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Missouri Independent: Attorneys for embattled Missouri House speaker criticize ethics investigation4/25/2024 Attorneys for embattled Missouri House speaker criticize ethics investigationby Jason Hancock, Missouri Independent Private attorneys hired by the top Republican in the Missouri House demanded on Tuesday that the ethics investigation into their client be formally dismissed. House Speaker Dean Plocher has still not publicly commented on the allegations of ethical misconduct that have hung over his final year in the legislature, or the later accusations that he pressured witnesses and obstructed the House Ethics Committee investigation. On Tuesday, he dispatched his attorneys — Lowell Pearson and David Steelman — to discredit the inquiry and criticize the Republican lawmaker appointed by Plocher to lead the ethics committee, state Rep. Hannah Kelly of Mountain View. In a letter to Kelly, and later at a hastily called press conference in the Capitol basement, Plocher’s defenders argued the investigation should have never occurred in the first place. The letter included affidavits from some of the key players in the scandals that have swirled around Plocher arguing in his defense. “This investigation was mishandled from the start,” Pearson and Steelman’s letter read. Since late last year, Plocher has faced an investigation, as well as calls for his resignation, over his unsuccessful push for the House to sign an $800,000 contract with a private software company outside the normal bidding process; alleged threats of retaliation against nonpartisan legislative staff who raised red flags about that contract; purportedly firing a potential whistleblower; and filing years of false expense reports for travel already paid for by his campaign. Last week, the ethics committee voted 6-2 to reject a report recommending a formal letter of disapproval for Plocher, that he hire an accounting professional to manage his expense reports moving forward and that he refrain from retaliation against any legislator or House employee who cooperated with the committee. After the report was defeated, it became a public document. Kelly has subsequently said the investigation was severely hindered because of Plocher’s efforts to undermine the committee’s work. Specifically, Plocher refused to speak to an attorney hired by the committee to gather evidence and would not sign subpoenas to compel witnesses to testify. In addition to the delays, Kelly also accused Plocher of making efforts to “threaten witnesses, block our investigation and prevent this process from reaching its natural conclusion.”
On Tuesday, Steelman pushed back on that narrative, claiming the hiring of the attorney was “unlawful” and that it was the committee — not the speaker — who chose to drag out the process. “It was a drummed-up exercise trying to get rid of a speaker,” Steelman said of the investigation. Steelman, an ex-state lawmaker and former member of the University of Missouri Board of Curators, told reporters the reason Plocher refused to sign subpoenas was because they were designed to compel both him and his chief of staff, Rod Jetton, to testify. Both were willing to testify without a subpoena, Steelman said. That wasn’t the reason cited in rejecting the supboenas in the three letters from the speaker’s office to the committee in March and April. And in one of those letters, Plocher’s general counsel noted the committee initially sought five subpoenas. Asked Tuesday why Plocher didn’t recuse himself from the start, or at least when subpoena requests started showing up to his office, Steelman said the speaker recused himself “when it mattered.” Steelman accused the ethics committee of failing to follow its own rules, including in how it hired an outside attorney. He suggested that it’s possible the speaker’s office could refuse to pay the attorney for her work if she was hired unlawfully. A spokesman for the speaker’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether the roughly $14,700 in legal fees will be paid. Ultimately, Steelman said the ethics committee must reconvene and finish its work — which he believes means dismissing the complaint and declaring Plocher exonerated. No ethics committee hearings have been held since the report was released to the public. Kelly has not commented publicly, beyond a post on social media declaring that “because of the efforts by the speaker to threaten witnesses, block our investigation and prevent this process from reaching its natural conclusion, there is nothing more that can be done.” “The report speaks for itself,” Kelly wrote last week, “as do the votes of the committee members.” Plocher is running for the GOP nomination for Missouri secretary of state. He currently leads his seven Republican opponents by a wide margin in fundraising, with more than $1.3 million cash on hand between his campaign account and allied political action committee. But nearly all of that was raised before the litany of scandals became public last fall that have dominated his last year as speaker of the Missouri House. After taking in nearly $400,000 for his campaign and PAC in 2023, he raised just $15,000 this year. 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: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter.
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Missouri Independent: Missouri Senate amends House bill to ease passage of K-12 tax credit expansion4/18/2024 Missouri Senate amends House bill to ease passage of K-12 tax credit expansionby Annelise Hanshaw, Missouri Independent The Missouri Senate voted Wednesday night to ensure homeschool families are allowed to own firearms. On a 27-4 vote, lawmakers approved legislation that originally was focused on cleaning up issues with Missouri’s virtual school program. But over the course of a five-hour recess in the Senate Wednesday, Republicans turned that legislation into a catch-all measure aimed at ensuring the House approves an even larger education bill approved by the Senate last month. The bill approved Wednesday night was crafted to ease House concerns about a 153-page bill that passed the Senate to expand Missouri’s private school tax credit program and allowed charter schools in Boone County, along with other provisions aimed at bolstering public schools. That bill’s sponsor, Republican state Sen. Andrew Koenig of Manchester, told The Independent he would prefer the House pass the Senate’s education bill without changes and send it to the governor’s desk. Any changes in the House would bring it back to the Senate for debate, putting its changes at risk. After the Senate passed Koenig’s legislation last month, criticism began popping up on social media and in the Capitol about a myriad of issues — primarily that homeschooling families may face additional government oversight. Despite assurances from gun-rights groups, one concern focused on the idea that homeschoolers’ inclusion in the private school scholarship program would result in home educators being subject to laws banning guns in schools. The Missouri Firearms Coalition made a statement that it felt that gun-ownership was not threatened in the bill. And an attorney for Home School Legal Defense Association Scott Woodruff was adamant that he was not concerned about the provision. “The idea (the bill)…. would make the criminal penalties of (state firearm code) apply to home schoolers with guns in their home is supported, at best, only by a long, thin string of assumptions and implications,” he wrote. But House members were flooded with emails and social media messages expressing concerns, putting the bills’ chances of passing without being altered at risk. Koenig said Wednesday that the ability to own a gun was not threatened by his bill. “I don’t know that it was a problem, but this definitely makes it a lot stronger,” he said. “Anytime we can clarify something in statute, then we make sure that interpretation is stronger.” The bill applies the existing homeschool statute to particular sections of state law — avoiding applying the definition of a “home school” to the state code that prohibits firearms on school grounds. The legislation approved Wednesday night expanded beyond virtual schools to include changes such as connecting funding for K-12 tax-credit scholarships to state aid for public schools’ transportation. This is current state law, but Koenig’s bill separated the two. The bill also exempts Warsaw School District from taking a vote to reauthorize the district’s current four-day school week. If Koenig’s bill passes, school districts that have switched to a four-day week in charter counties or cities with at least 30,000 residents will have to hold a vote to continue with an abbreviated week. Similar provisions are included in amendments to Koenig’s bill filed by House members. Fifty-three amendments have already been filed on Koenig’s bill in the House. House Majority Leader Jon Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, told reporters on Monday that he would prefer to pass the Senate’s version of Koenig’s bill but there was not a guarantee to do so. 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: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. Missouri Independent: Bills making it harder to amend state constitution proceed in Missouri House4/4/2024 Bills making it harder to amend state constitution proceed in Missouri Houseby Anna Spoerre, Missouri Independent Two bills seeking to make it more difficult to amend the state constitution through the initiative petition process advanced through the Missouri House this week. On Wednesday, legislation sponsored by Republican state Rep. John Black of Marshfield was approved on a 106-49 vote. The only Republican to vote against the measure was House Majority Leader Jon Patterson of Lee’s Summit. Earlier in the week, a House committee approved a different version of the bill sponsored by state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman that the Senate passed last month. If either version is approved by both chambers, the question would go on the statewide ballot in either August or November. Citizen-led initiative petitions currently require signatures from 8% of voters in five of the state’s eight congressional districts. To pass once on the ballot, a statewide vote of 50% plus one is required — a simple majority vote. Both the House and Senate versions make the process harder, but in very different ways. The House joint resolution would: The Senate joint resolution would: Require that constitutional amendments pass by both a simple majority of votes statewide and a majority of votes in at least a majority of the votes in Missouri’s congressional districts. Require the General Assembly to have the approval of at least four-sevenths of the members in each chamber to make any modifications to citizen-led constitutional amendments within two years of when it goes into effect.
‘This is about reproductive freedom’
Last May, House Speaker Dean Plocher, a Republican from Des Peres, said his party anticipated an initiative petition to legalize abortionwould be brought forward and would pass. Since then, acampaign to legalize abortion to the point of fetal viability in Missouri has raised millions of dollars, most recently bringing in internationally-known model and Webster Groves native Karlie Kloss to campaign on their behalf. Republicans in support of changing the initiative petition process have said their motivation is more wide-reaching than abortion and pre-dates the 2023 session, anti-abortion groups have been some of the main champions of the legislation. But the bulk of Wednesday’s conversation centered on the most recent citizen-led amendment to pass. Need to get in touch?Have a news tip?In 2022, Missourians legalized recreational marijuana with53% of voters in favor of the amendment. In that election, Black said, 15 counties carried the “yes” vote, arguing that urban voters “basically imposed their will on the rest of the state.” Republicans in favor of changing the initiative petition process have repeatedly pointed to the length of the state constitution, which includes 134 amendments, as a reason for reform. State Rep. Robert Sauls, a Democrat from Independence, countered that only 19 of the amendments came from initiative petitions. The rest came from the General Assembly. “This idea that the constitution has gotten out of control, well look in the mirror,” Sauls said. “We’re the reason that it has. Not these 19 amendments that the people have put on.” An analysis by The Independent found that under the concurrent majority standard, as few as 23% of voters could defeat a ballot measure. This was done by looking at the majority in the four districts with the fewest number of voters in 2020 and 2022. “You want a minority to be able to block a majority,” said state Rep. Joe Adams, a Democrat from University City. “That is shameful.” State Rep. Doug Richey, a Republican from Excelsior Springs, said with a simple majority, it’s possible for those leading initiative petition efforts to “ignore” congressional districts and still succeed. “That is a significant move to value the voices of people in the state of Missouri no matter where they happen to live,” Richey said. “No matter what their perspective is.” Reference to the current abortion initiative petition wasn’t raised until late in the debate by state Rep. Patty Lewis, a Democrat from Kansas City.“This is about reproductive freedom,” Lewis said. “And it’s about taking away our vote to restore reproductive freedom in the state of Missouri.” In approving Black’s legislation on Wednesday, the House made little mention of the “ballot candy” written into the resolution. The ballot candy, which refers to provisions added to ballot measures in order to win over voters, has become a major point of contention between Republicans and Democrats. In the proposed initiative petition bills, language has been included that would ask voters if they want to define legal voters as citizens of the US who live in Missouri and are registered to vote and whether they want to prohibit foreign entities from sponsoring initiative petitions. Democrats argue the inclusion of the ballot candy is an attempt by Republicans to mislead voters and distract from the effort to weaken the initiative petition process. In the Senate, a 21-hour filibuster ended with Republicans agreeing to remove the ballot candy in exchange for Democrats allowing the bill to come up for a vote. The House restored the ballot candy at Coleman’s request, setting up a potential showdown in the Senate if the bill makes its way back to that chamber. 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: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. Missouri House again votes to cut corporate income taxesby Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent The Missouri House sent a bill repealing the corporate income tax to the Senate on a party-line vote Wednesday, with Republicans saying it will boost economic growth and Democrats calling it a business giveaway. The bill sponsored by state Rep. Travis Smith of Dora would cut the tax rate, currently 4%, to 3% on Jan. 1 and make another one percentage point cut each year until the tax is eliminated in 2028. “When you reduce the corporate income tax you are helping workers more than anything else because the corporation is not going to be paying those taxes,” Smith said. “They’re putting it back in improving their facilities and paying wages.” The corporate income tax is paid by larger companies with many stockholders. A fiscal note for the bill estimates it would reduce state revenues by at least $884 million when fully implemented. The state collected $13.2 billion in general revenue in the fiscal year that ended June 30. The bill passed on a 100-50 vote with Republicans voting for it and Democrats opposed. “We are one of the lowest corporate income tax states in the nation,” said state Rep. Joe Adams, a University City Democrat. Legally, Adams noted, corporations are people with many of the same rights as humans. “As people they should pay part of the freight for the operation of the government of this state,” Adams said. Missouri’s corporate income tax for decades was 5%. In 1993, in a bill that increased revenue to pay for education needs, the tax was boosted to 6.25%. The rate was cut to 4% in 2018. This is the second year in a row that the House has voted to cut the corporate tax. Last year, the House voted to cut the rate in half but the Senate did not go along. A similar bill is awaiting debate on the Senate. Lawmakers in the past 18 months have cut the top rate on income taxes and excluded Social Security and other retirement income from the state income tax. Those cuts, when fully in effect, will reduce annual revenue by more than $1 billion. The state is sitting on one of its biggest surpluses in history, with about $6.4 billion on hand on Feb. 29. Revenues for the year, however, are lagging 1.45% behind collections for the previous fiscal year. To soften the impact of repealing the tax, the bill also bars corporations holding state tax credits from claiming them against corporate tax liability in years after the rate is cut to zero. Smith said he received information from the Department of Revenue that there are $600 million to $700 million in outstanding tax credits that could be claimed by corporations. “It just means no new tax credits will be given out and they will not renew the existing tax credits,” Smith said. The fiscal note for the bill, however, reports that tax credit redemptions applied to corporate income taxes totaled $89.7 million in the most recent fiscal year and that redemptions would shift to other taxes if the corporate tax is repealed. “Many of the state tax credits are allowed to be sold, transferred and assigned and it is assumed corporations would continue that practice,” the fiscal note states. The corporate tax rate isn’t a priority for businesses, said Rep. Kemp Strickler, a Democrat from Lee’s Summit. Corporations want well-educated workers and access to materials and services, Strickler said. “Is this a good return on investment?” Strickler asked. “Is that really helping or is this just a giveaway?” 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: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. Budget, Medicaid funding could dominate final weeks of Missouri legislative sessionby Jason Hancock, Missouri Independent Missouri lawmakers return to the Capitol Monday with a long list of policy priorities still in flux and only eight weeks to get it all done before the legislative session ends in May. Yet despite a host of issues dominating debate during the first half of the session, the two top tasks lawmakers must complete before adjournment aren’t in question: Pass the state’s roughly $50 billion budget and renew $4 billion in medical provider taxes vital to sustaining Missouri’s Medicaid program. A failure to do either would require a special session this summer. And factional infighting among Senate Republicans likely means neither will be easy. Need to get in touch?Have a news tip?Senate leadership and members of the Freedom Caucus have squabbled all session, a continuation of the fissures within the Senate GOP that has mired the chamber in gridlock for much fo the last three years. The Freedom Caucus wasn’t impressed with the $52 billion budget proposal laid out by Republican Gov. Mike Parson, and only mildly less dissatisfied with House Budget Chairman Cody Smith’s $50 billion alternative. “There’s a real disconnect between the fiscal conservative promises that a lot of Republicans are making in campaign season and what they’re continuing to talk about when we come down to the Senate floor and actually debate policy,” said state Sen. Bill Eigel, a Weldon Spring Republican and member of the Freedom Caucus. Eigel, who is also a candidate for governor, predicted a long slog through the budget this year. “It’s going to take a lot of work,” he said. Potential trouble also lurks in the background across the rotunda in the House. The GOP supermajority in the House is expected to work quickly through the budget this week, with the chamber avoiding the internal dissension that’s plagued the Senate. Yet hovering over the House as it heads into the session’s home stretch is the ongoing ethics investigation of House Speaker Dean Plocher, who is facing a litany of allegations of misconduct. The House Ethics Committee is scheduled to hold its fifth closed-door meeting Tuesday, with the timeline for issuing a final report unclear. Plocher has already faced calls for his resignation from some Republicans. If the committee concludes he engaged in unethical conduct, the fight over whether Plocher should keep his job could derail the session as lawmakers are trying to finalize the budget.
Federal reimbursement allowance
Even if a budget compromise can be reached, the Freedom Caucus has also raised concerns about renewing the federal reimbursement allowance, or FRA — the taxes paid by hospitals, nursing homes, ambulance providers and pharmacies as a mechanism for drawing additional federal funds and boosting payments for Medicaid services. A Senate bill to renew the taxes before they expire later this year has been stalled over Freedom Caucus demands that it include provisions excluding Planned Parenthood from providing Medicaid services. Including that provision, GOP leaders have argued, could put the entire program at risk of running afoul of federal law. In an effort to tamp down resistance to passing a “clean” FRA, a separate bill blocking Planned Parenthood from being reimbursed by Medicaid was passed by the House earlier this year. “It’s a bipartisan belief that we need to pass (the FRA) clean,” Plocher told reporters, later adding:: “I’m an eternal optimist, and I believe we get it done.” But time is running out, said Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, an Independence Democrat. The Senate should have taken up FRA legislation at the beginning of the session instead of waiting until the last minute. “I don’t understand why it hasn’t been brought up,” Rizzo said. “I don’t understand why it hasn’t had a really good debate. I mean, it seems like there’s a lot of things that have gotten a lot of time on the floor that are way less impactful than the FRA… Everyone in this chamber knows how essential the FRA is to health care, especially in rural Missouri.” If the legislature is forced to hold a special session this summer to renew the FRA — which is how it was last renewed in 2021 — it will be the Senate’s fault, said Plocher, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. “It won’t be because of the House’s actions,” he added.
‘Ballot candy’
Beyond the budget and FRA, Republicans are determined to make it harder to amend the state constitution through the initiative petition process. A version of the proposal cleared the Senate last month when Democrats agreed to end their filibuster in exchange for Republicans stripping out provisions labeled “ballot candy.” The bill would require a statewide majority and a majority vote in five of the state’s eight congressional districts to pass a constitutional amendment resulting from an initiative petition or a state convention. In addition to making it harder to enact constitutional amendments, the legislation included “ballot candy” that would bar non-citizens from voting and ban foreign entities from contributing to or sponsoring constitutional amendments. Democrats called the immigration and foreign entities provisions a misleading sleight of hand meant to confuse voters from the issue at the heart of the amendment. Republican leadership agreed to remove them, and the bill was sent to the House. But state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican from Arnold who sponsored the initiative petition bill, urged a House committee to restore the “ballot candy.” And she hinted at the idea that Senate Republicans were going to turn to a rarely used procedural move near the end of session to force the legislation through over Democratic opposition. Coleman’s bluster infuriated Democrats, who accused Republicans of going back on their word and undermining the negotiating process in the Senate. In response, Rizzo and his fellow Democrats used the filibuster to shut down Senate business for a day. Despite the setback, Rizzo said he hopes cooler heads will ultimately prevail. “I don’t harbor any ill will or animosity towards (Sen. Coleman),” Rizzo said. “Obviously, she made some mistakes in the House committee.” Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughllin, a Shelbina Republican, said Coleman “maybe just didn’t think before she made the comments. I think maybe she just didn’t weigh out what the results of that would be.” The House intended to restore the ballot candy, said state Rep. Peggy McGaugh, a Republican from Carrollton and chair of the House Elections Committee. But the specter of Senate Democrats upending the legislative session could change those plans. “They made it clear they don’t like the plan we’re working toward,” she said. “So there will be a lot of give and take there… and I don’t know exactly where we’ll end up.”
Education and child care
The most expansive bill to clear the Senate so far this year would expand the state’s K-12 tax-credit scholarship program and allow charter schools to open in Boone County. The bill also includes provisions boosting public school funding and teacher retention efforts. “This is a great package,” said state Sen. Andrew Koenig, a Republican from Manchester who is sponsoring the bill. “It’s a great package for parents. It’s a great package for kids.” Meanwhile the House passed open enrollment legislation that would allow a school district to accept transfer students from outside its boundaries. Its sponsor, Republican state Rep. Brad Pollitt of Sedalia, has argued that open enrollment “offers parents the opportunity to select curriculum options to better align with their personal beliefs.” How either bill will fare in the other chamber is unclear. “The House has focused the last few years on open enrollment,” said Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, a Columbia Republican. “The things that we’re focusing on are a little more involved or a little deeper or a little more holistic.” One of the first bills to win House approval this year would create tax credits designed to make child care in Missouri more affordable and accessible. The state continues tograpple with a child care crisis, with about 200,000 children living in parts of Missouri considered“child care deserts” because there are one or fewer child care slots available for every three children. The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Brenda Shields of St. Joseph, would create three types of credits: for taxpayers who donate to support child care centers, for employers who make investments in child care needs for their employees and for child care providers. It won overwhelming approval in the House, and is a priority for both Parson and Senate Democrats. But the Freedom Caucus has poured cold water on the idea. “What we’re focusing on is cutting the tax burden for everybody, not having targeted giveaways and tax benefits for certain groups of folks,” Eigel said. “I want to lower the tax burden for everybody.” 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: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. FAFSA delays cause financial uncertainty among Missouri studentsby Lydia Williams, Missouri Independent For many students, the excitement of deciding where to attend college is being met with concern over whether they’ll receive the financial aid they need. This year, FAFSA delays have left guidance counselors, students and administrators wondering whether financial aid offers will be received before deciding where to go for college. “If I fill out the FAFSA now, my information is only getting sent in May,” said Lindsey Brink, a senior at Battle High School. “I’m supposed to be registering for orientation and doing all those things.” FAFSA, which stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is usually launched on Oct. 1, but last year the U.S Department of Education announced that the application would be available on Dec. 31. This was due to a bumpy rollout of a new, simplified FAFSA form mandated by Congress in 2020, according to Federal Student Aid . The overhauls were intended to make the application easier and expand access with fewer questions, allowing users to transfer tax data directly from filed IRS forms and make more students from low-income backgrounds eligible for more aid. However, some changes to the application unintentionally made the process more challenging. The U.S. Department of Education announced that since the form went live, fewer than five million forms have been submitted so far. That’s a fraction of the almost 18 million forms previously submitted by students during the 2020 to 2021 application cycle, according to Federal Student Aid data. Keri Gilbert, director of financial aid at Stephens College, said not many students have been filing the FAFSA and the steep decline is “concerning.” “We do know that nationally, FAFSA filing is down about 42%, and in the state of Missouri, it’s down about 38%. So, we know that not as many students are filing the FAFSA,” Gilbert said. “That could absolutely end up impacting all across the nation how many students end up going to college next year.” Melissa Patterson, a college and career counselor at Battle High School, worries that underrepresented populations will be disproportionately affected financially. “We have a population of first-generation students that are underrepresented, and the FAFSA is really how they can pay for school,” she said. “The delays in processing the application have really caused a lot of anxiety for our students.” On top of causing uncertainty, they’ve also had trouble filling out the form. Some students had trouble understanding the wording of certain questions, getting in touch with the FAFSA help center and making changes or edits on completed forms. “I have not had any students successfully reach the FAFSA support by phone,” said Anna McMillen, director of counseling at Douglass High School. “You call, it goes through a menu, and then it tells you, ‘We are experiencing higher than normal call volumes, please try again later,’ and hangs up on you. There isn’t even an option to wait in line on hold or get a return call.” Students with parents who don’t have Social Security numbers are also having trouble receiving financial aid. They are able to submit the form without their parents’ information but are later required to go back and edit that information before actually receiving aid. “It is very complex and complicated, and they have not announced necessarily when the actual fix in the FAFSA form will be available for those students,” Gilbert said. Patterson emphasized that better communication from Federal Student Aid would have been “helpful.” “The process as far as what students need to do, being able to make changes, that kind of thing, that was not communicated very well,” she said. “That’s something we just kind of find out when you start filling out the application.” Christian Basi, university spokesperson at MU, said the FAFSA delays will not impact university operations such as housing, parking, orientation and scheduling of events. Currently, deposits for the upcoming school year are up 9% over the same time last year, according to a Monday email to the MU community. “The only thing the FAFSA is impacting is our and every other universities’ ability to get out to students their financial aid packages for the upcoming year prior to our deposit deadline, so that those students can make a decision on where they want to go to school,” Basi said. Students and families can access the net price calculator to get a personalized estimation of their financial aid to attend Mizzou. Emmalee Djerf, a psychology major at Stephens College, said she’s worried about the possible amount of student loans that she has to take out with the delays. “I already have several loans from being here in my undergraduate,” Djerf said, “so I’m hoping for something that would reduce the amount if I did need to take a loan out.” While Djerf said students are in limbo over these delays, it’s important to not put blame on college financial aid offices. “Students I’ve talked to on campus or heard about online, they’re really struggling because they don’t know when they’ll receive the information from the school because of the delay, and (it’s) causing kind of an uprise within students,” Djerf said. “So, I just hope that financial aid offices aren’t flooded with tension towards them because it’s not something they can handle themselves.” 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: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. Missouri House to hold public hearing on governor’s $52.7 billion budget proposalby Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent The first – and perhaps only – chance for the public to tell Missouri House members what they think of Gov. Mike Parson’s $52.7 billion budget proposal will be Thursday. The timing is upsetting Democrats on the House Budget Committee, who said public input should have occurred weeks ago. Scheduling one hearing on all 17 spending bills for the day before lawmakers take a week-long spring break doesn’t allow for adequate deliberation, they argue. “Because we are so far along in the process, for anything to change in the budget because of public testimony would be highly unusual,” said Rep. Deb Lavender, a Manchester Democrat who began pushing for hearings at the end of January. At the hearing, Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith will reveal how he wants to change Parson’s spending plan. Votes on the budget will be held the week of March 25 with floor debate tentatively scheduled for the following week. Smith defended the timing of the hearing. He’s heard from advocacy groups, other lawmakers and individuals in one-on-one meetings and will allow for more testimony after spring break if the Thursday hearing isn’t enough time for everyone who wants to speak, he said. “If we had an objection or concern raised in my office about the opportunity to testify publicly, and the short notice about that, I would be open to making more time for that,” Smith said. Parson’s budget includes raises for teachers, a 3% increase for higher education budget and childcare and funding to study improvements on Interstate 44. He’s also asking for a 3.2% pay raise for state workers, $1.5 billion in federal funds for broadband expansion and $314.7 million for new construction on college campuses. The state is in a strong financial position. While the record surplus that has built up over the past three years is down from its peak of $8 billion, the treasury is holding $4.6 billion in surplus general revenue, with another $2 billion in funds that can be spent like general revenue. Surplus general revenue, under House rules, is off limits for budget committee members who want to push new or increased spending items. And Smith, who in past years has cut large sums from Parson’s spending plan, said he will do so again in his proposals coming tomorrow. “I’m going to be looking to limit as much spending as I can and the management of general revenue certainly will be a part of the committee substitute process,” Smith said. Smith has frustrated Democratic spending proposals in past years because they must cut in one place of the budget to increase spending on another line. “I have no reason to think he hasn’t continued to excel at his skills to lock all of the money behind doors I don’t have access to,” Lavender said. The timing of Thursday’s budget hearing isn’t unusual compared to past years, but it does represent a failure of an ambitious plan to move the budget along earlier in the year. House appropriations subcommittees began looking at department requests in December, with a stated goal of holding votes in the full House this week. With factional fights tying up the Senate, timing could become critical. Lawmakers must pass spending bills through both chambers no later than May 10. Last year, the budget was finished only on the final day allowed by the constitution. Members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, a group of six conservative Republican senators, have vowed to debate the budget line-by-line on the Senate floor. “That’s why they wanted to (finish earlier in the House) because everybody knows that there is a real risk that this has a problem in the Senate this year,” said state Rep. Peter Merideth, a St. Louis Democrat. “And we may find ourselves in a special session for the budget.” Smith, however, said he’s confident that the potential embarrassment of missing the constitutional deadline will help move the budget in the Senate. “Everyone on all sides of the warring factions within the Missouri Senate agree broadly that we should finish the budget on time, that that’s our one responsibility,” Smith said “That’s my impression.So, I’m hopeful that they’ll be able to get things together well enough to pass the budget on time.” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Lincoln Hough said he will be rushed but will get a budget to the Senate floor in time to hold the debate if it proves lengthy. “With the House taking the amount of time that they’ve taken,” Hough said, “it puts us in a little bit of a jam on the Senate. So we’ve got to work a little more feverishly than I would really like to once we get their bills.” 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: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. Missouri Independent: Missouri Senate debate over state holidays devolves into shouting match3/7/2024
Missouri Senate debate over state holidays devolves into shouting matchby Ezra Bitterman, Missouri Independent The Missouri Senate became a convoluted mess Tuesday as a debate over ceremonial holidays quickly turned into an argument on transgender healthcare. State Sen. Greg Razer, a Kansas City Demcorat, introduced a bill creating “Chris Sifford Day.” Sifford was a longtime staffer for former Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, a Democrat, before both died in a plane crash. Numerous amendments were attached to the bill by other senators, adding other ceremonial holidays. Few senators were even present for the lengthy debate over what holidays to add and whether Missouri’s unofficial moniker “the Show-Me State” needs to be enshrined in law. State Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican, even watched some of the proceedings in the gallery among the public. State Sen. Denny Hoskins, a Republican from Warrensburg, criticized the number of commemorative holidays the state has. There are over 100 ceremonial holidays in state law. Most of these are unknown to all but a few people, such as Jan. 16, which is set as Albert Pujols Day to honor the St. Louis Cardinal legend. Hoskins offered an amendment that would to add an expiration date to the holidays included in Razer’s bill. That amendment reopened debate from last year, when a bill blocking doctors from administering gender-affirming care to minors was only able to get through a Democrat filibuster when a 2027 expiration date was added. Hoskins has filed a bill this year that would remove that expiration date. Razer, the Senate’s only openly gay member, opposed the amendment, saying he felt that Hoskins can’t, in good conscience, propose the expiration of a holiday when he can’t keep a promise on the deal made last year. Hoskins retorted that he never agreed not to file a law removing the expiration date on the transgender legislation at some point in the future. After continuing back and forth, the debate reached a climax when Hoskins said: “We want to talk little kids having their private parts cut off?” in a reference to medical procedures for gender transition. Razer responded: “How many times did you say that ridiculous lie last year?” Then, after screaming at each other for a few seconds, Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden banged his gavel and called the chamber to order. The bill was set aside, ending what was meant to be a procedural debate on ceremonial holidays that became a fiery referendum on gender policy. 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: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. First contract for widening I-70 approved by Missouri highways commissionby Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent The first contract for reconstruction of Interstate 70, for a 20-mile stretch from Columbia to Kingdom City, was awarded Wednesday by the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission. The $405 million contract is part of a planned $2.8 billion project that will add a lane of traffic in both directions from Wentzville in St. Charles County to Blue Springs in Jackson County. The work awarded Wednesday to Millstone Weber for construction and Jacobs for engineering is expected to be finished by the end of 2027. The entire I-70 project is expected to be completed by the end of 2030. The next sections to be contracted will be from Blue Springs to Odessa in western Missouri and from Wentzville to Warrenton on the eastern side of the state. At a news conference after the commission vote, Missouri Department of Transportation officials and the contractors said there will be two lanes open for traffic in both directions across the state throughout the project, which should minimize delays for motorists. “We promise we are not going to do anything to make people’s lives miserable,” said Thom Kuhn, president of Millstone Weber. Lawmakers last year appropriated $2.8 billion, half from surplus general revenue and half from bonds to be issued as needed, for the biggest interstate construction program since the highways were first built in the 1950s and early 1960s. Widening and rebuilding I-70, the first interstate highway to be built in the nation, has been on MoDOT’s unfunded agenda for almost 20 years. “We’ve been studying this corridor for decades,” MoDOT Director Patrick McKenna said. The section from U.S. Highway 63 in Columbia to U.S. Highway 54 at Kingdom City was chosen because other work has already been planned to rebuild both intersections. “That section really made sense for us to get a quick start and begin construction later this spring or early summer,” said Eric Kopinski, director of the Improve I-70 Program. “Had we looked at a larger section or incorporated a larger contract, our start would have been much delayed.” The Columbia intersection of Highway 63 and I-70 is notorious for congestion, and the reconstruction plan anticipates redirecting as much of 60% of local traffic away from the rebuilt interchange. There will be four roundabouts, a new bridge and a new collector road, project director Jeff Gander said. “I know some of you may not understand a lot of that terminology, but it’s really cool and it’s going to work really really well because it’s going to be like nothing you’ve ever seen, but it is going to function very well,” he said. The appropriation to rebuild I-70 is one side of a tumultuous relationship between lawmakers and MoDOT. Over the past several years, the legislature has approved an increased fuel tax to fund road work and delivered large general revenue appropriations for work that is outside the 5-year Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan, or STIP, to maintain low-volume rural roads. The difficult side of the relationship includes efforts to put MoDOT under more direct control of the General Assembly or governor. The biggest point of conflict between lawmakers and MoDOT is over a lawsuit filed by the commission seeking clarity about its authority to spend Road Fund money as it sees fit. The commission wants to implement a market-based pay plan to raise salaries so 65% of MoDOT employees are at or above the midpoint in the pay range for their job. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 89.4% were below the midpoint, according to state budget documents. On Oct. 31,Cole County Circuit Judge Cotton Walker ruled that a provision in the Missouri Constitution that states money deposited in the fund shall “stand appropriated without legislative action” gives the commission the authority to implement the pay plan. Walker’s ruling is being appealed and the pay plan, first authorized in 2021, remains on hold. Legislation introduced this year includes a proposal to repeal the “stand appropriated” language and limit MoDOT spending to amounts approved by the legislature. Other proposals would give lawmakers power to veto the STIP and eliminate the commission and allow the governor to appoint the department director. During the commission meeting, member W. Dustin Boatwright of Cape Girardeau warned that passage of any of the bills would mean major disruptions to department operations. “These proposed changes could result in upheaval of the project selection process by shifting funds from one area of the state to another without public input and allowing partisan politics to enter a nonpartisan commission structure,” Boatwright said. At the news conference after the meeting, Commission Chairman Terry Ecker of Elmo said he is confident that none of the proposals will win passage. “I’m just gonna say it’s not gonna happen,” Ecker said. The present structure isolates the commission from politics and any changes would have to be approved by voters, he noted. “And I just don’t foresee that happening,” Ecker said. “So I don’t know that we spend much time worrying about it.” Another issue that has some lawmakers questioning how road funds are used involves the money for the I-70 project. The $1.4 billion set aside from general revenue has earned $16.4 million in interest so far this fiscal year, money Gov. Mike Parson wants to earmark for a study of which portions of Interstate 44 should be improved. During a budget hearing, lawmakers questioned Treasurer Vivek Malek on how interest earned on the fund is being credited in state accounts. They contend the interest earnings should be returned to the general revenue fund instead of remaining in the earmarked account. The project awarded Wednesday is a design-build contract that specifies any risk of cost overruns will be borne by the contractors. “When we talk about risk,” McKenna said, “this is a risk that’s being factored in by the industry.” Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus 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: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. Missouri lawmakers want to raise teacher pay but anticipate Senate resistanceby Annelise Hanshaw, Missouri Independent Legislation boosting teacher recruitment and retention in Missouri is once again a priority of the Missouri House, with a hearing Wednesday morning on a pair of Republican-backed bills. Rep. Ed Lewis, a Republican from Moberly, is sponsoring legislation based on the findings of the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s blue ribbon commission. It is the third year he has sponsored legislation on teacher recruitment and retention. “The problem is obvious to all of us at this point,” he told the committee. “We don’t have enough teachers for our public schools and, to some extent, for the private and parochial schools as well.” After three years in a Missouri school district, an average 43.3% of teachers leave, according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. According to the Missouri National Education Association, a teachers’ union, the state ranks 50th in average starting teacher pay and 47th in average teacher pay. Lewis’s bill seeks to raise the base teacher pay, allow differentiated salary schedules for hard-to-staff areas and increase scholarships to recruit teachers, among other provisions.
Rep. Ann Kelley, a Republican from Lamar, asked whether support staff could be added to the bill. “The schools cannot be successful without the support staff, and the salaries of the support staff and retention and retaining those support staff is vital,” Kelley said. Lewis was hesitant to increase the potential fiscal impact. “We’re gonna have a hard time getting anything across the finish line on the other side,” he said, referring to the Senate. Last year, he filed the teacher pay-raise proposals as separate bills before the committee combined them into one bill. The House overwhelmingly approved the legislation on a 145-5 vote, but filibusters in the Senate ran out the clock before it could be debated in that chamber. Rep. Willard Haley, a Republican from Eldon, is also sponsoring a bill to raise teachers’ minimum salary — though his ask is a bit different. He hopes to raise the base to $46,000 by the 2027-28 school year. Fully implemented, the bill is estimated to cost up to $17.5 million. “I just insist that it’s time that we start paying our teachers what they deserve,” Haley said. He said teenagers with a high-school diploma can make more working at a local factory than some teachers do. Currently, state statute allows schools to pay teachers as little as $25,000 or $33,000 for those with a master’s degree and 10 years of experience. The state has a grant program, which is up for renewal annually, to raise teacher base salaries to $38,000. In the current school year, 310 school districts are using the grant for a total of 4,806 teachers, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education told The Independent. Gov. Mike Parson has requested an increase to this program to raise the base to $40,000 for the next fiscal year. Lewis doesn’t like relying on the annual appropriations for teacher salaries. He said he worries, with an upcoming gubernatorial election, the next governor may not fully fund the base-salary grant. “I don’t think we should legislate through the budget. I think that the policy should go first and the budget should follow,” he told the committee. Haley’s bill prescribes a fund that would match district’s contributions 70/30 to get salaries to his preferred base. Rep. Kathy Steinhoff, a Columbia Democrat, said she wanted a “broader” change. “I look at our large school districts… 52% of our districts will see no impact from state dollars towards teacher salaries,” she said. “I feel pretty confident if we ask those districts ‘Are you having a retention problem?’ They would probably all say yes.” Rep. Dan Stacy, a Republican from Blue Springs, asked if a base-pay increase could be tied to a decrease to another part of the budget. Haley said his bill is “top priority.” “This is such a priority item that we must handle this,” he said. “We must fulfill this funding even at a cost to some other things. But education is that important to me.” No one testified in opposition to the legislation Wednesday. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST.
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Perry Gorrell, interim legislative liaison for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said raising the base teacher pay is the Commissioner of Education’s top priority. “We know that the greatest impact on student achievement is having highly qualified teachers for students. These two bills helped to ensure that,” he said. Otto Fajen, lobbyist for the Missouri branch of the National Education Association, said the teachers’ union would like lawmakers to consider small schools with under 100 kids when looking at funding. “While not that many of our members are going to benefit directly from the increase here, it sends a message that the legislature believes that entry pay and, overall, the earnings for teachers should resemble similar professions to make it a more viable choice going forward,” Fajen said. Steve Carroll, a lobbyist representing the Cooperating School Districts of Greater Kansas City and St. Louis Public Schools, said he woke up at nearly 4 a.m. thinking about these bills. He felt like his anxiety was pointless because the bills “probably won’t even make it across the finish line because of what’s going on in the Senate.” But he saw the salary of a baseball player in a news article and marveled at society’s “priorities.” He believes teachers are the ones more deserving of higher pay. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
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Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus 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: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter. |
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