How will Parson deal with a business thumbing its nose at the order underlying his Show Me Strong Recovery Plan? Restaurants may offer dining-in services, provided that the limitations on social distancing and other precautionary public health measures, including proper spacing of at least six feet (6’) between tables, lack of communal seating areas to parties that are not connected, and having no more than ten (10) people at a single table, are properly adhered to.

· Does he just say they’re not exercising personal responsibility and shrug his shoulders?

Sain Withdraws

Rep. Matt Sain withdrew his filing for House 14. 

COVID Dashboard

The governor’s office unveiled a new COVID dashboard. See it here. This has been reported for weeks, but the one inescapable fact in the data is that the virus has hit African Americans in disproportionally hard. Black Missourians account for 33% of all COVID cases, and 38% of the deaths.

Senate 29: CL PAC Responds

One day after Peter Herschend sent $10K to a pro-David Cole PAC, the Conservative Caucus’ CL PAC responded by sending $10K to the Table Rock Conservative PAC, a pro-Mike Moon PAC.

Cleaner Lawsuit

Just like that, CLEANER is in court. The defenders of CLEAN put a copy of the lawsuit up on their website. The suit attacks the summary language. See it here.

MDC Seeks Relevancy Chief

The Missouri Department of Conservation seeks “Relevancy Chief.”  Lead the development and implementation of a new Department program focused on the engagement and service to broader constituencies…

Parson on LIHTC

The mighty Jason Rosenbaum interviews Governor Mike Parson about restarting the state incentives for the low-income housing tax credit. Parson doesn’t commit, but says everything is on the table for getting the Missouri economy going again. Listen to it here.

House Passes Priorities

The House passed two big priorities yesterday.

· They passed SJR 38, handled by Rep. Dean Plocher. This is also known as “CLEANER,” the GOP plan to replace the CLEAN Missouri redistricting plan.

· The passed Rep. Holly Rehder’s prescription drug monitoring program.

PDMP Bill Stripped Down

The conference committee substitute on the prescription drug monitoring program appears to have removed the fentanyl provision which caused some House Dems to balk. See it here.

On the conference committee: Sens. Luetkemeyer, Sater, O’Laughlin, Rizzo and Sifton; and Reps. Rehder, Stephens (128), Kolkmeyer, Roberts (77), and McCreery.

Sen. Mike Bernskoetter’s SCR 32 “urges the Missouri Congressional delegation to support legislation for the declassification of POW/MIA records.” It passed the Senate unanimously, and yesterday passed the House with only one No vote. The NO vote was…. Rep. Andrew McDaniel.

The longer it takes the economy to rebound, the more vexing the state’s budget problems will be going forward.

· From the Weekender: 58.3% of lobbyists surveyed are “Very concerned” about the state of the budget, believing the “impact from current crisis will extend beyond this fiscal year.” And only 12.5 think it’s “one-year turbulence.”

Remington/MOScout Poll: Senate 33

When 92% of your primary voters approve of the job the president’s doing, and as many of them considered themselves “Trump Republicans” as “evangelical Republicans” and “traditional Republicans” combines, it’s pretty clear what your campaign messaging is going to be….

Axios this morning has a chart of state revenue declines, calling it an “economic death spiral.” Missouri is near the top/bottom. See it here. Yes, it’s bad. But probably not that bad. Remember, there’s probably a pretty big chuck of the drop that’s just been deferred until July because we moved our tax deadline. And in theory, folks who are getting a refund filed as usual while folks who owe will wait until the summer.

Grain Belt Restrictions Repelled in Senate

The effort to prohibit eminent domain in the Grain Belt project had its first run in the Senate last night.  Sen. Mike Berskoetter added the provision to a Senate substitute to HB 1330.  A variety of senators from different parts of the ideological spectrum spoke against the proposal. 

Pfizer COVID Vaccine Trial

Press release: Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE announced today that the first participants have been dosed in the U.S. in the Phase 1/2 clinical trial for the BNT162 vaccine program to prevent COVID-19. The trial is part of a global development program, and the dosing of the first cohort in Germany was completed last week…

Post-Dispatch reports that “County Executive Sam Page said in a post on Twitter that Pfizer has chosen its St. Louis County facility to produce the possible vaccine.”

Ashcroft Reopens Campaign

On Twitter yesterday Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft announced he was resuming campaign activities. With the lifting of the statewide Stay-at-Home order in Missouri on May 4th, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who suspended his campaign during the outset of the Covid 19 crisis, announced he will resume campaign activities on Monday. #MoLeg #MoSOS

April Revenues

April state revenues were 54% below those in April 2019. The dramatic economic contraction is to blame, but also extension of Tax Day to July 15. That pushed a huge chuck of revenue into the next fiscal year.

MedEx Campaign Submits Signatures

From the press release: At a time when access to healthcare is needed more than ever, a group of Missouri doctors and Medicaid expansion advocates on Friday submitted more than twice as many signatures from Missourians as required to put the initiative directly before voters in November.

GenLaws Approves CLEANER

The House General Laws Committee approved “CLEANER,” a reversal of the redistricting process known as CLEAN Missouri. The hearing room was mostly empty. This brings the epic showdown over redistricting one step closer to the ballot box.

It’s A Normal Session After All

After the talk of asking folks to stay away and focusing on COVID-19 related items, the state legislature has embraced a wide-open agenda for the final weeks of session.