MOScout Daily Update: How Bills Die By Chamber - Festus in WSJ - Installments for Seniors - Fogle in STL and more…
Three weeks left in session…
Most Bills Never Start The Process
Just a reminder as we start the final sprint for the finish… Most bills never leave the starting gate.
By my count there were 2,037 House Bills and Joint Resolutions. 60% of those never were referred to committee.
As of this morning 1,213 are still sitting in the Speaker’s Office, unreferred. The speaker essentially kills them without even a murmur. He must, according to House rules, refer every bill to a committee. So, in a couple weeks, on the final day of session, those 1,200+ bills will get referred.
Another 77 bills were referred to a committee, but never received a hearing – again, effectively killed, though this time by the committee chairs. So far, of those 2,000+ filed bills and resolutions, 15 have been truly agreed and finally passed.
The numbers for the Senate are different – but similar. Of the 1,033 Senate Bills and Joint Resolutions filed, only 114 haven’t been referred. That’s only about 10%, as opposed to the 60% of House bills. However, over half the Senate bills that are referred to committee haven’t received a hearing. That’s 563 bills still sitting in committee, awaiting a hearing. So if you add the unreferred and the no-hearings, it ends up being about 65% – about the same as the House numbers. It’s just the committee chairs who filtered the bills on the Senate side.
Festus Featured in WSJ
The Wall Street Journal reports on the war against data centers from the front lines: Festus, Missouri. Read it here.
· After people in this St. Louis suburb voted out four local council members who supported plans for a new data center, dozens of residents packed City Hall to make clear they weren’t done. New council members who opposed the project were sworn in to cheers, and some in the crowd then taunted and booed the mayor who supported the data center. “You’re next!” a woman jeered.
· More than 90 local governments across the country have enacted or are considering measures to limit construction of data centers out of concern that these properties will sap their communities’ electrical power and boost utility bills… Probably nowhere in the U.S. has the backlash reached a more fevered pitch than in Festus, a city of 14,000 near the Mississippi River and about 30 miles from St. Louis.
Installments Instead of Tax Sales
In the Senate Select Committee on Tax Reform last week Rep. Hardy Billington’s HB 2944 was heard.
One interesting nugget was how simply allowing installment payments throughout the year can prevent tax delinquency. From the bill: The township collector, or other county designee authorized to collect property taxes, shall have the same authority as provided to county collectors under section 139.053 to accept partial or installment payments of real and personal property taxes prior to delinquency.
· Phil Rogers, Andrew County Collector, testified: “I’ve taken 50 people off tax sale and put them onto prepayments.”
‘Everyone Has An App’
On the floor, during the budget debate last week, former Appropriations Chair Lincoln Hough looking over the lines of House Budget Bill 5 noticed a $2 million item: “To procure a single cloud-based technology solution for telematics, in-vehicle safety, and maintenance to digitally transform fleet and consolidated agency operations… From General Revenue Fund … $2,000,000”
He asked: “What is what is the fleet management tool that we're getting for $2 million?”
Appropriations Chair Rusty Black answered: “Fleet management tool is electronic tracking of state vehicles, so that you know the miles… it's a maintenance schedule tool or application.”
· Hough got dismissive: “So it's an app?... I probably couldn't tell you on four or five hands how many meetings I had with people who were trying to sell the state apps… Everyone has an app… And everyone thinks the state should buy their app.”
Fogle Collects STL $$
Rep. Betsy Fogle had a fundraiser Friday afternoon at Rockwell Beer Garden in St. Louis City’s Francis Park. It was hosted by MO AFL-CIO President Jake Hummel, and Reps. Steve Butz and Nick Kimble. In attendance were Sens. Doug Beck and Tracy McCreery as well as former Sen. Ryan McKenna, Rep. Ian Mackey, former Rep. Matt Sain, lobbyist Jackie Bardgett, Wesley Bell’s Deputy Chief of Staff Jordan Blase, donor Shayn Prapaisilp, and a bunch of the South City heavy-hitters: former Mayor Francis Slay, Collector of Revenue Gregory F.X. Daly, Sarah Wood Martin, Jeff Smith, Mark Dalton, Ald. Shane Cohen, and Party Chair Russ Carnahan.
What It Means
The Senate 30 race is clearly the big race in the Senate this cycle and it’s attracting attention from across the state.
Candidate Withdrawals
Alec Rodgers, Republican, withdrew from House 38 – where Democratic Rep. Marty Jacobs is running for re-election.
$5K+ Contributions
American Dream PAC (pro-Kehoe) - $10,000 from Randy Brown.
Respect MO Voters Campaign - $50,000 from Kent Thiry (Denver, CO).
Her Health, Her Future PAC - $26,025 from Mark Travis.
Her Health, Her Future PAC - $25,000 from John Conoyer.
Her Health, Her Future PAC - $26,025 from Scott Engelbrecht.
Lobbyist Registrations
Jewell Patek added The Cordish Companies, and Samsara Inc.
Rodney Boyd, Kate Casas, and Brian Grace deleted Health Forward Foundation.
Michael Grote deleted Western Governors University.
Happy Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Reps. Michael Davis and Ann Kelley, Ryan McKenna, Tony Dugger, Chris Vas, and Wiley Price IV.