May 22, 2012

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House-Senate committee to consider blind pension fund eligibility restrictions

May 17, 2012 By

Whether eligibility restrictions will be added to the blind medical subsidy fund will next be considered by House and Senate conferees.

Representative Ryan Silvey (photo courtesy, Missouri House Communications)

The legislature’s budget proposal added such restrictions to that fund in the budget, which some lawmakers and the Governor say is meaningless without accompanying language in statute.

House Budget Chairman Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City) offered that language as an amendment to a Senate bill dealing with home health care issues.

“We had taken in (the budget) the requirements of the SCHIP program and applied them to the blind healthcare program. Again, House Bill 2011 got signatures of every member of the conference committee, republican, democrat, House and Senate, and we passed the bill out of both chambers.”

See Silvey’s amendment offered to SB 854

The Senate refused to accept the House’s version of the bill and sent it back. The House has requested a conference to settle the chambers’ differences.

See our earlier stories on the blind pension fund in the state budget.

The House representatives on that conference committee are Representatives Silvey, Thomas Long (R-Battlefield), Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City), Rory Ellinger (D-University City) and Judy Morgan (D-Kansas City).

Filed Under: Finance, Health & Medicine, Human Interest, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

Charter schools expansion, accountability proposal sent to the Governor

May 16, 2012 By

The state legislature has approved a bill that would allow expansion of charter schools and strengthen their accountability.

Representative Todd Richardson carried SB 576 in the House (photo courtesy, Missouri House Communications)

Charter schools are supported by taxpayers but not regulated by districts. They typically use different curriculums from their public school counterparts. Currently, they are restricted in Missouri to St. Louis and Kansas City.

The bill would let charter schools be formed anywhere in the state in districts that are unaccredited or have been provisionally accredited for three straight years, and in districts in which the local school board sponsors them. It also adds new provisions to laws on charter school accountability.

See the legislation, SB 576

Representative Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) says, “The bill allows for an annual review of all the charter school sponsors in the state, it also provides for consistent performance reviews and holds charter schools to the same standards with the annual performance review, including map tests, that our public schools have to meet.”

Opponents point out that some charter schools have performed worse than public schools in the same districts. Representative Tishaura Jones (D-St. Louis) sponsored an identical bill. She says in the case of the Imagine schools that were recently shut down by the State Board of Education, “We all know that Imagine schools have been the bottom feeders in the state in terms of performance.” She says original laws regarding accountability were weak, and this legislation will prevent more situations like that with the Imagine schools.

Representative Sara Lampe’s (D-Springfield) district includes the largest accredited school district in the state. She supports the accountability portion of the bill, but not the expansion part. “The state department has some guidelines for how (charter schools) can be better. This bill is not needed for that to happen. The only thing that this bill is needed for is to create an opportunity for expansion of a business out into the state into your community to draw profit off your community and take away your local community school.”

Governor Jay Nixon called on the legislature to pass a charter schools accountability bill in his “State of the State” address in January.

Filed Under: Education, Featured, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

Rush Limbaugh inducted into Hall of Famous Missourians (VIDEO)

May 14, 2012 By

Behind closed and locked doors, radio commentator Rush Limbaugh was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians today in a private ceremony in the Missouri House of representatives. 

In an event announced about 25 minutes before it began and not opened to the general public, Limbaugh’s bust was unveiled before a group made up mostly of Republican lawmakers, along with their staff, Limbaugh’s family and at least two political candidates – U.S. Senate hopeful Sarah Steelman and incumbant Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder, who also spoke at the event. Highway Patrolmen guarded the entrances to the House Chamber.

Inductees to the Hall are chosen by the Speaker of the Missouri House. Speaker Steven Tilley (R-Perryville) says Limbaugh deserves the honor as an entertainer, and says nothing Limbaugh has said that has garnered controversy should overshadow the whole of his work and accomplishments.

The decision to honor Limbaugh generated contention in recent weeks, especially after a recent scandal during which Limbaugh called a Georgetown law student a “slut” and a “prostitute” after she testified before Congress regarding access to contraceptives.

See the videos of Limbaugh speaking (top) and the other speakers and his introduction (bottom)

　

Filed Under: Featured, Human Interest, Legislature, News, Politics & Government, Press Pass Tagged With: , , , ,

House leaders consider legality of blind pension compromise

May 11, 2012 By

Some say the way the House and Senate budget conferees compromised to fund the blind medical subsidy fund won’t pass constitutional muster.

(left to right) Representatives Sara Lampe, Mike Talboy and Ryan Silvey (photo courtesy; Missouri House Communications)

The compromise was to include over $24 million dollars for the fund and to add language to the budget that restricts eligibility for it based on income levels, then provide over $3 million additional dollars through premiums and copays resulting from the eligibility guidelines.

Governor Jay Nixon’s office has released a statement saying adding those restrictions “through the budget process does not change existing law – and is invalid.”

House Minority Floor Leader Mike Talboy (D-Kansas City) agrees. “As early as 2010, and a myriad of cases beforehand, state … language in the budget that attempts to legislate is invalid.”

The ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, Sara Lampe (D-Springfield), says Governor Nixon should know what he’s talking about. “The Governor clearly comes out of the Attorney General’s office and he probably knows more about that than I do, but we clearly have to look at that.”

Lampe says if the legislature’s proposal doesn’t stand, she doesn’t know where else the $3 million-plus dollars would come from except education.

House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City) says putting directive language in a budget is not a new practice. “The appropriations bills are also laws, and to say that we don’t put direction on how to spend an appropriation in the budget is to have not read the budget. I mean, we do it all over the budget.”

In fact, Silvey says, the language the Committee used is based on that for the State Children’s Health Insurance (SCHIP) program, and was found in that section of the budget.

See the eligibility  language for the SCHIP program (Section 11.555) and the Blind Pension (Section 11.128)

House Democrats say the Republican majority might amend the eligibility language from the blind pension section of the budget to another bill and pass it before the end of the session, on Friday.

Filed Under: Economy, Featured, Health & Medicine, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , ,

Budget Conference Committee sends proposal back to House, Senate

May 9, 2012 By

The House-Senate Budget Conference Committee has wrapped up its work, leaving it up to the two chambers whether to approve the fiscal year 2013 spending plan and send it to the Governor.

Budget Conference Committee Co-Chairmen Kurt Schaefer (center of image) and Ryan Silvey (right). Photo courtesy: Missouri House Communications

As part of an agreement that ended a deadlock in the Senate, the Committee proposes dividing $3 million between seven institutions instead of the $2 million that had been allocated just to Southeast Missouri State University. The institutions and the amounts they will get are: Missouri Western State University – $516,559, Southeast Missouri State University – $885,969, Northwest Missouri State University – $515,476, Missouri Southern State University – $346,521, University of Central Missouri – $580,377, Lincoln University – $49,663 and Truman State University – $105,435.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) told the conference committee that under the agreement, the Senate added to veterans home funding legislation a requirement that the Joint Education Committee develop a funding formula for higher education by 2015.

The Committee agreed to propose restoring $25 million to the Blind Medical Subsidy Fund, which the House had recommended cutting in its original budget proposal. The Committee added language to treat it like the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) children’s Medicaid program, limiting the program to those earning up to three times the poverty level and requiring copays or premiums for some income levels.

This answered the concerns of House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City), who didn’t like that it was open to people of all income levels. “The only means test that they employed was do they make too much to qualify for Medicaid? If so, you’re on the program. Now they’ll have to obviously means test those that are on the program and if you make over 300 percent, which by the way is over $57,000 a year for a family of three, if you’re making more than that then you’re not going to qualify for the program.”

In a statement, a Governor’s Office praises the restoration of money to the fund but opposes the proposed limitations. A Jay Nixon spokesman says, “the attempt to place additional limitations on eligibility through the budget process does not change existing law – and is invalid. We will ensure that this program continues to serve all 2,800 needy, blind Missourians who depend on it.”

See the budget bills

The Committee’s plan would language that would have pulled funding from the Sue Shear Institute for Women in Politics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, but left a section that says institutions participating in political activity can not receive state funding.

Schaefer says that just reflects current law, “which is that no money going to higher education should be used for political activity. Whether it’s the Sue Shear Institute or anything else, if it’s public money that’s being used through public education to fund political activity, that already was basically against the law anyway.”

The Committee proposed restoring $3 million to the tourism budget, leaving it about $200,000 below what it was before the Senate cut it in its original budget proposal. The Committee also settled on $750 thousand for regional autism projects. The House had originally proposed $1 million dollars for those, with the Senate having proposed no funding.

Earlier in the week its members opted to go with the House’s proposal that all state workers making under $70,000 a year would receive a 2 percent raise beginning July 1.

Its proposal now goes back to the House and Senate for consideration. Per the Constitution, the budget must be delivered to the Governor by Friday.

Filed Under: Economy, Featured, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,
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