MOScout Daily Update: Rogers Kicks Off - Realtors Warn on Mailers - Price Transparency Backfire? - Baby Green and more…
Quick Friday update…
Rogers Kicks Off
Former Rep. Wes Rogers kicked off his campaign for Kansas City mayor last night to a big crowd with lots of energy and lots of support.
The primary isn’t until April next year. Right now, it looks like a two-person race between Rogers and fellow KC Councilman Crispin Rea.
Realtors Warn on Mailers
The Missouri Realtors are warning their members that mailers from A5 proponents they may have received “were an effort to create confusion among our membership and break our unified opposition to the proposal that could harm housing affordability and increase Missourians' cost of living.”
Amendment 5 is a triple threat on taxation:
· First, it would allow lawmakers to disregard the 2016 Taxpayer Protection Amendment backed by Missouri REALTORS®, prohibiting sales tax on services that Missourians use every day.
· Second, it could allow the legislature to ignore the 2010 amendment sponsored by REALTORS®, and approved by 83.7% of Missouri voters, barring transfer taxes on real estate.
· Third, Amendment 5 would suspend the Hancock Amendment, which requires that significant tax increases be put to a vote of the people.
Congratulations
To Maddie and Brad Green on the birth of their baby boy: Graham Stephen Green, 8 lbs., 7 ounces; 21.5 inches.
Price Transparency Raises Costs?
This paper – Mandating Transparency: Evidence from Hospital Price Disclosure – is pretty fascinating as it points to the potential for a totally counterintuitive result. Researchers found that when Massachusetts and North Carolina mandated more public disclosure of hospital prices, negotiated prices for outpatient imaging procedures rose.
The theory is that transparency may have helped hospitals and insurers see each other’s prices and use them as bargaining reference points, producing convergence at higher prices.
The conventional wisdom is that showing prices should let consumers shop around and push prices down. But in healthcare, patients often follow doctor referrals, and don’t price-shop because insurance absorbs much of the cost. So, it’s hospitals and insurers benefiting from the information.
Prison Workforce Crisis
Missouri gets a mention in an interview with Mike Thompson from the Keystone Restituere Center for Justice about “Fixing Broken Prisons.” Watch it here.
One of the discussions is about how prisons are becoming another state-government workforce crisis with lots of vacant positions – like teachers or police.
The interview specifically says Missouri is doing something notable: rethinking the corrections training academy and speeding up hiring so applicants start right away instead of getting lost in government lag time. “In Missouri, they’ve totally rethought how someone goes through a training academy so that people talk about a training academy experience which doesn’t look at all like what the job looks like on day one. They’ve changed that experience. They’ve also made sure that when you say yes to wanting to be hired, you start right away because they found that there was a lot of lag time and typical government bureaucracy of actually getting you started. And as a result, somebody else would find another job, and so they need to move faster.”
Earlier this year, Department of Corrections Director Trevor Foley testified about their staffing problem, saying its turnover rate for new hires in the first six months is 50%. As a consequence, Foley said, “We have almost 1,200 beds across the system that are offline because of staffing.”
· Asked about what makes staffing so difficult, Foley pointed to compensation: “pay is certainly a part of the recruiting and retention issue.”
· But also, “It’s often some of the little things that people don't realize about working in a prison, trying to recruit 18- to 30-year-olds in an environment where you're not allowed to have your phone. I mean, that's a huge culture shock for a lot of people… Phones are contraband within the prison.”
New PACs
Kampeter Conservative PAC was formed. It’s in support of Shane Kampeter, one of three Republicans running in House 60 to replace termed Rep. Dave Griffith. See the filing here.
Lobbyist Registrations
David Collier added Nulli Secundus Health, Inc.
Brian Bernskoetter deleted Missouri Economic Development Financing Association.
Ron Berry deleted Missouri Budget Project, Lafaver & Associates LLC, and Empower Missouri.
$5K+ Contributions
Committee to Elect Lore Tillman - $5,425 from Lori Tillman.
Birthdays
Happy birthday to Colleen Coble.
Saturday: Rep. Tara Peters and Connie Cierpiot.
Sunday: Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, Nimrod Chapel and Trent Skaggs.
MOScout Schedule
My daughter signed us up for the KT82 tomorrow morning. Say a prayer for me. What it means: No MOScout this weekend.