The number of uninsured people in Missouri has jumped by 80,000 in one year. The Census Bureau says Missouri had 646,000 people without health insurance last year, up from 565,000 in 2001. The bureau reports most of the increase is because of the loss of employer-provided insurance. Missouri’s uninsured rate is almost 11%. Enrollment in Medicaid, which might be a partial reflection of loss of insurance elsewhere, has gone up 6% in the last fiscal year in Missouri.
Invetigation Continues Into Fatal Ski Boat Accident
September 30, 2003 By
Investigators are trying to figure out why a ski boat crashed into the Mel Price Locks and Dam on the Mississippi River killing four people from Jefferson County. Three of those killed are from Festus. One is from DeSoto. All were found in the forward cabin of the boat. Two other people were seriously hurt. The boat hit the top of a steel gate that separates the piers of the dam. One observer says the boat’s operator might have thought it was going under a bridge as it approached it in the dark.
Hazelwood to Stay Open with Fewer Workers
September 30, 2003 By
The Hazelwood Ford Plant will stay open, but half of the people working there today won’t be working there next year. Ford says it’s going to eliminate one of the two shifts at the plant. Ford says demand is down for the SUVs it builds at Hazelwood. Ford does say it will invest $100 million to upgrade the plant. The decision comes after Governor Holden unveiled a $9 million incentive package to keep the Hazelwood factory opened at least through 2007. Ford had planned to close it. Successful negotiations between the United Auto Workers and Ford led to the breakthrough to keep Hazelwood open. Holden said the state’s incentive package, $5 million in job training assistance and $4 million of other tax credits, was negotiated over a two day period in St. Louis after the labor talks were concluded. The city of Hazelwood and St. Louis County will also provide tax abatements to help finance upgrades at the plant. Approximately 2,600 people are currently employed at the Hazelwood factory. Holden made the announcement during a news conference in Hazelwood. He was joined by Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder and House Speaker Catherine Hanaway. Holden also announced that he would soon appoint a Missouri Automotive Partnership with the goal of retaining the five assembly plants, dozens of auto suppliers and thousands of autoworkers in Missouri.
Former State Budget Director Sees Gloom Ahead
September 30, 2003 By
A state budget analyst says Missouri’s government is headed for a financial train wreck in the next fiscal year. Former State Budget Director Jim Moody, now a lobbyist at the State Capitol, analyzes state spending for several organizations and is often called on by the legislature for insight. He has told a joint legislative committee studying state tax policy that state government has a severe structural budget problem and the train wreck he sees developing a year from now cannot be avoided even by a strong economic turnaround. Moody said the state is paying the piper for cutting taxes and increasing services during the 90s. And Moody warned state lawmakers not to look to Washington for help. In fact, he said the state fiscal problems will only get worse if Congress passes new federal tax law changes.
Bond Urges Support for President’s Iraq Plan
September 30, 2003 By
Missouri’s senior senator says there’s an urgent need to win the peace in Iraq. As Republicans and Democrats in Washington DC debate more money for the war in Iraq, Senator Bond chides some Democrats for not backing the $87 billion supplemental appropriation for the war by using the words of President Clinton, who in 1998, said Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction must be stopped and stopped now. Opponents say the Bush Administration does not have an adequate game plan for how the money would be used. But Bond counters it was a lack of doing anything to the terrorists all through the 1990s that put America in the position it is in today. Bond says great strides to win the war on terror were made in Afghanistan and Iraq, but now a new direction to win the peace needs to be taken. Bond says while terrorists in Iraq are shooting at US military members there, they are taking aim at US opinion, hoping Americans will weaken and cut and run. He says if we do that, they win.
