May 20, 2013

You are here: Home / Archives for Sara Lampe

House Republicans and Democrats assess the session (VIDEO)

May 21, 2012 By

As one might expect, Republicans and Democrats in the House see the 2012 legislative session two very different ways.

Representatives Tim Jones (left) and Mike Talboy (right) courtesy, Missouri House Communications

Republican Majority Floor Leader Tim Jones (R-Eureka) says the House kept the promises it made and had a successful session. “We are very proud of our session, we are very proud of our caucus. We were very proud to welcome our members across the aisle … along with our colleagues in the Senate.”

Jones touts accomplishments including a charter schools reform and accountability bill, a co-employee liability fix and narrowing the difference in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine-related offenses.

Democrats backed all of those proposals, but Minority Floor Leader Mike Talboy (D-Kansas City) says the two top priorities going into the session, a foundation formula fix and job creation, went undone.

“Regardless of whether it’s the House’s fault or it’s the Senate’s fault, when you have the majorities that were discussed at the beginning of this cycle, one of those two things should get done.”

One fundamental difference between the two parties’ positions going forward regards new revenue.

Democrats, like outgoing representative Sara Lampe (D-Springfield) say in order to keep meeting the state’s obligations to education, transportation and public safety, more money will be needed. “We’ve had them before this legislature. They’re out there. (Increasing) cigarette tax sales collection, internet sales collection and tax amnesty. All three of those could have gone through this year but didn’t.

Jones disagrees. “‘Raising revenue’ is simply code for raising taxes. Across this nation, across this great state that is not what the voters want. They spoke loud and clear on that in 2010 and I believe they will again this fall.”

View the House Republicans’ and Democrats’ end-of-session media conferences below, courtesy of Missouri House Communications:

Filed Under: Economy, Education, Elections, Featured, 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: , , , ,

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: , , , , ,

House budget chairman confident balanced budget will be on time

April 30, 2012 By

A conference committee of the House and Senate could begin meeting as early as today to hash out the two chambers’ differences in the budget. The Chairman of the House Budget Committee says the Senate’s budget proposal is not balanced.

House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey will be one of the House budget conferees. (photo courtesy, Missouri House Communications)

Ryan Silvey says an amendment offered by Senator Jim Lembke (R-St. Louis) threw the Senate’s proposal off kilter. “Senator Lembke was very clear … there was only $3 million left in the bank and he was very upset there was only $3 million left on the bottom line, and then by the time he got to House Bill 2011, he offered a $10 million dollar amendment. It’s not rocket science to figure out that three minus ten is negative-seven, so they put it out of balance singlehandedly.”

Silvey says what puts the Senate proposal out of balance is the restoration of a $28 million dollar blind medical subsidy fund, which the House proposed cutting. “It’s been our argument all along that it’s not sustainable, so it’s ironic that issue, which has become such a focal point, is what put the budget out of balance.”

Silvey says the two chambers do agree on at least one point. “Clearly the House made higher education a priority. We’re glad that the Senate concurred with that. The Governor’s $106 million cut to higher education is no longer on the table and won’t be discussed in conference.”

The state Constitution requires the budget be balanced and delivered to the Governor by the end of next week. Silvey is confident that will happen. “We’re going to figure out how to clean up the mess and what we can get in conference, but I’m confident that we’ll have conference committee reports on time by the constitutional deadline and that the Governor will get a balanced budget from the general assembly.”

Silvey will be one of the budget conferees for the House. Speaker Steven Tilley (R-Perryville) says he has a good idea who the others will be. “The vice chair of budget, Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood), then you’re going to see the third person from the Republican side be either Lincoln Hough (R-Springfield) from southwest Missouri or Tom Flanigan (R-Carthage) from southwest Missouri as well. On the Democratic side it will almost always be Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) and Sara Lampe (D-Springfield).”

Filed Under: Economy, Featured, Legislature, News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

House and Senate budget proposals have clear differences (AUDIO)

April 6, 2012 By

The divide between the House and Senate versions of the budget is clear. The two chambers will go to conference, likely tomorrow, to try to hammer out differences.

The House and Senate will likely begin a budget conference tomorrow. (Picture courtesy: Missouri House Communications)

One disparity involves $70 million dollar tax amnesty legislation passed by the House, that hasn’t come to a vote in the Senate. The Governor and the House built that into their budget proposals. The Senate did not, and the bill remains in that chamber awaiting a vote.

Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer (R-Dexter) says he hasn’t brought the tax amnesty bill up to a vote because it uses one-time money to balance the budget. He says, “There’s also the argument that people that have violated the law, that have not paid their taxes, should be penalized in some form. I feel like by (passing this legislation) they avoid a penalty.”

House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City) says both chambers passed the tax amnesty bill last year. He says the difference it makes between the two spending plans makes for an interesting budget conference. “Normally you budget to the same number and you just have different priorities … in this instance, in order to get the House positions back we have to not only cover the cost of the House position but also account for the fact that we’re going to be $70 million below in the big picture.”

Another difference between the two proposals comes from another bill, HB 1731, that reallocates lottery revenue. Its biggest impact is to support state veterans programs that lawmakers agree are in desperate need of money.

Silvey says that bill is also awaiting passage in the Senate. “We need to have that addressed. If that bill continues to get hung up … then we’re going to have to figure out a way that we can continue to fund our veterans homes because we’ve all committed to funding them. Nobody wants to underfund that priority.”

The House has approved motions to send 12 of the 13 budget bills to conference. Conferees will likely be officially named today.

AUDIO:  Silvey and Representative Sara Lampe (R-Springfield) discuss differences between the House and Senate budget proposals

Filed Under: Economy, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , ,
« Older Posts