Politics
Match rules limit Missouri’s federal infrastructure fund spending as deadlines loom
When Golden Valley Memorial Healthcare in Clinton received $1 million from the state last year to expand its cancer treatment options, the small hospital was ready to match the grant.The new facility providing radiation therapies opened in December, saving patients from the region a drive to Kansas City or Springfield or doing without the treatments altogether. The hospital relies heavily on Medicare and Medicaid to pay for the care it provides, CEO Craig Thompson said, and some patients don’t have the means to travel 80 or 90 miles.“We’re halfway between Kansas City and Springfield,” Thompson said in an interview with The Independent. “So we’re a long way from a lot of places.”Not every recipient of an earmarked appropriation from state lawmakers, of which there have been hundreds in the past two years, has been as ready to use the money set aside for them. Many of the appropriations require matching funds from the recipient, often as much as $1 for every dollar coming from the state.Cape Girardeau Public Schools Superintendent Howard Benyon said he’s only been able to secure about $500,000 of the $3 million needed to match a grant to improve vocational education in the community.“It’s just been difficult for us to maximize the dollars because you have to obligate the dollars before you can pull down the money,” Benyon said.The money for Golden Valley’s cancer clinic and Cape Girardeau’s vocational expansion comes from the $2.9 billion in federal funds Missouri received from the American Rescue Plan Act passed early in the administration of President Joe Biden.
The Bourland Radiation Oncology Center under construction in 2023 at Golden Valley Memorial Healthcare in Clinton, Missouri.
Along with the earmarked projects, the massive federal fund is supplying money for competitive grants to improve water infrastructure, build broadband networks in rural areas, support tourism and prepare industrial sites for tenants, among others.Missouri is entering the final year for lawmakers to add new items to the ARPA budget, and all funds must be spent by the end of 2026. So far, only $732 million, or about one-fourth of the federal money, has been spent.On Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee will begin putting its imprint on the state budget for the coming fiscal year. Proposed at a total of $52.7 billion by Gov. Mike Parson, the House pared it to $50.7 billion.The committee has a job most lawmakers of either party would love to have. There’s plenty of money available from the remainder of an unprecedented state surplus that peaked last year near $8 billion.But the dark cloud in that silver lining is a state government struggling to fully staff its agencies, uncertainty about renewal of provider taxes that secure about $4 billion of the state Medicaid budget and a promise from members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus that they will debate every new item in the budget.Senate Appropriations Chairman Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican running for lieutenant governor, said last week that he’s prepared for a lengthy fight to get the taxes renewed and the budget passed.“In this environment, when people know you have to get something done,” Hough said, “then oftentimes they’re using that as leverage to get other things done.”
Tristen Rouse
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St. Louis Public RadioFrom left: Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, Drew Dampf and Sen. Steve Roberts, D-St. Louis, talk on the first day of the 2024 legislative session, last January in Jefferson City.
The surplusOn July 1, Missouri had a general revenue surplus of $5.1 billion, according to the summary document prepared by the Office of Planning and Budget. The document projects a surplus of $3.2 billion when the current fiscal year ends June 30, declining to $1.6 billion at the end of the following fiscal year.Even that smaller amount would be more in unobligated funds than the state has ever had. But there are other funds, mainly saved from federal incentives for the Medicaid system during the COVID-19 pandemic, that hold about $2 billion more.And, in a pinch, the billions of general revenue set aside for big projects could be reclaimed. That extreme step would cut in half the size of the $2.8 billion project to widen Interstate 70, cancel a $300 million mental hospital slated for Kansas City and halt planning for a $600 million expansion of the state Capitol.The budget passed in the Missouri House spends $14.9 billion of general revenue, with about $14.1 billion for day-to-day operations of state government and $807 million in capital construction.Parson’s administration and lawmakers are working from a consensus revenue estimate that projects this year’s revenue will decline slightly from the $13.2 billion collected in fiscal 2023 and remain essentially flat in the coming year.Through Thursday, however, revenues for the year-to-date are up 2.7% and, if continued for the final weeks of the fiscal year, would add more than $400 million to the unobligated balance. If projections are correct for flat revenue in the coming year, another $400 million of unanticipated revenue would be received.How – and whether – to use the surplus is one of the big issues members of the Freedom Caucus say they want to debate.“Hopefully we’re able to really dive in deep to make some real good cuts to that to make sure we have a balanced budget,” Sen. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican, said. “That’s a huge concern.”Under the state constitution, any surplus from previous years “may be included in the estimated revenue available for expenditure during the fiscal year or years for which the governor is recommending a budget.”The surplus accumulated for several reasons.The first is rapid general revenue growth for two years as sales tax receipts surged on federal relief payments and inflation, income tax receipts grew as minimum wage increased and general competition in the labor market drove up wages.The second was to use federal COVID-19 relief funds wherever possible to replace general revenue.The final reason is a huge staffing shortage in state government that grew in fiscal 2023 despite big pay raises for state workers. The budget authorized 54,350 “full time equivalents” – state governments’ way of counting its workers regardless of each individual’s hours worked – but only 47,351 were used by agencies.That vacancy rate, almost 13%, was up from the 12.5% rate the previous year and almost triple the pre-pandemic average.Including the 3.2% pay increase in the budget for the upcoming year, the pay of individual state employees will have gone up almost 21% since the start of 2022. There are also new incentives for night work, with a much larger differential, and this year’s budget includes a proposal for longevity pay that would boost salaries for workers in prisons, mental hospitals and other facilities with residential populations.Vacancies fell in fiscal 2023 for three agencies – Corrections, Mental Health and Social Services – with large populations in their custody. Vacancies grew in one large department, Transportation, and several smaller departments.“That’s a common issue across the entire workforce, not just state government,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith, a Republican from Carthage running for State Treasurer. “We’ve made substantial increases to state to state pay over the course of the last several years.”Agencies also have the option of using money for unfilled positions to increase pay for difficult-to-fill jobs, Smith said.During fiscal 2023, around $563 million of general revenue appropriations lapsed, or were unspent, for one reason or another. Most of that money was payroll and benefits for unfilled positions, said Dan Haug, Parson’s budget director. Benefits such as pensions and health care add about 50% to the cost of each employee, in addition to their salaries, he noted.“I don’t think we ever thought this was just going to be something that was going to go away immediately,” Haug said.
Daniel Shular
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Special to St. Louis Public RadioMissouri State Rep. Cody Smith, R-Charthage, during a 2021 press conference in Jefferson City.
Written budget v. actual spendingIn fiscal 2016, Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s last full fiscal year in office, the legislatively approved budget for day-to-day operations totaled $26.5 billion, with $9.2 billion from general revenue.Nixon also signed off on $538 million in capital expenditures, including $94 million of general revenue.When the accounting was finished, the state actually spent $24.4 billion on operations, or 92% of budgeted funds, and used more than 98% of the allowed general revenue.In fiscal 2023, the most recent year with full data, lawmakers appropriated $47.1 billion for operations, including $12.6 billion of general revenue. That budget also included appropriations of ARPA funds for the first time and other large building projects that brought the total to $50.8 billion, including $13.15 billion in general revenue.When the accounting was done, the state spent $37.4 billion, or 79%, of operating appropriations and $38.2 billion overall as ARPA funds went mainly unspent in the first year.Vacancies are a big reason for the unspent funds, Haug said, but some bills in the operating budget now include large continuing items, such as the I-70 project, that will take years to complete.Because of the way the budget is written, that has to be shown as an ongoing operating line. In the capital expense budget, items that take longer than a year are moved to the reappropriation bill and not counted against the budget. And the amounts were never immense, he said.“Our capital improvement bills have always been relatively small, not like billions of dollars between ARPA and even general revenue now,” Haug said. “You’ve got all the money sitting out there for I-70. Right, you know, that’s yeah, that’s appropriated but we all know it’s gonna be six or seven years to spin that out.”The headline number used for Parson’s budget for the coming year, $52.7 billion, and for the House version, $50.7 billion, include $3.1 billion originally spent in fiscal 2023 and 2024 from ARPA funds and associated general revenue.Another reason the budget headline number has grown is an influx of federal funds, from $8.8 billion in fiscal 2016 to $24.3 billion in the House budget for the coming year, nearly 48% of the total.And lawmakers have eliminated estimated appropriations, recorded as a single dollar, which they had previously used for many items from federal grants that could possibly be received to individual income tax refunds.“We need to make sure we’ve got a number in there that’s big enough because we don’t want to have to tell people ‘hey, sorry, you’ve got to wait until next July 1 to get your tax refund because we ran out of appropriation authority,’” Haug said.With continuing vacancies, and unspent authority, one goal for the House was to reduce the budget anywhere it seemed reasonable, Smith said.One way was to set higher rates for service providers but reducing the total spent because of unused funds from past years. That drew fire from Democrats, but Smith defended the move.“We cut a significant amount of authority out of the budget as compared to the governor’s recommendations, looking at vacant and empty federal authority for various places was a big part of that,” Smith said. “It was an attempt to right size those appropriations to the actual need, and not have an unnecessarily inflated top line number.”Members of the Senate Freedom Caucus have been frozen out of the budget process since its only member on the Appropriations Committee was removed in January. The differences between budgeted employees and spending and actual work hours used and outlays will be a starting point for debate on the budget, they said.“Whether we plan for it or not. I am confident that the people of this state have continued to give the necessary resources to the politicians to Jefferson City to do their job and provide the most basic services,” said state Sen. Bill Eigel, a Weldon Spring Republican running for governor.Hough said he’s prepared to talk about the differences between budgeted spending and actual outlays.“That number doesn’t surprise me at all,” Hough said. “And I think it’s something that I’m sure we’re gonna have plenty of discussion on the floor when we roll this thing out, you know, whenever we get there.”The budget must be finished by May 10. Only twice since 1988, when the deadline for spending bills was set at a week before final adjournment, have lawmakers missed it and been forced into a special session to finish the budget.House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat running for governor, said last week she is worried this year will be the third.“I’m always worried there’s not enough time to get the budget done,” she said. “And I would say that each year that concern has gotten a little bit worse and worse because of the Republican infighting that is happening, particularly within the Senate“I am concerned how this is all gonna play out. Are the Freedom Caucus members going to hold everything hostage? Just to get their, you know, clips for their political campaigns?”
Courtesy
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Julie Legg PhotographyA linear accelerator purchased to equip the Bourland Radiation Oncology Center at Golden Valley Memorial Healthcare in Clinton. The center was built with a grant of federal COVID relief funds from state lawmakers.
ARPA matchesGolden Valley Memorial Healthcare was in the midst of a capital campaign for the cancer treatment center when the state funding became possible, Thompson said.Since opening, the center has provided 1,300 treatments, saving patients an estimated 154,000 miles of travel.The capital campaign was important to provide the match, Thompson said.“But without this state appropriation,” he said, “I’m not sure we would have been able to see it to the end.”When Cape Girardeau Public Schools learned the $3 million was available, its plan was to spend it on a new welding education program. That project, however, was financed from a separate $5 million grant that had no match requirement, Benyon said.The district, faced with pressure to increase teacher pay and other rising costs, has tried to be creative with its matching funds, Benyon said. It is working in partnership with the city of Cape Girardeau by putting a vocational fire training program at the city-owned airport, where a firefighting presence is required every time a commercial flight takes off or lands.“What it will be is a regional fire science hub where people can send their fire all the other fire employees to our facilities to get certifications that they need,” Benyon said.He’s been told he has a June 1 deadline to identify matching funds, Benyon said. He expects to meet about $500,000 of that requirement.“It’s not like we just have an abundance of dollars,” Benyon said. “I can’t put our district at risk by obligating another $6 million, just to get back $3 million.”The original match requirement hasn’t been enforced on some projects, like college campus buildings.The first bill allocating ARPA funding included $461.1 million for higher education projects, each contingent on the institution providing a 50% match.Higher education institutions have well-organized lobbying and lawmakers eager to show their support and got around the match requirement by showing they weren’t all ready to use the $461 million set aside for them in 2022. Lawmakers struck a deal with the colleges and universities to fund the match or add a new project if the initially required match was available.In last year’s appropriations, the legislature added $287 million to the funding for college projects. This year’s bill reappropriating unspent funds adds another $281 million.The match requirement hasn’t been waived for any other set of grants.“The governor asked for transformational projects, meaningful projects that were going to make a big difference,” said Paul Wagner, lobbyist for the Council on Public Higher Education, the lobbying arm for nine of the state’s four-year universities. “And for some schools, the size of that project meant that it was going to take a long time to get the match.”The match requirement for ARPA grants was added by lawmakers and Parson’s administration. There is no requirement in federal law or regulations requiring states to make their spending plans subject to local cost sharing.“We want to make sure that the state is not the only one having skin in the game on these projects,” Haug said. “We want this to be a partnership.”The match requirement shows the commitment and resources to complete and operate the project when finished, Haug said.The legislature is not monitoring which projects in earmarked lines are meeting match requirements and which are not, Hough said. If any come to his attention, he said, he will work on it.“I’m on the record in a committee last year, telling the administration that if a match is not specifically required in the legislation, then we don’t require a match,” Hough said.Smith, who insisted on match requirements in the original bill allocating ARPA funds, said he wants the requirement to be flexible but not waived.“If they haven’t been able to acquire that over the course of the last couple of years, there’s a mounting concern that they won’t be able to in time to get that money out the door with the ARPA deadlines,” Smith said. “It is concerning and we’ve relaxed those requirements over the last couple of years that we’ve had that money and try to get it out to those political subdivisions.”At the New Madrid Port Authority, a transfer point for large amounts of agricultural products, the ARPA grant was $5 million to help create a north harbor, expanding its ability to support shipping in the region.The negotiations, Director Timmie Hunter said, were arduous.“We asked the state if we would be able to use the money that we had already spent out there on the project,” she said.Eventually, Hunter said, the work the port had already accomplished was accepted as part of the match.If the match requirement had been cash in hand, she wouldn’t have taken the money, Hunter said.“That would basically stop us from doing anything,” she said.And if lack of matching funds means other projects won’t happen, Hunter said, the match should be waived.“It would help a lot of people,” she said, “and we wouldn’t have a gripe with it.”This story as originally published by the Missouri Independent, part of the States Newsroom.
One year after they passed the original legislation, Missouri legislators have approved a fix to a law allowing property tax freezes for seniors.Members of the House voted 139-0 Friday to pass the bill. Since it has already gone through the Senate, it now goes to Gov. Mike Parson.The current law allows local governments to pass ordinances that would freeze property taxes for seniors. It also would allow voters to approve such an ordinance.St. Charles and St. Louis counties, as well as the City of St. Louis, have already passed their own ordinances on the issue.The way the law is structured now, only seniors who receive Social Security would be eligible for a property tax freeze. That requirement has left out seniors who are on pensions like police officers and firefighters.Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, R-Parkville, sponsored both the original bill and the changes this session.“Rather than tying eligibility of the property tax freeze to Social Security eligibility, we instead tied it just to age,” Luetkemeyer said.Rep. Ben Keathley, R-Chesterfield, said the legislature did the first part of the job last year.“Now it’s time to make sure that this language clarifies and we can properly expand this to make sure all our seniors can benefit,” Keathley said.The freeze would still only be applicable in municipalities that have approved an ordinance.One provision that some Democrats wanted to add this session was a means test, under which seniors with higher incomes would not qualify for the freeze.That language was not added to the final bill.
The Missouri legislature has passed a proposed constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters, would prohibit ranked choice voting in most of the state.Members of the House voted 97-43 Friday to pass the resolution. It has already cleared the Senate and does not need the approval of Gov. Mike Parson.The resolution states that under no circumstances “shall a voter be permitted to cast a ballot in a manner that results in the ranking of candidates for a particular office.”The resolution has a carve-out for St. Louis, which implemented an approval voting system in 2020 for its municipal elections.Through this system, voters can select as many candidates as they want in a primary. The top two candidates then go to a runoff election.The proposed constitutional amendment would not affect St. Louis’ system.Rep. Ben Baker, R-Neosho, sponsored the House version of the resolution. He said he was not in favor of the exception for St. Louis.“I’m not OK with it, but this is where we’re at with this language of what we can get done in the body. I think it’s still a big step in the right direction,” Baker said.In speaking against the resolution, Rep. Eric Woods, D-Kansas City, said it was unnecessary and not the way to reassure people about election results.“There are other ways, other systems, other ideas that we can adopt to keep our democracy or our republic, whichever word you want to prefer to use, vibrant,” Woods said.In addition to the ban on ranked choice voting, the resolution states that the candidate who receives the most votes in a political party primary will be the only candidate on the ballot for November for that party.The resolution states that all elections will be by paper ballot or by “any mechanical method prescribed by law.”Included within the proposed resolution is language stating that only U.S. citizens who are 18 or older, residents of Missouri and residents of the political subdivision they vote in are entitled to vote in elections. That language does not make any changes to existing law.Similar language has been a point of contention all session, where it has been in the same conversation as an amendment that sought to make it harder to amend the constitution.Democrats have stated all session this language was being added by Republicans to trick voters into approving it. Senate Democrats filibustered for about 50 hours, eventually killing those proposed constitutional changes.
Missouri’s chaotic and divisive legislative session sputtered to a close on Friday with the inability to pass a measure making it harder to amend the state’s constitution.The failure of constitutional threshold boost, precipitated by a marathon Democratic filibusters and GOP infighting, is seen as a major win for abortion rights proponents. And some lawmakers see the end of this session as an end of an era where a GOP supermajority could impose its will.Since the beginning of the year, Republicans have struggled to pass a measure that would require any constitutional amendment to pass in five out of eight congressional districts in addition to a statewide majority. The big sticking point was whether to include other provisions, such as a measure banning noncitizens from voting — something that’s already illegal in Missouri.After a record-setting Democratic filibuster, Senate Republicans threw in the towel on having other items in Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman’s resolution when they couldn’t get enough members to force a vote. House Republicans rejected any proposal that didn’t include the noncitizen voting, and the Senate adjourned shortly after 10 a.m. — effectively killing the proposal for this year.Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, issued a Tweet on the social media platform X saying that the other provisions, dubbed ‘ballot candy’ by both critics and supporters of the constitutional threshold boost, were “unnecessary” and “deceptive” additions aimed at misleading voters.
This week, the Missouri Senate spent almost 50 straight hours attempting to pass IP Reform. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful and sent the bill to the House.Late yesterday, the House attempted to pass the same bill back to us. There’s no way the Senate can get done in 8 hours…— Caleb Rowden (@calebrowden) May 17, 2024
He reiterated that message in his end of session press conference.“I think the entire fact that had to be in there is a slap in the face to Missourians,” said Rowden. “I think that Missourians are absolutely smarter than they give them credit for.”Democratic Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, said the demise of the bid making it harder to amend the Missouri Constitution helped preserve Senate traditions — including an aversion to forcibly ending debate using what’s known as the previous question motion.“Democrats and Republicans came together this past week, and said enough is enough of this hyperbole,” said Rizzo, D-Independence.Rizzo also said it was likely that Republicans would try again at some point to reign in the initiative petition process. “And it might come back with a vengeance honestly,” he said.Some Republicans contended that the only way to raise the bar for constitutional amendments would be to include other items, especially since any proposal would face a torrent of expensive and well organized opposition. Similar measures to boost the threshold to pass constitutional amendments failed resoundingly in Arkansas and Ohio.Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, said if the proposal went down in flames this year, it could shelve the idea of making it harder to amend the Missouri Constitution for the foreseeable future — pointing to how GOP leaders abandoned ‘right to work’ as a priority after it was overwhelmingly repealed in a statewide referendum.“I would rather see that we’re able to cover a multitude of areas that are important to voters to protect our election process, and that’s what we’re attempting to do,” said Brattin, the head of the Missouri Freedom Caucus.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres, speaks to Majority Floor Leader Jon Patterson, R-Jackson, on Thursday during the waning days of the legislative session at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.
Abortion vote looms largeHouse Republicans, such as Speaker Dean Plocher, expressed exasperation that the Senate couldn’t get their act together on what they dub ‘IP reform.’ The Des Peres Republican has contended that the failure to get it done could make it more likely that a proposal legalizing abortion will pass.“We the House are not responsible for abortion that may pass in Missouri. I blame that squarely on the Senate,” Plocher said.Plocher and other Republicans wanted the constitutional threshold boost on the ballot in August — with the hopes it would pass and create a tougher standard for the abortion initiative to pass in November. But Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden questioned whether that would actually happen, adding that it’s possible that any initiative in November would only need a majority.“The notion that IP reform being on the ballots is the magic bullet to make sure that the abortion IP doesn’t pass is ridiculous,” Rowden said. “It’s going to take Republicans and conservatives and folks who disagreed on IP folks who disagreed on any number of things to get out to the ballot and vote against that thing in November.”Sen. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, strongly disagreed with Rowden’s interpretation.“The plain reading of the constitution says it goes into effect 30 days after. So if it was on the August ballot, then that means per the plain reading of the constitution, it would be in there the first week of September,” Koenig said. “Now, how would the courts rule on that? I’m sure there’d be lawsuits and sure there’s a chance. … But the plain reading of the Constitution says 30 days.”Sen. Bill Eigel, of Weldon Spring and a member of the Freedom Caucus and a candidate for governor, said “I still have confidence that Missouri didn’t become any less pro life as a result of the failures on the Senate floor.”“We’ve been winning that fight for two decades in this state,” Eigel said. “And I think that a lot of folks, no matter how many failures we see from all these politicians, I think a lot of folks are going to be surprised by a whole bunch,” he said.But House Minority Leader Crystal Quade not only expects for voters to find favor with the abortion legalization measure, but for it to help elect enough Democrats to break the GOP supermajority.“This is something that Missourians want, because they’re tired of Republican overreach,” Quade said. “They’re tired of politicians in their doctor’s offices and telling them how to live their lives.”
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri Senate Majority Floor Leader Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, pauses while giving closing remarks on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City. O’Laughlin gaveled the Missouri Senate out minutes after gaveling in and a week of disfunction.
Session personified by bitter GOP factionalismFriday’s Senate adjournment marked a somewhat anticlimactic end to a session that was highlighted by bitter fighting between Senate GOP leadership and the Missouri Freedom Caucus.The disarray included protracted clashes between the two factions over a multitude of issues, including the reauthorization of a tax known as the FRA funding the state’s Medicaid system. That led to an unprecedented situation where lawmakers ended up approving the budget without going to a conference committee.Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin adjourned the Senate much earlier than usual on the last Friday of session — and said she did so because she didn’t want to exacerbate tensions. Thursday featured bitter public sniping between Eigel and Freedom Caucus critic Sen. Mike Cierpiot.Plocher alluded to how the Senate didn’t approve a single bill during the last week of session — something that hasn’t happened in recent memory.“Every year is unusual,” he said. “But this has been a less productive year on the other side of the building when the House has put its foot forward for the state of Missouri.”Quade pointed out that, excluding budget bills, this was the least productive session in terms of legislation passed in recent history.“It is an interesting feeling as a Democrat here in Missouri when we are relieved that they aren’t able to get their act to get together enough to actually do something,” Quade said. “There were so many terrible bills that did not pass, not only because of their infighting, but because of our Democrats doing such an amazing job of understanding how to navigate that.”
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, wipes a tear away after giving her farewell address on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City.
But Quade added that lawmakers also didn’t act on things with bipartisan appeal, including increasing the age that someone can get married from 16 to 18 years. Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City, also noted that an effort to provide tax credits to help child care centers also faltered.“That is the major disappointment of session for me. And just because we didn’t pass legislation doesn’t mean that the issue has gone away,” Arthur said. “If anything, it’s going to get worse, because there hasn’t been legislative action taken.”Rowden said that the fighting masked some successes, including the passage of wide-ranging education legislation.“The noise gets a lot of attention around here, and it probably will always be that way,” Rowden said. “But it isn’t the thing that at the end of the day defines this place. And it shouldn’t be the thing that motivates us. I make decisions not about not based on what people are going to say about those decisions on Twitter, but about what is in the best interest of the state and what’s in the best interest of this institution.”Brattin, though, said the session showed how ineffective Republican leadership can be — even when they have overwhelming supermajorities.“When you’re not doing what you said you were going to do when you are elected, people are going to be angry and mad at you for not doing what you said you were going to do,” Brattin said. “And that’s what the Republican Party has turned into: Feckless, spineless, ambassadors of nothing, and not fighting for what’s right.”
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, and Freedom Caucus member speaks on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City.
This session also marked a rare instance where Democrats, who have been outnumbered for years in both the House and Senate, played a major role in killing a major GOP priority. That came after Senate Democrats played a crucial role in passing the budget and the authorization of the FRA — and letting bills they oppose, like a ban on state funding for Planned Parenthood, go to Gov. Mike Parson’s desk.But Rizzo said the ultimate failure to get a constitutional threshold ballot item to voters was less about growing Democratic influence in the General Assembly — and more about a rejection of what he called ‘bullying.’“I don’t think that this body wanted to give certain people in that chamber a win when they’re in the throes of session after the way they were treated all year. And I truly am proud of all the Democrats and Republicans that stood up to that, truthfully.”Rep. Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat who may succeed Quade as minority leader, added that the prospect of more Democrats could change how the legislature operates.“We’ve been left out of the room, but we proven time and time again, even with a supermajority of Republicans, that they still need us to pass priorities,” Aune said.See photos from the end of the 2024 Missouri Legislative Session by STLPR’s Brian Munoz below:
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri State Rep. Adam Schwadron, R-St. Charles, reacts while talking to colleagues on Thursday during the waning days of the legislative session at the state Capitol in Jefferson City. Schwadron is sporting first-place medals for winning the legislature’s annual trivia showdown.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri Rep. Kemp Strickler, D-Lee’s Summit, speaks with Rep. Emily Weber, D-Kansas City, on Thursday during the waning days of the legislative session at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioMIssouri House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres, looks over Majority Floor Leader Jon Patterson, R-Lees Summit, on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri Senate Majority Floor Leader Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, reacts while speaking to Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, on Thursday during the waning days of the legislative session at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri State Rep. Jeff Myers, R-Warrenton, launches a rubber chicken slingshot on Thursday during the waning days of the legislative session at the state Capitol in Jefferson City. Republicans and Democrats took turns shooting rubber chickens across the floor in reference to a piece of legislation that bans Homeowner Association-led bans on chicken ownership.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioNaomi Groce, 2, presses a button held by Missouri State Sen. Rusty Black, R-St. Louis County, that makes his tie pig noises on Thursday during the waning days of the legislative session at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioMichele Shanahan DeMoss, of Peculiar, Mo., hugs Missouri State Rep. Yolanda Young, D-Kansas City, on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City. DeMoss’ daughter, Blair, was killed by celebratory gunfire in 2011.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri State Rep. Justin Hurlbert, R-Smithville, holds his 2-year-old daughter Rebekah on Friday during the waning hours of the legislative session in Jefferson City.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri State Rep. Ben Baker, R-Neosho, fans himself on Thursday, May 16, 2024, during the waning days of the legislative session at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioMIssouri House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres, wipes away tears while giving his farewell address on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, wipes a tear away after giving her farewell address on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioThe Missouri House of Representatives votes on a piece of legislation on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioThe sun sets on the Missouri State Capitol on Thursday in Jefferson City.
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St.Louis Man Sounds Just Like Whitley Hewsten, Plans on Performing At The Shayfitz Arena.
We Live Here Auténtico! | The Hispanic Chamber | Community and Connection Central
2022-2023 Board Bill 189 — Public Works and Improvement Program at the Airport
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Entertainment1 year agoSt.Louis Man Sounds Just Like Whitley Hewsten, Plans on Performing At The Shayfitz Arena.
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Business1 year agoWe Live Here Auténtico! | The Hispanic Chamber | Community and Connection Central
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Board Bills1 year ago
2022-2023 Board Bill 189 — Public Works and Improvement Program at the Airport
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Local News1 year agoVIDEO: St. Louis Visitor Has Meltdown on TikTok Over Gunshots
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News1 year agoTed Lasso-inspired pop-up bar now open in St. Louis
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Board Bills1 year ago2022-2023 Board Bill 165 — Jefferson Arms Community Improvement District
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Board Bills1 year ago
2022-2023 Board Bill 183 — Amending Ordinance Number 62885 known as the Capital Improvements Sales Tax
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News10 months agoGas tanker crashes into St. Louis Metro transit center