday. Asked when bars and gas stations should remove the illegal gaming devices…
Today. They're illegal. Law enforcement's coming after them. They should start pulling them out… We can't get everywhere all at once, but we're gonna look at the establishments that have the most machines [and] start there. And we're not just gonna go after the retailers... We're gonna work up the chain to those who are distributing them and manufacturing them.
What It Means
Between Judge John Ross’ ruling, the attention of Hanaway, word of the Feds investigating, and now local prosecutors joining in, the legal tide is moving against the gray machines. I would assume this makes it increasingly unlikely that casinos will seek a compromise on the VLT bill, but rather will attempt to kill it in the Senate.
Fitz: ARPA Fraud Report Coming
Also in yesterday’s Senate Appropriations Committee, Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick teased an upcoming report… “We’re going to release a report on a city that got about $100,000 of ARPA money. The city council and the mayor just divvied it up between themselves and their city clerk… and gave themselves all bonuses. Used 100% of it… just to give themselves bonuses.”
MU Monopoly?
Rep. Jeff Knight’s HB 3170 had a hearing this week in Special Committee on Rural Issues. It gives MU Health Care antitrust immunity when acquiring or partnering with hospitals within the Mid-MO 25-county region.
The idea is that if MU can acquire struggling rural hospitals and integrate them into their system, it will reduce hospital closures and increase rural services.
· David Willis, testifying for the Missouri Health Plan Association, noted that there’s “nothing in the legislation that specifies that the hospital being acquired has to be struggling. It could just be an acquisition of competition.”
What It Means
It’s another indication of the fragile state of rural hospitals.
Burks Announces
Press release: Today, U.S. Navy veteran, Columbia businessman, and fifth-generation Missourian Taylor Burks announced his candidacy for Congress in Missouri’s new 5th Congressional District… “I believe in the promise of America and that our best days are ahead,” Burks said…
· His endorsements included former U.S. Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer as well as seven state representatives – Bill Irwin, Sherri Gallick, John Martin, Rodger Reedy, Tim Taylor, Don Mayhew, and Willard Haley – and Cole County Prosecutor Locke Thompson.
Help Wanted
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education seeks Chief Counsel. Supervise and oversee the work of the Chief Counsel legal team, comprised of attorneys and legal support staff positions. Serve as primary department legal contact for all legal matters related to and coming before to the State Board of Education. Coordinate the Department’s legal response on all matters, and serve as liaison to the Office of the Attorney General. Provide legal support in the form of memos, trainings, presentations, research, and other assistance as requested to members of the State Board, Commissioner of Education, Deputy Commissioners of Education, as well as for agency staff reporting to these positions… $119,342 per year. See the posting here.
$5K+ Contributions
A Better Missouri Political Action Committee - $100,000 from Anheuser-Busch Cos.
Stop the Ban - $100,000 from Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes.
Committee To Elect Steve Ehlmann - $10,000 from John Simon.
Committee To Elect Steve Ehlmann - $10,000 from Robert Blitz.
Committee To Elect Steve Ehlmann - $10,000 from Eric Holland.
Tschudi for Judge - $20,000 from Tiffany Tschudi.
Lobbyist Registrations
Holly Rehder and Blenda Dos Santos added MO Hemp Trade Association; and deleted Missouri Hemp Association.
Rob Vescovo deleted KLEO-Inc.
Happy Birthday
Happy birthdays to Doug Galloway, Ben Baker, Matt Bartle, and Kenny Biermann.