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Jay Ashcroft pitches biggest reorganization of Missouri’s finances in state historyby Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent A February poll of Republican primary voters showed Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft had the most recognizable name in the race for governor. That shouldn’t be surprising. Ashcroft has held statewide office for eight years, and his father John ran statewide seven times, winning five elections for state attorney general, governor and U.S. senator before becoming U.S. Attorney General under President George W. Bush. Jay Ashcroft was born the year his father was appointed state auditor in 1973 and spent his teenage years living in the Governor’s Mansion. He learned that everything the family did was news when his mother got his dad in trouble by calling the state librarian on Mother’s Day so his brother could finish a homework assignment. “When I was a little kid, I made the decision that I wasn’t going to go into politics,” he said in an interview with The Independent after announcing his candidacy. “I said, ‘I’m never going to go into politics. I’m never going to be an attorney. I’m going to have a real job.’ Famous last words.” So first at the Merchant Marine Academy, where he did not do well, then later at Missouri University of Science and Technology, where he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering management, Ashcroft stuck with his vow. He worked first at a defense contractor and later as a teacher of mechanical engineering and engineering technology at St. Louis Community College. But he eventually did study law – at St. Louis University – and went to work in the law firm his father founded after leaving public life. Then politics beckoned, though just like his father, his first race didn’t go well. His 2014 bid for a St. Louis County state Senate seat ended in defeat. He bounced back two years later when he was elected secretary of state, getting the second largest majority of all Republicans on the statewide ballot. He won a second term in 2020. Now he’s set his sights on following his father into the governor’s mansion. If he wins, he’ll be the first son of a governor elected to the office since John Sappington Marmaduke in 1884. Locked in a three-way battle for the GOP nomination with Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and state Sen. Bill Eigel, Ashcroft hopes voters see how he has used his power as secretary of state to advance a conservative agenda. He’s implemented rules requiring libraries to obtain parental consent for materials their children borrow — or face a loss of state funding. And he’s being sued for imposing rules on financial advisers requiring them to get investor consent for making a company’s stand on climate action or other socially driven issues — also known as ESG for environmental social governance — a factor in an investment decision. Perhaps his highest profile official action led to the court battle over ballot language for a proposal to make abortion a state constitutional right. When the language was challenged, Ashcroft took the rare step of officially joining the legal team defending it — a fight he ultimately lost. It was in the midst of that fight, however, that he won the endorsement of the state’s largest anti-abortion group, Missouri Right to Life. Outside the strict duties of his office, in recent years Ashcroft has been testifying before legislative committees in favor of bills that would ban certain medical treatments for transgender minors and ban foreign ownership of farmland, among others. And he became highly involved in the unsuccessful effort to redraw Missouri’s congressional maps in a way that eliminated a Democratic seat in Kansas City. In the run up to the Aug. 6 primary, The Independent asked Ashcroft a series of questions with one theme — what would Missouri be like if he becomes governor? Here’s some of what he said:
Budget and taxes
Like both his major opponents, Ashcroft wants to eliminate the state income tax. And like Eigel, he wants to repeal the 2021 gas tax increase. The 2021 increase was the first state fuel tax increase since 1992, when John Ashcroft signed a bill adding 4 cents a gallon. The 2021 increase was passed with strong backing from Kehoe. His plan, Ashcroft said, is to cut spending and reorganize the state tax system so more money from earmarked sources is placed in the general revenue fund. “I truly think the government’s doing too much,” Ashcroft said. “Looking at COVID, we were spending the same amount of money but the government was seemingly shut down and life went along fine.” In the eight years since Republicans took control of the governor’s office, the state budget has increased from $27.5 billion, with $9.7 billion coming from general revenue in fiscal 2017, to $51.6 billion and $15.1 billion from general revenue in the current year. The top income tax rate is currently 4.8% and in the fiscal year that ended June 30, the personal income tax accounted for 65% of general revenue collections. There are future tax cuts, depending on revenue increases, that would drop the top rate to 4.5%. The other two categories of money funding state operations are federal funds, often requiring a state match, and “other” funds, totaling $12.1 billion, generated by taxes and fees for specialized purposes. “We want to go back to the people and say you have these designated funds,” Ashcroft said. “We’d like you to allow us to put those into general revenue to spend as the state needs and in return for that will give you an immediate decrease in your income tax for giving us that flexibility.” If enacted, Ashcroft’s proposal would be the biggest reorganization of state government finances in state history. It would require intense legislative work, followed by one or more statewide votes. Bringing dedicated funds into general revenue would eliminate earmarked funding for conservation and state parks and soil conservation. It would also end a 1982 sales tax that provides $1,513 per pupil to school districts and the motor fuel tax fund, which took in $1 billion. Gambling taxes from casinos and the lottery are worth about $750 million annually, money that is dedicated to education needs. Putting the money under the control of the governor and lawmakers, Ashcroft said, will lead to greater oversight. “In the road fund, the way it’s done, there is no accountability for how those funds are spent,” Ashcroft said. “But when you put them in general revenue, then the legislature can have oversight over those and we the people can really be involved in making sure those funds are being spent correctly.” Through a combination of budget cuts and reorganization, Ashcroft said the income tax can be put on a “glide path” to elimination. He’s not going to specify any cuts during the campaign, Ashcroft said. “I’m not gonna roll all of that out right now,” Ashcroft said. “What I have done is shown that it’s eminently possible because of the number of dollars.”
Crime
Ashcroft’s proposals involve a multi-pronged approach to crime — more police on the streets, more investment in mental health services and local incarceration for some offenders. He wants the state to support the hiring of 1,000 new police officers, Ashcroft said. The goal would be to increase the Missouri State Highway Patrol to its full strength of 1,064 troopers and help local agencies attract new officers. “There are a whole lot of other things that we can do to draw people that are officers elsewhere and say, if you’re willing to serve the public, you want to be a public servant, Missouri is the place where you want to do it,” Ashcroft said. Under the Missouri Constitution, the legislature is prohibited from requiring a “new activity or service or an increase in the level of any activity or service beyond that required by existing law” without paying for it with state funds. Staffing shortages in local agencies mean they are under strength and the state can help without having to pay the full cost, Ashcroft said. “There probably will be some financial support from the state but you also have to understand there are other things the state needs to do,” Ashcroft said. Statewide, Missouri State Highway Patrol statistics show that both violent crimes and property crimes declined in 2023 compared to 2022. FBI data, however, shows both violent and property crime rates in Missouri have been higher than the national average for the past decade. In addition to increasing the number of police patrolling Missouri’s streets and highways, Ashcroft said he wants to address mental health issues that lead to arrests. In February there were approximately 300 people in county jails awaiting a bed in a state mental health facility and state mental health officials forecast it will be 500 by the end of the year. The Department of Mental Health faces major staffing shortages with more than one-third licensed practical nurse slots unfilled, two out of every five jobs for psychiatrists unfilled and fewer than one-third of licensed clinical social worker slots filled. Missouri should invest more in community mental health programs that can provide help before people are in crisis, Ashcroft said. “We’re already incurring a cost for these people, but we’re incurring it in such a way that we don’t incentivize the reduction of the costs or getting these people help,” he said. Over the past decade, the number of people in state custody has gone down by about one-third, from an average of 31,442 in 2012 to 2014 to an average of 23,409 in the 2020-2022 period. Missouri closed a prison in 2019 and housing units in others during 2020 to save money on partially used facilities. Despite that reduction, deaths in state prisons have increased from an average of 89 per year to 122 per year, with 135 deaths in 2023. Four corrections officers are charged with murder of an inmate at Jefferson City Correctional Center in December and the warden was fired. One issue for the state is staffing shortages, Ashcroft said. Many prisons are in rural areas where there is a limited ability to recruit correction officers. His solution, he said, is to house some offenders in local facilities. Federal agencies house their prisoners in county jails and the payments help defer local costs, he said. “They don’t want to do that for the state right now because the state doesn’t pay what it costs to house those individuals,” Ashcroft said. The state could pay more, and support regional facilities, he said. There would also be a benefit for the families of people who are incarcerated, Ashcroft said. “That might be better if their families are there,” he said. “Does that mean that you see your children more?”
Family legacy
The Ashcroft name means a lot in southwest Missouri, where John Ashcroft began his political career and Robert Ashcroft, Jay’s grandfather, was the first president of Evangel College, said state Rep. Bill Owen of Springfield. The family still owns land near Willard. Ashcroft’s father hasn’t taken a major role in the campaign, but he did make a video attacking Kehoe over land ownership by Chinese companies. And he shows up in campaign photos on occasion. “The family is so ingrained in the community and in the area, people just feel really comfortable with him down here,” Owen said. On the campaign trail, Ashcroft’s foes have accused him of running mainly on his famous name. After Ashcroft said at a recent debate that his father wasn’t happy about his opposition to public funding of professional sports stadiums, Eigel was ready with a rejoinder: “Jay, be a little easy on your dad, you need that last name.” Jay Ashcroft has created his own identity, separate from his family, Owen added. “Some people would be swallowed up by the shadow,” he said. “And I don’t think he has been. On his own merits, he’s been able to stand out on his own.” In 1998, as he considered a White House bid, John Ashcroft wrote a book he titled “Lessons from a Father to his Son.” The biggest lesson he learned from his father, Jay Ashcroft said, is the honor in public service. “It was ordained by God before time began the fact that public service is one of the, if not the, greatest things you can do in life because you spend your time making life better for others instead of just elevating yourself,” Ashcroft said. “And the idea of integrity of character, and how valuable it is to have a good name, and no matter what you do, to protect them.” GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
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Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: [email protected]. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and X.
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Missouri among worst states for women’s overall health, reproductive care, study findsby Anna Spoerre, Missouri Independent Missouri women have more limited access to health care and worse outcomes than any other state in the Midwest, a new study of the nation’s health care system found. Missouri ranks 40th out of 51 states plus the District of Columbia on the 2024 state scorecard on women’s health and reproductive care, published by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation focused on health care issues. The study assessed and compared 32 pieces of information derived primarily from public data sources in 2022, which was after most of the major effects of COVID had been felt, but before most abortion bans had really started to impact data findings, the creators of the scorecard said. Missouri continues to see maternal and infant mortality rates, breast and cervical cancer death rates, preterm births, congenital syphilis and depression leading up to or during pregnancy at rates that are higher than the national average. There are more women in Missouri between the ages of 18 and 44 reporting they hadn’t seen a doctor in the past year because of the cost than all but 10 other states. “One thing is absolutely clear,” Joe Betancourt, president of the Commonwealth Fund, told reporters when the study was published last week. “Women’s Health in the U.S. is in a very fragile state.” Missouri ranked among the states with the lowest low-risk c-section rates, postpartum depression and up-to-date pneumonia vaccines for post-menopausal women. But it fared among the worst nationally for breast and cervical cancer deaths, up-to-date pap smears, and mental health among women ages 18 to 64. It also ranked poorly when analyzing access to abortion clinics. Nearly every abortion became illegal in Missouri in 2022. A citizen-led ballot measure is hoping to enshrine abortion rights in the Missouri constitution. “We are seeing a deep and likely growing geographic divide in U.S. women’s ability to access vital health services and maintain their health,” said Sara Collins, a co-author on the Commonwealth Fund study. “Particularly among women of reproductive age.” Ashley Kuykendall, director of service delivery for the Missouri Family Health Council Inc., a nonprofit working to strengthen health care access across the state, said one of the most stark findings of the report was the combination of lack of access to wraparound care paired with poor health outcomes. But solutions exist, she said. One such solution:a women’s health omnibus bill that failed to pass in the statehouse this year despite widespread bipartisan support, that would have expanded birth control coverage, increased congenital syphilis testing and eased access to mammograms and STI testing. “The state legislature has an incredible power and responsibility to support better care for people across the reproductive health spectrum,” Kuykendall said. “Especially, as this report highlights, for folks who are pregnant or postpartum.”
Health and reproductive care outcomes
Missouri ranked 43 of 51 for this category, which includes maternal and infant mortality and physical and mental health issues. Some data was analyzed using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. Missouri is among 33 states who participate in this federal program. Of those states, Missouri had the highest percentage of women who recently gave birth and reported experiencing intimate partner violence before, during or after their pregnancy. Missouri has some of the highest pregnancy-associated maternal mortality rates in the United States, which already ranks worst among countries of similar economies for high maternal deaths. In Missouri between 2018 and 2020,women on Medicaid were 10 times more likely to die within a year of pregnancy than women on private insurance, according to a 2023 report from the state’s Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review. Black mothers were three times more likely to die within a year of pregnancy than white mothers. Of the 210 pregnancy-related deaths over those three years in Missouri, the majority were deemed preventable. Mental health conditions were the leading underlying cause of death, including due to suicide and substance use. The latest study found Missouri had one of the highest percentages of women between the ages of 18 and 64 who reported poor mental health, landing 48 of 51.
Coverage, access and affordability
Missouri ranked slightly better — 39 of 51 — in this category, which includes insurance coverage and health care affordability and access. Of the 33 states that provided data around health insurance coverage, Missouri ranked third-worst for women uninsured the month before becoming pregnant, and sixth-worst for women who didn’t have health insurance during a recent pregnancy. This is despite Missouri legislators’ decision to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to a year in 2023. A better-funded, better-staffed and more accessible public health safety net is also critical, said Kuykendall. This summer, Gov. Mike Parson signed into law a bill ending Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood, including for patients who go to the clinic for preventive exams, family planning and STI testing. Those opposed to the bill warned such a law would strain the state’s already fragile public health safety net. “The need for these services far outweighs the current capacity for the safety net to provide them,” Kuykendall said. “Any funding cuts to those providers not only limits patients’ ability to access care, but also puts further strain on the health care workforce and will undoubtedly worsen these outcomes.” Recent surveying by the health care nonprofit found that wait times across the state’s overburdened safety net clinics averaged between five and seven weeks. These 68 clinics receive Title X funding and do not turn anyone away, regardless of their ability to pay. The study found that approximately 5.6 million women across the country live in counties that are considered maternity care deserts. In Missouri, 41% of counties are designated maternity care deserts, meaning there are no maternity care providers or birthing facilities. Missouri’s rate is higher than the national rate of 32%, according to a separate 2023 report from the March of Dimes. Across the state, 10% of women do not live within 30 minutes of a birthing hospital. In the last decade, 19 hospitals across Missouri have closed, according to the Missouri Hospital Association. “There is an issue of access that’s very real,” Kuykendall said. The authors of the study were also deliberate in considering outcomes in states with abortion bans and restrictions. “There’s concern that abortion bans or limits will further reduce the number of providers offering maternity care owing to increased risk of legal action that provider’s face,” said David Radley, a senior scientist with the Commonwealth Fund. “Especially when states’ laws are ambiguous.” A recent study showed states with abortion bans saw a significant decrease in the number of medical residents applying to be in their OB-GYN programs.
Missouri saw a 25% drop in applicants since 2022, the highest drop in the nation second only to Arizona. “These inequities are long standing, no doubt, but recent policy choices and judicial decisions restricting access to reproductive care have and may continue to exacerbate them, Commonwealth Fund president Betancourt said of the study’s findings when related to states with abortion bans. “It also serves as a glaring reminder that where you live matters to your health and health care.”
Health care quality and prevention
Missouri landed in slot 35 of 51 for this category, which includes c-section rates, preventative care, pre and post-partum care and mental health screenings. In better news, Missouri ranked 15 of 51 among states with the lowest rates of c-sections during low-risk births, which Kuykendall attributed in part to the state health department’sincreased focus on doula programs. Missouri was slightly below the national average for the percentage of women eligible for mammograms who underwent the breast cancer screening in the past two years (75%), and the percentage of women ages 21 through 65 who had a pap smear, which screens for cervical cancer, in the past three years (78%). Among the more concerning data points to Kuykendall was a report that 19% of women between the ages of 18 and 44 in the past 12 months had put off seeing a doctor because of the cost. This data resonates with what she hears often from Missourians, who say it can be difficult to access even the most basic health care for reasons including cost, lack of transportation and lack of options. “It was a positive step that Missouri expanded Medicaid,” Kuykendall said, “And I think we have a long way to go in terms of ensuring everyone who should have access to care in that new environment actually does.” Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: [email protected]. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and X. Missouri Independent: Eight Republicans face off in primary to be Missouri's top election official7/18/2024 Eight Republicans face off in primary to be Missouri’s top election officialby Jason Hancock, Missouri Independent Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s decision to forgo a third term in order to run for governor set off a mad dash of Republicans hoping to replace him. Early entrants included online personality Valentina Gomez, Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller and state Rep. Adam Schwadron. They were eventually joined by longtime GOP strategist Jamie Corley, House Speaker Dean Plocher, state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman and Judge Mike Carter. The winner of the crowded Aug. 6 GOP primary will take on one of three Democrats: Monique Williams, Barbara Phifer or Haley Jacobson.
Valentina Gomez
Gomez’s campaign for secretary of state exists nearly entirely online She’s raised virtually no money, and doesn’t appear to have much of a campaign apparatus. What she does have, though, is the ability to draw attention from national news organizations with social media posts that are equal parts homophobia and feats of strength. In an interview with “Wake Up Mid-Missouri,” Gomez said she plans to be the first successful candidate to win office “without holding a single fundraiser… we’re gonna win this with votes, not money.” Gomez describes herself on her campaign website as “a real estate investor, financier, strategist, former NCAA Division I swimmer, relentless achiever, and a fierce advocate for the principle values we hold dear as Americans battling for a better future.” Born in Colombia, but “made in the United States,” Gomez’s campaign says she’s “a testament of perseverance. Her success was not inherited, it has and continues to be earned through discipline and determination.”
Shane Schoeller
After serving three terms in the Missouri House, Schoeller won a competitive primary in 2012 to be the GOP nominee for secretary of state. He went on to lose in the general election, but two years later won his current job as Greene County clerk — the top elections official in one of Missouri’s largest counties. Schoeller says he’s the only candidate in the primary with the experience to be secretary of state. “I come ready on day one,” he said. “It’s really important that we have a secretary of state who understands the duties and responsibilities of the office in terms of elections, voter registration and record retention.” Voters continue to have concerns about the integrity of elections, Schoeller said, and one way to alleviate that would be to revamp Missouri’s central voter registration program, which he said is “dated in terms of its function and capacity.” “When you work with that system, day in and day out, through voter registration and the administration of elections,” he said, “we need to have a program that is more up to date, more user friendly and that can also be better at providing information for the public.”
Denny Hoskins
Hoskins served in the Army National Guard before becoming a certified public accountant. He has represented Warrensburg in the state House and Senate, leaving the legislature after this year because of term limits. His statehouse career is defined in recent years by his membership in the Senate Freedom Caucus, where Hoskins and his cohorts clashed with the chamber’s GOP leadership — creating years of gridlock in a battle over the party’s priorities. Those rumbles with Republican leaders are also a key part of Hoskins’ campaign message, which he insists is proof he’s a fighter who will stand up for the values of his party. “I’m a conservative fighter who believes our rights come from God, not state government,” Hoskins recently told supporters, noting he is the only candidate in the race for secretary of state that was endorsed by Missouri Right to Life. If elected, Hoskins says he’d push for the hand counting of ballots, eliminating absentee voting except for the military and disabled and making Election Day a holiday to make it easier for Missourians to vote. “We want to make sure our elections are free and fair and people trust the election process,” Hoskins told the Politically Speaking podcast. “That was the thing that got me interested in this race, that we could trust our elections and one person has one vote and only legal U.S. citizens vote.”
Adam Schwadron
Schwadron is the owner and operator of Clean Carpet Company in St. Charles County, and was elected to the state House in 2020. The secretary of state oversees elections and business registration, and Schwadron believes his experience as small business owner and four-year member of the House Elections Committee give him insight into how the job should be done. “Someone competent needs to be in this office,” he said. “And so I felt my professionalism, the way I’ve worked in the legislature with character and integrity, that’s what’s needed in elected office these days. And so that’s why I’m running.” His biggest concern related to the secretary of state’s office, Schwadron said, is the “attempt by Democrats at the federal level to take over our elections.” He believes his rivals in the GOP primary don’t take the threat seriously enough. He has sponsored legislation creating the “Missouri Elections Sovereignty Act,” which Schwadron says declares “our elections are ours, and any attempt by the federal government to come in here and tell us how to run our elections will be met with resistance.”
Jamie Corley
Corley is a veteran GOP political operative from St. Louis who has worked for three members of Congress, including as national press secretary for former U.S. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee. Most recently, she spearheaded a campaign seeking to place a constitutional amendment on the statewide ballot adding exceptions to the state’s abortion ban for rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormalities and the health and safety of the mother. Her position on abortion, she notes, lines up with former President Donald Trump’s. She decided to run for secretary of state, she said, when she looked at the crop of candidates in the race and realized there was no one she could vote for. “We interact as citizens at the Secretary of State’s office more than we probably think,” she said. “Voting. Registering LLCs. Initiative petitions. It’s an important office.” Though she’s never held public office before, Corley says she’s not short of experience in government. She’s worked in the U.S. Senate and House, and at a conservative think tank, so “I’m not new to public policy by any means.” What she does lack is experience “in the absolute nonsense that has been the Missouri legislature for the past two years,” she said. “It’s a hard sell that the people who were responsible for that nonsense are all the sudden going to be competent leaders when they have to manage a statewide office.”
Dean Plocher
Plocher is an attorney who grew up in St. Louis and served as a municipal judge before winning a seat in the Missouri House. During his time in the Capitol, Plocher rose to become speaker of the Missouri House and championed legislation aimed at making it harder to amend the state constitution. He also sponsored the constitutional amendment repealing the nonpartisan redistricting plan. But for the last year Plocher has been engulfed in scandal over an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving a lucrative software contract and revelations he filed false expense reports for travel already paid for by his campaign. He currently faces a whistleblower lawsuit alleging he harassed and intimidated nonpartisan legislative staff. Plocher denies any wrongdoing, and has tried to use his trevails to his advantage by morphing his public persona from a St. Louis moderate to an embattled MAGA warrior in the mold of former President Donald Trump. In a recent interview just before the anniversary of D-Day, he compared his struggles to the troops who stormed the beaches of Normandy. “Democracy is not free,” Plocher said in an interview with one of his supporters. “You have to fight for it. And just as soldiers went out and gave their lives for our country, the politicians are out there, and they’re elected and answerable to the people. And right now, it’s unelected bureaucrats who are trying to run this country. It’s unelected bureaucrats who are trying to run the state of Missouri.”
Mary Elizabeth Coleman
Coleman is an attorney from Arnold currently serving her first term in the Missouri Senate after six years in the Missouri House. Asked about her time in the legislature, she is unequivocal about her proudest achievement. “There’s no more important thing that we have done,” she said, “than to end abortion in the state of Missouri.” Coleman was one of the architects of legislation that included a trigger allowing Missouri to ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court ever overturned Roe v. Wade. When that happened in 2022, Missouri became the first state to outlaw the procedure. “I’ll forever be proud of that,” she said. “I’m a conservative who delivers results. People want not just a fighter, but a fighter who can deliver. And my conservative record speaks for itself.” Like much of the GOP primary field, Coleman talks about election integrity and ensuring only U.S. citizens can cast a ballot. But she also emphasizes ways she believes she can improve how the secretary of state interacts with Missouri businesses. “We have got to do everything we can to make sure that every business owner’s experience is as positive and as minimal as possible,” she said. “We want the government to get out of people’s lives and when they have to be involved to be as effective and painless as possible.”
Mike Carter
Carter is an attorney and Wentzville municipal judge who ran in the GOP primary for lieutenant governor in 2020 and state Senate in 2022, falling short both times. He told the Politically Speaking podcast that he decided to run for secretary of state because it was the race with the “least amount of competition, the least amount of dollars dedicated to it and the largest opening for me to repeat what I did in the past and ascend to the position.” In his 2020 statewide race, Carter won nearly 27% of the vote in a four-way GOP primary. With a much more crowded field this year, he said replicating that success would likely mean victory. He’s different from others seeking the office, Carter contends, because he won’t be beholden to donors or special interests. “If I get in there,” he said, “I’ll have to answer just to the folks in the voting booth.” Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: [email protected]. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and X. Missouri Independent: KCPD funding, child care tax breaks: Missouri's August ballot issues explained7/18/2024
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KCPD funding, child care tax breaks: Missouri’s August ballot issues explainedby Allison Kite, Missouri Independent Kansas City officials have another chance next month to fend off an attempt by Missouri lawmakers to force the city to spend more of its revenue on policing. But despite opposition from Kansas City leaders and activists, there’s no formal campaign against the ballot initiative, which was previously passed by Missouri voters but later tossed by the Missouri Supreme Court over deceptive ballot language. Instead, opponents of the proposal will try to get the word out without “gigantic checks,” said Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas. “But I don’t pretend to think that will necessarily win the day,” Lucas said. At issue is a question that will appear on Missouri voters’ August 6 primary ballot as “Amendment 4.” It asks whether the Missouri Constitution should be amended to require Kansas City to spend at least one-quarter of its general revenue on policing, an increase of close to $39 million. Missouri voters previously approved the spending hike with 63% of the vote in 2022. But the measure was unpopular with Kansas Citians. In the Jackson County portion of Kansas City, more than 61% of voters rejected the amendment. It passed in Platte and Clay counties, which include suburban parts of Kansas City. Lucas sued the state’s auditor and secretary of state, saying a summary printed on voters’ ballots “materially misstated” the cost of the proposal. He prevailed, and the Missouri Supreme Court ordered the election results be tossed out and a new vote be held. The police funding amendment is one of two questions on Missouri voters’ August primary ballots. The other, passed last year by the Missouri General Assembly and appearing on the ballot as Amendment 1, would exempt child care facilities from paying property taxes in an attempt to “make child care more available” to “support the well-being of children, families, the workforce, and society as a whole.” “We obviously have a child care facility shortage in our state,” state Sen. Travis Fitzwater said during a hearing on the property tax amendment last year. “We need to provide opportunities for folks that get child care.” A “yes” vote on Amendment 1 supports amending the Missouri Constitution to allow child care facilities to be exempted from paying property tax. On Amendment 4, a “yes” vote supports amending the Missouri Constitution to increase the minimum amount Kansas City must spend on policing from 20% to 25%. A “no” vote would leave Kansas City’s spending obligations at 20%, though city officials could voluntarily spend more.
Police funding campaign
The police funding dispute stems from the Kansas City City Council’s attempt in 2021 to impose some control over the Kansas City Police Department’s Budget. For more than 80 years, the Kansas City Police Department has been controlled not by the City Council but by a board of commissioners appointed by Missouri’s governor. The only city in the state and one of few in the nation that doesn’t control its police, Kansas City simply provides the funds for the department. While the city was obligated between 1958 and 2022 to provide the funding requested by the board — up to 20% of the city’s general revenue — it has little control over how it is spent. The city has often exceeded its 20% obligation. But following racial justice protests that took place in Kansas City — and across the nation — in 2020, City Council members attempted to set aside $42 million in police funding above its obligatory spending for “community engagement, outreach, prevention, intervention and other public services.” The move was criticized by Republicans in the Missouri General Assembly who voted to increase Kansas City’s obligation to 25% of its revenue. “Kansas City’s short-sighted move to defund the KCPD, if attempted again, will have lasting and dangerous consequences for our metro area,” state Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer said in a committee hearing in 2022, when the amendment was approved by lawmakers. Luetkemeyer, who lives in the suburbs of Kansas City, carried the legislation in 2022 to increase the city’s police spending obligations. He did not return a request for comment. The 2022 legislation passed the Missouri General Assembly on a largely party-line vote with Republicans supporting the increased police spending and Democrats opposing it. Lucas said voting no was the “only common sense solution.” Residents of Kansas City, he said, should be the ones to determine the policy direction of the city by electing local representatives. He said one year the council may need to increase police salaries and the next it may need to spend money on other needs, like firefighting. “Who should tell you that, ‘No, you can’t actually take care of your firefighters; you can’t take care of the nurses in your public hospital because you have to live by whatever Jefferson City is doing just for pure political pandering?’” Lucas said. Lora McDonald, executive director of the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, or MORE2, called the attempt by state lawmakers to force Kansas City to spend 25% of its revenue on policing “a political ploy.” “Why do you care what our police department has or doesn’t have?” McDonald said. “It’s not your business. It’s not your money.” Lucas said there was “no organized campaign” to persuade voters to reject the amendment. Last month, the Missouri Supreme Court allowed the issue to go on the August ballot rather than the November one, giving supporters and opponents just over two months to mobilize voters. According to Missouri Ethics Commission records, no spending committees have been organized to advocate for or against Amendment 4, and no independent groups have spent money in the race.
Child care tax credit
Along with the Kansas City police question, Missouri voters in August will get to decide whether to amend the state constitution to offer a property tax exemption for child care facilities. The proposal, championed during the 2023 legislative session by Fitzwater, is one of several attempts by lawmakers in the last few years to ease the shortage of child care facilities in Missouri. This spring, Parson and lawmakers attempted to pass a package of child care tax credits, but the legislation stalled in the Senate because of ultra-conservative opposition to “welfare” or the attempt to “give away free child care.” An investigation by The Independent and MuckRock found nearly one in five Missouri children lives in a “child care desert,” where there are more than three children under the age of 6 for every licensed child care slot — or no licensed slots at all. “This is just one incentive to try to make that easier for the facilities,” Fitzwater said during a committee hearing on the property tax exemption last year. Fitzwater did not return a request for comment. Fitzwater’s proposal was supported by an array of child care and economic development organizations and anti-abortion groups. Samuel Lee, a lobbyist for Campaign Life Missouri, said during discussion on the bill last year that the anti-abortion group supported the “pro-life, pro-family, pro-workforce development” legislation. “The pro-life movement has generally not been involved in areas of childcare,” he said, “although for our maternity homes and pregnancy resource centers, the lack of available childcare, the lack of transportation, the lack of housing have always been the three major issues for their clients.” The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry also supported the measure last year. Its lobbyist Heidi Geisbuhler Sutherland said business owners told the chamber that the lack of child care makes it difficult to find workers. “It’s going to take an all-of-the-above approach to tackling the child care crisis,” she said, “but I think this measure is a great way to start.” SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST.
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Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: [email protected]. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and X. Missouri’s long-awaited I-70 expansion project begins near Columbiaby Grace Burwell, Missouri Independent Construction crews began work Monday night on an ambitious $2.8 billion project that will expand Interstate 70 to three lanes across Missouri. Crews are first tackling a stretch from Route J at Millersburg to Route M at Hatton, 7 miles of a 20-mile section that will ultimately add a third lane in each direction from Columbia to Kingdom City. The overnight schedule is designed to minimize traffic disruptions as the highway work progresses from the center of the state to other portions at the east and west ends of the highway. The project’s first 20-mile section is expected to be completed by the end of 2027. Subsequent phases include improving stretches of highway from Warrenton to Wentzville and from Blue Springs to Odessa. The entire project is expected to be finished by 2030. Road crews will first close the westbound lane from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m. nightly to lay new asphalt that will strengthen the highway shoulders, said the state’s Improve I-70 central project director, Jeff Gander. When that portion is done, the eastbound lane will be closed to traffic. Estimated completion is this summer.
“After they get that shoulder-strengthening done, they’re going to re-stripe the highway to push traffic more toward the outsides, and then they’ll be setting barrier wall all along the inside to barrier off the median so we can perform our work in there,” Gander said. In addition to adding a third lane each way to the 20 miles between the U.S. 63 and U.S. 54 exits, crews will improve the intersections of U.S. 63 and I-70 in Columbia and between U.S. 54 and I-70 in Kingdom City. Missouri Department of Transportation plans to begin working on the U.S. 63-Interstate-70 connector this summer, while construction on U.S. 54 will likely not start until 2025, Gander said. A St. Charles-based contractor, Millstone Weber, was selected to do the first section, which has a $405 million price tag. The contractor intends to avoid impacting local traffic by keeping two lanes open during construction at all times, with the exception of some temporary closures at night. “What we have committed to for this project is to keep two lanes of I-70 flowing at all peak times, which means during the day,” he said. “There’s a good possibility that they will have a lane closed at night, both eastbound and westbound at the same time.” MoDOT did preliminary work ahead of Monday’s construction, including pavement coring, as well as subsurface boring where some of the structures will go to prepare for the design. Since the initiative is a design-build project, highway improvement happens incrementally, Gander said. In this kind of project, the full design plans are completed while the project is underway. “When we actually award this contract, we don’t have full design plans — we have plans that are probably at, say, 30 percent complete,” Gander said. “Right now, they are hot-and-heavy working on fully designing the rest of the project.” The project has been on MoDOT’s unfunded agenda for almost 20 years and is the largest interstate construction program since the early 1960s. The expanded highway portion will run from Blue Springs in Jackson County to Wentzville in St. Charles County. More than 40,000 vehicles travel between Kansas City and St. Louis each day. A third lane will allow for emergency vehicles to access crashes faster and with less traffic back-up, keeping drivers safer and less frustrated, according to MoDOT Director Patrick McKenna in an earlier Missourian report. Due to the significant highway construction happening around Columbia during the next few years, Gander said it is important for people to pay attention while driving. Distracted driving is the main issue that highway construction workers must deal with, he said. “When this project gets really rolling, and we have all the different areas that we’re working on, we could have upwards of around 300 people out there working on a day-to-day basis, including our prime contractor and our subcontractors,” he said. “Our goal is for everybody to go home safe, so we really need the public’s help for that.” This story originally appeared in the Columbia Missourian. It can be republished in print or online. Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: [email protected]. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and X. Missouri Independent: Crowded GOP primary field vying to be Missouri's next lieutenant governor7/11/2024 Crowded GOP primary field vying to be Missouri’s next lieutenant governorby Clara Bates, Missouri Independent When Eric Greitens was forced to resign from the Missouri governor’s office in 2018, he was replaced by Lt. Gov. Mike Parson. Two years later, Parson won a full term of his own. Being next in line for governor is the major constitutional requirement for the lieutenant governor. In Missouri, unlike many other states, the lieutenant governor doesn’t run on a ticket with the governor. Five Republicans hope to win their party’s nomination for lieutenant governor on Aug. 6, vying for a job that involves sitting on various boards and breaking ties in the Missouri Senate. Despite its limited constitutional authority, millions are being spent to capture the GOP nod heading into the fall, where the winner will take on one of two Democrats — state Rep. Richard Brown of Kansas City or Anastasia Syes of St. Louis — and Libertarian Ken Iverson of Lake St. Louis.
Holly Thompson Rehder
Rehder, of Scott City, served eight years in the Missouri House of Representatives before being elected to the Senate in 2020. The work she’s most proud of in the legislature, she said in an interview, was helping pass policies to “help people out of poverty, help them become self-reliant and and help with the mental health struggles we see,” pointing to veteran suicides and the opioid epidemic. “I’ve lived paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “I grew up on the system and got myself out, turning into a business owner, starting from the ground up, not because anyone handed me anything but because it was because I worked for it and took the risk.” Rehder, who married at 15 and had a daughter at 16, sponsored legislation this year to ban child marriage, which narrowly failed. She also sponsored legislation last year to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in sports that align with their gender identity, which was signed into law. Before politics, Rehder worked in the cable television industry and co-founded a cable contracting company. She is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University. She said she decided to run for lieutenant governor to make a larger impact on people’s lives than she can as a senator, with the opportunity to “delve into some policy issues and really fight to help people.” Areas she is particularly interested in focusing attention toward include the foster care system and veterans’ mental health. Rehder has $302,928 cash on hand in her campaign fund and $264,596 in Southern Drawl PAC, her joint fundraising committee, as of April 15 filings. Her campaign fund had spent $190,055 and the PAC had spent $40,508 on the campaign, as of April 15.
Dave Wasinger
Wasinger is an attorney at a St. Louis law firm he owns and manages, and a certified public accountant. He ran for auditor in 2018 and lost in the GOP primary. Wasinger grew up in Hannibal and attended the University of Missouri and then Vanderbilt Law School, before moving to St. Louis. He has worked at the law firm for over 20 years, specializing in business litigation. After the 2008 financial crisis, Wasinger “took on Wall Street banks,” he said, representing whistleblowers in financial fraud cases against Countrywide Home Loans and JP Morgan Chase. The whistleblowers were key witnesses in the federal government’s case against the banks, helping federal prosecutors recover billions of dollars. Wasinger said the position of lieutenant governor “serves as a great bully pulpit to expose this corruption and these insider deals taking place in Jefferson City.” As of April 15 filings, Wasinger’s campaign had $222,554 cash on hand and had spent $17,759. Since then, he has donated $1.5 million of his own money to the campaign.
Lincoln Hough
Hough, of Springfield, first won election to the Missouri House in 2010 and won a seat on the Greene County Commission in 2016. Two years later, he was elected to the Senate and was re-elected last year. Hough is a “first-generation cattleman” who started his cattle ranch when he was in seventh grade. He graduated from Missouri State University. “The most important thing I would want people to know about me is that I’m a self made person,” he said. “And I don’t come from a political family. I don’t come from money.” Hough has served as chairman of the powerful Senate appropriations committee since last year, giving him huge influence over the state budget. He said he’s proudest of his work in the legislature cutting the income tax, investing in Interstate 70 and providing state funds to support the National Guard when it was dispatched to the US-Mexico border by the governor. He also said that in his time as chairman “we have completely defunded Planned Parenthood,” by preventing it from receiving Medicaid reimbursements. “I’ve got a good track record of actually getting things done in Jefferson City,” he said, “and not just not just doing the kind of the political talking points that people like to do.” Hough said he sees the focus of the lieutenant governor as “promoting Missouri,” and “supporting the workforce initiatives of the governor.” Hough’s campaign fund had $377,679 cash on hand as of April 15. A joint fundraising PAC, Lincoln PAC, had roughly $1.2 million. His campaign fund had spent $138,222 and the PAC had spent $143,683 as of April 15.
Paul Berry III
Berry, a St. Louis County businessman, has run unsuccessfully in five campaigns since 2012. He has also filed numerous lawsuits that have either been dismissed or withdrawn, including one intended to force state lawmakers to pass a congressional redistricting map and another alleging election irregularities cost him victory in his 22 percentage-point loss in the 2020 St. Louis County Executive race. Though he isn’t an attorney, Berry represented himself in those cases. Berry is a bail bondsman from Bridgeton and the great-nephew of rock-n-roll legend Chuck Berry. His campaign filed a limited activity report with the Missouri Ethics Commission, meaning it raised and spent less than $500.
Tim Baker
Baker is the county clerk in Franklin County. He lives in Robertsville and before becoming clerk ran for county commissioner three times and lost. As county clerk, Baker said, he has focused on saving taxpayer money by reducing “wasteful spending.” He said he believes in the importance of the boards the lieutenant governor serves on, including veterans and tourism, and would hope to bring more attention to farming in Missouri. “Farming is our number one industry in our state,” he said. “And a lot of people, especially in the urban areas, don’t necessarily know what a farm looks like or where their food comes from whenever you go out and talk to folks. And it would be nice to bring that to the forefront too.” Baker has $5,646 on hand, according to April 15 filings, and had spent $4,079. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST.
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Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: [email protected]. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and X. Freedom isn’t freeby Brian Lyman, Missouri Independent You can’t understand the scope of 122,000 names until you see them on a wall. Stand at the foot of the National Monument to Freedom, recently dedicated by the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, and you’ll see all of them, soaring three or four stories above your head. Each name, taken from the 1870 census, belonged to a former enslaved person. These are surnames. Family names. Combined, they represent about 4 million people who emerged from bondage. Each one stands for an American once treated as an animal. Someone who could be abused and assaulted under the law. Who could be stripped naked in front of a crowd of rich men; poked and prodded, and sold away from parents, spouses and children. You get a taste of this horror in a park surrounding the monument and along a path leading to it. There are slave cabins. And a rail car that transported human beings like cattle. Surrounding all of it are statistics that measure toll of human bondage; stories that illustrate it, and carvings of the laws that upheld it. There’s this chilling statistic from EJI: about 6 million Americans died as the property of someone else. By the time you reach that wall, you know that each name represents not just those who survived, but dozens if not hundreds of people who lived and died as prisoners. Each one stands atop a mountain of pain and trauma, deposited like sediment over generations. It’s led me to think about a phrase that seems inescapable when we approach federal holidays like Independence Day. Freedom isn’t free. I’ve heard it invoked many times over the last 23 years. The slogan is usually employed to bludgeon critics of the nation’s disastrous military actions following 9/11. But the National Monument to Freedom gives the phrase a new meaning. When the United States came into being on July 4, 1776, each of its 13 constituent parts allowed enslavement. Congress struck out a paragraph condemning the slave trade from an early draft of the Declaration of Independence. There was never anything condemning slavery itself. Human bondage declined during the Revolution, particularly in South Carolina and Georgia. In Generations of Captivity, a history of slavery, historian Ira Berlin writes that the enslaved population in Georgia fell two-thirds between 1775 and 1783. It fell by a quarter in South Carolina during that period. That was due to chaos, not ideals. In a revolution, state authority collapses. Without state authority, it’s hard to keep people subjugated. And enslaved people took advantage of the opportunity. But war is a poor liberator. Slavery reasserted itself in both states within a decade. And there was nothing on paper that would have kept it from going on forever. Except Americans. Enslaved people resisted in ways large and small, defending their humanity in a system determined to rob them of it. It was two enslaved people — Mum Bett and Quock Walker — who pushed Massachusetts courts to declare in 1781 and 1783 that the state’s new constitution had abolished slavery. It was Black men and women, aided by white allies, who ran the Underground Railroad and put themselves on the line to get people out of slavery. None of this was easy. Success was not guaranteed. It took centuries to end the institution. Every member of every family listed on the National Monument to Freedom knew someone – a parent, a child, a loved one – who lived and died as someone else’s property. But by the eve of the Civil War, the work of brave men and women had broken through in the north. And created a bloc of politicians whose primary goal was putting slavery on the path to extinction, if not abolishing it outright. That came from people on the margins of society, demanding what had been denied them: respect; the rule of law and a voice in their governance. Freedom isn’t free. But it’s not armed conflict that pushes freedom forward. More often than not, it’s the person wounded by power at its most nihilistic who broadens the boundaries of liberty. It’s the lawyer who helps register voters in defiance of a regime working to stop it. And it’s the people who march for their rights with law enforcement against them. These men and women push past the inertia of the ordinary to grab an ideal that seems impossible. If we can celebrate a free society on Thursday, it’s not because of centuries-old philosophers or decades-old battles. It’s because Americans who were not free took risks and made sacrifices that lifted this nation higher than it was before. The 122,000 names on the National Monument to Freedom testify to the enormity of that task. And remind us that the seed of justice is often planted in those who have the least of it. This commentary originally appeared in the Alabama Reflector, a States Newsroom affiliate. Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: [email protected]. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and X. State budget loaded with earmarks nears deadline for action by Missouri Gov. Mike Parsonby Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent For years, state Sen. Mike Moon has railed against the unfairness of businesses being told they owe money when the Missouri Department of Revenue revises the list of things covered by the state sales tax. That happened after 2008, when the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that fitness clubs were places of âamusement, entertainment or recreationâ and must charge tax on memberships and class fees. Audits subsequently resulted in tax bills for thousands of dollars that businesses struggled to pay. Moon has filed bills seeking to force a refund and this year, for the second time, has secured an earmarked appropriation of $38,000 to refund the money paid by a Kansas City fitness club owner. Gov. Mike Parson vetoed a $150,000 appropriation for the same purpose in 2021, arguing that the proposal violates the state Constitutionâs ban on ârefunding money legally paid into the treasury.â Moon, in an interview with The Independent, said he wonât be surprised if it happens again. âI donât know that the governor will leave it in there,â Moon said. âHe has been known to cut it out of that before.â Moonâs $38,000 proposal is one of more than 400 earmarks, spending more than $2.1 billion, sprinkled throughout the $51.7 billion state budget passed by lawmakers this year. The total includes 284 new earmarked items, worth $1.7 billion, and 124 that are to receive continuing appropriations. Last year, The Independent identified 275 earmarked items, totaling about $1.1 billion. The number began increasing during the 2021 session, as the size of the growing state budget surplus became apparent. Parson must take action on the 16 appropriation bills before the new fiscal year begins on Monday. Whether the earmarked items are approved is not a question of money â the state has almost $6.4 billion in surplus funds and revenues through Tuesday have already exceeded estimates for the current fiscal year with three more days for collections. But despite that surplus, Parson has targeted earmarked funds in his veto messages in each of the last three years. Last year, he cut $550 million from the budget by vetoing or reducing 201 budget items. The previous year, the veto pen fell on $650 million in spending lines. In an analysis of the budget, The Independent defined an earmark as an item not originally requested by Parson that is directed to a specific organization or region. The largest example in this yearâs budget is $727.5 million from general revenue and borrowed funds for improvements along Interstate 44 in southwest Missouri. The earmark was inserted by House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith, a Republican who represents Jasper County and is a candidate for state treasurer. Other big road items include $150 million to widen U.S. Highway 67 through Butler County and $48 million for work on U.S. 65 between Buffalo and Warsaw. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Some of the items, like Moonâs refund money, are repeats of items Parson vetoed last year. One is $3.4 million for improvements to LeCompte Road on the east side of Springfield. âThis is a local responsibility with minimal statewide impact,â Parson wrote about the project in last yearâs veto message, a line that found a place in many vetoes. Thereâs money to build hospitals in Kirksville and in Dunklin County, to fund eight local water and sewer projects, to convert a building at the University of Missouri-Columbia to the state Wine and Grape Institute and to pay for a parking lot at the stadium where the KC Current play soccer. The Urban League of St. Louis is in line for a $1 million grant through the Department of Higher Education and the Boys and Girls Club of Poplar Bluff is in with a $2 million grant from federal COVID relief funds.
Obscure origins
Smith wanted to make sure everyone knew who was inserting the money for I-44 by holding a news conference to announce it. And Moon doesnât hesitate to say that he sought the money for the tax refunds. But finding the sponsors of the remaining 406 earmarks is more difficult. Unlike the earmark process in Congress, there are no legislative rules requiring members to make their appropriations requests public. At their end-of-the-year news conferences, Republican and Democratic leaders in the Missouri House took opposite views on whether lawmakers should have to put their name on earmark requests. House Speaker Dean Plocher, a candidate for secretary of state, said the legislature as a whole has responsibility for spending. There are no new earmarks that are targeted to Plocherâs St. Louis County district. âWe're not up here for personal credit,â Plocher said. âI don't think it's about bringing money back to your district.â Every legislator who voted for the budget bills is responsible for the earmarks, Plocher said. House Minority Leader Crystal Quade of Springfield, a candidate for governor, said lawmakers âabsolutelyâ should have to identify the earmarks they seek. The Independent identified eight earmarks targeted to her district, totaling $45.8 million, for items ranging from $250,000 for the Springfield Sports Commission to $15 million for an alliance of health care providers to expand medical training. âI'm proud when I'm able to bring money home to my district,â Quade said. âI wouldn't ask for something I was ashamed of that I didn't think Missourians would be happy with that money going towards.â The transparency of requiring earmarks to have sponsors, Quade said, would help Missourians understand the legislature. This yearâs budget process, derailed by filibusters and finished with hours to spare under the constitutional deadline, was particularly obscure, with Smith and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Lincoln Hough cutting the final deal on every item behind closed doors. âWe should be responsible and be held accountable to the people of Missouri, and they should know how we're making those decisions,â Quade said. For more than 250 of the new earmarks, The Independent was able to identify the House or Senate district where the appropriation is to be spent, either by decoding the legislative language describing the item or assigning it based on the home address of the organization to receive the funds. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Moon said he often has trouble figuring out where a spending item is going. âWhen a particular area, a county, is mentioned in a legislative bill, you talk about counties with a certain population, but not not less than or not more than a certain amount, and of course, that's a way around the special law prohibition,â he said. In Moonâs view, many of the appropriations violate the constitutionâs long-standing provision against grants of state money or credit to private entities. He filed constitutional objections, printed in the Senate Journal, specifically questioning 64 earmarked items totaling $131.9 million. The largest item on Moonâs list is $17.5 million to support the Kansas City organization preparing for the 2026 World Cup matches at Arrowhead Stadium. In Moonâs letters, he encouraged Parson to veto the appropriations. The constitutional limit only applies to state funds and includes an exception for using federal funds for designated public purposes. Many of the items on Moonâs list for the Department of Social Services use money the state receives for the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, or TANF. Since the enactment of a federal welfare overhaul in 1996, Missouri has received about $200 million annually as a block grant intended to equal the amount used for cash benefits before the law. Because Missouri only paid out $16.5 million in direct benefits in fiscal 2023, the remainder is available for anti-poverty program grants. The earmarks in this yearâs budget from TANF funds total $29.4 million.
Spending questions
Some earmarks began taking flak before the final budget votes. Democrats criticized $12.5 million to purchase land for a state park in McDonald County in the district of House Budget Committee Vice Chairman Dirk Deaton. And Northeast Regional Medical Center in Kirksville attacked an earmarked $15 million for Hannibal Regional Healthcare System to construct a radiation oncology center in Kirksville. Northeast Regionalâs attorney, Chuck Hatfield, said in a letter sent in April to Hough that the appropriation is improper because it allows Hannibal Regional to open a competing hospital where no need has been established. Missouri requires medical providers to obtain a Certificate of Need for major capital investments. Hannibal Regional hasnât even begun the process of obtaining the certificate, Hatfield noted. âIt would be inappropriate for the legislature to provide funding for a project that has not provided or demonstrated need in accordance with Missouri law,â Hatfield wrote. If the Kirksville facility is not licensed as an inpatient hospital or long-term care facility, it would not need a certificate of need, Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Senior Services, said in an email. It could need a certificate for capital purchases of $1 million or more, she said. There are $57 million in earmarked appropriations for hospital construction or capital equipment in the budget plan on Parsonâs desk. The largest is $25 million for an acute care inpatient behavioral health center at KC Childrenâs Mercy and the smallest is $425,000 for a computed tomography scanner at Golden Valley Memorial Hospital in Clinton. The increased number of earmarks while the state enjoys a large surplus is likely to continue. Requiring legislative sponsors to be public for each item might cut back on the special spending, Moon said. âIt would make it a lot more transparent,â Moon said. âMost people, especially those who are opposed to earmarks, would like it. Those who want earmarks may not be so inclined to like it, though.â SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST.
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Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: [email protected]. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and X. Missouri is breaking federal law by housing mentally ill in nursing homes, DOJ findsby Clara Bates, Missouri Independent Missouri is violating federal disability law by unnecessarily institutionalizing thousands of adults with mental illness in nursing homes, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a scathing report published Tuesday. The report, which is based on a year-and-a-half of investigation, determined that those suffering with mental illness are “subjected to unnecessary stays in nursing facilities, generally because of a series of systemic failures by the state.” For years Missouri has placed a higher portion of adults with mental health disabilities in nursing facilities than “all but a few states,” according to the report. As of March 2023, there were 3,289 adults with mental health disabilities who had spent at least 100 days in Missouri’s nursing homes, according to the report. That number excludes those with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Most don’t fit the profile one might imagine.
Around half are under 65, and some are in their 20s. Most don’t need help with basic physical activities like eating, transferring to bed or going to the bathroom. And once placed in a nursing home, adults with mental health disabilities are often stuck, staying for an average of at least three years. “We found that almost none of the adults with mental health disabilities living in nursing facilities in Missouri need to be in these institutions, even for short-term stays,” the report found. Most, the report found, are there against their will and end up in nursing homes out of a series of Missouri’s “deliberate policy choices.” Those sent to nursing homes are often resistant to treatment and cycled in and out of psychiatric hospitals. The major problems are that the state doesn’t provide sufficient community-based mental health services and “improperly relies” on guardianship for those who have resisted treatment. Appointed guardians often place the person in nursing facilities. One woman in her late 50s interviewed in the report, who was placed in a nursing home by a guardian, is quoted as saying, “I have a dream that one day I will be free” — to live in her community, have overnight stays with her grandkids, and be “free to not have someone place me in a nursing home and leave me, without any regard to my well-being, mentally and physically.” A mother is quoted as saying her son “had a life before they took him there and now, he has nothing.” He lives in a locked unit of the facility. These adults are concentrated in a few dozen facilities across the state. In some facilities, over 80% of the residents have bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. And those facilities generally offer little by way of mental health services beyond medication. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires states make reasonable modifications to allow adults with mental health disabilities to live in a setting that is the most integrated with the community as possible. The state can’t discriminate through what amounts to segregation of those with disabilities. The state will need to work with the DOJ to come up with a plan to fix the violations identified in the report. If they can’t reach a resolution, the state could be sued by the DOJ. None of the state agencies involved immediately responded to a request for comment. The Department of Mental Health oversees the state’s mental health services, the Department of Health Senior Services oversees nursing homes and the Department of Social Services runs Medicaid, which funds eligible nursing home stays and community-based services.
‘Sent out of sight and out of mind’
Many of those adults with mental health disabilities in nursing homes are under court-ordered guardianship, the report states. The state has relied on guardianship when people resist mental health treatment, which the DOJ found serves as a “pipeline to unnecessary institutionalization.” According to the report, one provider called guardianship in Missouri a “sentence to be locked in a [nursing facility].” Guardianship is supposed to be used in extreme cases when a person lacks capacity to make basic decisions and no less-restrictive options exist, but in Missouri it is used more broadly, the report states, and frequently is used when a person with mental health disability is not engaging in treatment. “Combining guardianships and nursing facility placement creates the functional equivalent of involuntary and indefinite commitment,” the report states. Guardians are often public administrators, meaning county officials who are appointed when no adult relative is available or suitable. Many have heavy caseloads and place the person in a nursing home because they have limited resources and are trying to ensure safety, according to the report. “Instead of diverting people with mental health disabilities from unnecessary nursing facility admission or transitioning people from nursing facilities who do not need to be there,” the report states, “people are sent out of sight and out of mind.” One man, in his late 20s, has goals well-suited to intensive community-based mental health services: He “wants to work part time at a fast food restaurant and live in his own apartment or trailer around Kansas City. “Instead, he lives in a locked nursing facility over 6 hours away,” according to the report. That person did not receive appropriate services, the report states, which would include permanent supportive housing. He was unhoused and hospitalized several times, some of which were because he needed shelter in the cold. His caseworker recommended guardianship because they lacked access to needed services and a public administrator was appointed. “His guardian has since placed him in three different nursing facilities.” The report urges Missouri to prioritize community-based services, including wraparound services that provide assistance with housing, treatment and other needs, directly to the person’s home and community. “The fact that some of these changes might result in short-term increases in spending does not render them unreasonable,” the report states.
Housed in jails
Beyond the issues laid out in the DOJ report, Missouri has been struggling with housing those with mental illness in another inappropriate setting: jails. Missourians who are arrested, deemed unfit to stand trial and ordered into mental health treatment are now detained in jail for an average of eleven months before being transferred to a mental health facility. There are currently 312 people in jails waiting to be moved to psychiatric hospitals, according to data provided to The Independent by the Missouri Department of Mental Health. Debra Walker, a spokesperson for the department, said in an email last week to The Independent that the reason the number seems to keep going up is due to a workforce shortage. “People in need of mental health care or substance use treatment are unable to access it in a timely manner due to provider shortages,” she said. The state’s years-long struggle to transfer people from jails into mental hospitals stems, in part, from a lack of hospital beds and an increase in referrals. Patients are supposed to be moved to receive rehabilitative mental health services that allow them to become competent to stand trial, a process called competency restoration. Instead, they languish in jails — often solitary confinement because they must be isolated from the incarcerated population — without having been found guilty of any crime. Missouri this year passed a law to bring treatment to the jails — “jail-based competency restoration” — which Department of Mental Health officials said will reduce the wait time. The hiring of staff has begun, Walker said, and training will start soon as jail contracts are “being finalized.” Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: [email protected]. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and X. Missouri senators’ immunity claims challenged in Chiefs parade shooting defamation suitby Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent The Kansas man suing three Missouri lawmakers for defamation is challenging their assertions that their statements accusing him of being involved in the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration were made in the course of official business. In filings Monday in the federal lawsuits Denton Loudermill is pursuing against the three state senators, his attorneys demand a chance to test those assertions. Loudermill’s attorneys – Arthur Benson, LaRonna Lassiter Saunders and Katrina Robertson – filed three almost identical responses Monday to the motions for dismissal by state Sens. Nick Schroer, Rick Brattin and Denny Hoskins. The three senators are being represented by Attorney General Andrew Bailey and their filings have claimed legislative immunity for their social media posts and that the Kansas federal court where the case was filed has no jurisdiction over them. “Defendant’s assertion of immunity depends on a facts not conceded by plaintiff: whether or not Defendant was engaged in ‘legitimate legislative activity,’” Loudermill’s attorneys wrote in a response to Schroer’s motion to dismiss the case. “And that factual contention involves issues of whether or not defendant was formulating, making, determining, creating or opposing legislative policy.” The filings demand a chance to conduct an investigation of the immunity claim if the case cannot move forward without a determination. No hearings have been scheduled in the case. Loudermill was detained briefly by law enforcement after gunfire erupted near Union Station in Kansas City as the Super Bowl celebration was ending. The violence, tied to a dispute among the partiers, led to the death of Lisa Lopez-Galvan and left 22 others injured. Three men, none of whom is an immigrant, face state murder charges for their role in the shootings and three others face federal firearms charges for selling guns involved in the shootings. Loudermill, who was born in Kansas, was detained briefly because he was too slow to leave the area of the shooting, he told The Independent in an interview earlier this year. He was photographed with his hands behind his back, sitting on a curb. An account on X, formally known as Twitter, with the name Deep Truth Intel used the photo and labeled Loudermill an “illegal immigrant” under arrest as the shooter. It then showed up in posts from the Missouri Freedom Caucus, the group of six Republican state senators who battled with the Senate’s GOP leadership. The post was deleted and replaced with one that affirmatively stated he had nothing to do with the shootings. Brattin, Hoskins and Schroer, as well as U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, also spread the incorrect information on social media, including the Deep Truth Intel post or a similar post with Loudermill’s photo. Burchett is also being sued by Loudermill and is challenging the jurisdiction in the federal court in Kansas. Burchett is not claiming any form of official immunity for his post. In the filings written by assistant attorney general Jeremiah Morgan, Brattin, Hoskins and Schroer have sought to tie their statements to their official duties. Brattin’s first post linking Loudermill to the shooting, since deleted, demanded “#POTUS CLOSE THE BORDER” and incorporated the deleted Deep Truth Intel post. That is a policy statement by an elected official, Morgan wrote about Brattin’s post. “Defendant’s statement, directed at the President of the United States, was a statement on border security at the southern border—an issue of clear national and political importance,” he wrote. Hoskins’ version on X shared a screenshot of the Deep Truth Intel post and blamed President Joe Biden and political leaders of Kansas City for making the shooting possible. “Fact – President Biden’s open border policies & cities who promote themselves as Sanctuary Cities like #Kansas City invite illegal violent immigrants into the U.S.,” Hoskins posted. That post has been deleted, but in a Feb. 14 post without a photo, Hoskins wrote that “information I’ve seen” states “at least one of the alleged shooters is an illegal immigrant and all 3 arrested are repeat violent offenders.” Hoskins hedged it with “IF THIS IS ACCURATE” and repetition of conservative rhetoric to stop immigration and restrain cities that help immigrants, blaming crime on “catch and release policies of liberal cities.” Morgan’s defense of that statement is almost identical to the one raised for Brattin’s post. “Defendant’s statement, directed at the President of the United States, was a statement on policies related to border security and the rights of citizens protected under the Second Amendment—issues of clear national and political importance and salience,” the filing states. Schroer was the least certain post about the immigration and arrest status of Loudermill among the three now being sued. Schroer’s post included a link to one from Burchett stating, over Loudermill’s photo, that “One of the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade shooters has been identified as an illegal Alien.” “Can we get any confirmation or denial of this from local officials or law enforcement?” Schroer wrote on X. “I’ve been sent videos or stills showing at least 6 different people arrested from yesterday but officially told only 3 still in custody. The people deserve answers.” That post, Morgan wrote on Schroer’s behalf, is a call for transparency. “A statement calling for greater government transparency in the investigations surrounding a tragic event is exactly the kind of ‘policy formulati[on]’ that legislative immunity exists to protect,” Morgan wrote. The assertions of official business mask the nature of the posts, Loudermill’s attorneys wrote. “Labeling plaintiff as an illegal immigrant and a shooter was highly offensive to plaintiff and caused him injuries,” they wrote. All four Republicans being sued by Loudermill have asserted that they did not direct their posts to a Kansas audience and that they have no personal connections to Kansas that gives the federal court there jurisdiction. Loudermill’s attorneys responded that large numbers of people in Kansas saw the post and that Loudermill sustained the injury to his reputation in the state where he lives. The entry of Bailey’s office to defend the lawmakers has drawn a sharp rebuke from some quarters. On May 16, the day before this year’s legislative session ended, Sen. Mike Cierpiot, a Lee’s Summit Republican and a bitter foe of the Freedom Caucus members, tried to amend the daily journal to read that “it is the opinion of the Missouri Senate that the office of the attorney general should not expend any money from the state legal expense fund” to defend Hoskins, Schroer and Brattin. And Gov. Mike Parson issued an order last month that no payments related to the lawsuits should be certified from the state Legal Expense Fund “without my approval or a court order.” Missourians, Parson wrote, “should not be held liable for legal expenses on judgments due to state senators falsely attacking a private citizen on social media.” SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST.
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Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: [email protected]. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. |
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