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Legislative budget chairs ask for restriction in use of state planes in light of low revenue, budget reductions

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The chairman of the House and Senate budget committees are asking the Highway Patrol to restrict the use of state-owned aircraft as a cost-saving move, in light of state revenue coming in below projections.  The two Republicans raise the issue in continued criticism of and response to Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) actions that cut or restrict more than $780-million dollars in the state budget for the fiscal year that begins Tuesday.

Senator Kurt Schaefer (left) and Representative Rick Stream.

Senator Kurt Schaefer (left) and Representative Rick Stream.

They focus on the use of state planes by the governor to travel the state to events including the opening or expansion of new businesses, speaking engagements and the signing or vetoing of legislation. 

In a statement Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) says of Nixon, “While he continues to cut services for some of our most needy and education, he flies around in his state-of-art $6 million plane using state money to pay for the expense of pilots, maintenance, fuel, and other associated travel costs.”

He and House Budget committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) on Tuesday sent a letter to the Patrol regarding the use of the state aircraft it maintains.

“We budgeted as though our revenues would grow at a certain rate, and that didn’t happen,” said Stream. “Until we can have further budget analysis, we ask the highway patrol to restrict use of all state-owned aircraft unless it is within the core mission and duty of the department to maintain public safety.”

A release from the Senate and House press offices says legislators are asking “certain state departments to look at cutting waste after the governor’s actions” on the budget, but only specifies the request made of the Highway Patrol.

Legislative budget chairs slam Gov. Nixon for budget vetoes and restrictions (AUDIO)

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Republican budget leaders are slamming Governor Jay Nixon (D) for the actions he has taken with the state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. They say he is using “inflated” figures to estimate the impact of tax break bills passed on the final day of the session, and playing politics with the state’s children and the disabled in an attempt to force lawmakers not to override his vetoes of those bills.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) and House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) co-chair the budget conference committee. (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) and House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) co-chair the budget conference committee. (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Nixon announced on Tuesday vetoes totaling $144.6-million and restrictions of $641.6-million from the state budget. Coupled with federal and other dollars that results in a reduction of $1.12-billion dollars for state programs, services and employees.

Nixon says the legislature sent him a budget that was more than $786-million out of balance. He says that’s in part because the legislature didn’t account in its budget for the impact of those 10 tax break bills, which he says could rise to $425-million in lost state revenue.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) and House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) say those bills were paid for in the general assembly’s budget proposal, and say Nixon has overplayed the effect those bills will have on state revenue.

“We looked at all the fiscal notes (on those bills) and (Nixon) took the high position on all those fiscal notes,” says Stream, “so we disagree with him on those estimates.”

Nixon’s is restricting proposed increases of more than $100-million for K-12 public schools and $43-million for colleges and universities, and says he could release those funds if the legislature doesn’t overturn his vetoes of those ten bills.

“He inflates the numbers,” says Schaefer of Nixon’s assessment of those bills, “to really hold school kids, kids with autism, mental health services, other things, hostage in order for Missourians to not get a tax break.”

Both budget directors say withholds have been anticipated because state tax revenues are behind last year’s, and behind the projections both Nixon and the legislature used in proposing the new budget.

“We budgeted to a number that we thought we were going to grow to and it just didn’t happen in the six months that we’ve had to look at it,” says Stream.

Schaefer says Nixon has exacerbated the revenue shortage by not having a plan for economic development.

“The only economic development plan this governor has had for six years is expand welfare and take Obama dollars,” says Schaefer.

AUDIO:  Schaefer criticizes Gov. Nixon, accusing him of having no plan for economic development

Nixon says the legislature’s inaction on expansion of Medicaid eligibility, that could draw more federal dollars, is making the state’s economic situation worse.

Nixon also blames the need for his actions in part on the legislature basing its budget on the passage of tax amnesty legislation. Schaefer says the budget didn’t assume the passage of that legislation, which has been offered but hasn’t achieved passage for several sessions.

Legislative Black Caucus member critical of caucus, Gov. Nixon for transfer bill veto

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One member of the Legislative Black Caucus has strong criticism of that group and of Governor Jay Nixon (D), following the veto of legislation to change the state’s student transfer law.

Representative Courtney Curtis (D-Berkeley) says the issue has resulted in a “rift” in the Legislative Black Caucus.

Representative Courtney Curtis (photo courtesy; Missouri House Communications)

Representative Courtney Curtis (photo courtesy; Missouri House Communications)

Nixon on Tuesday made good on his promise to veto that legislation, SB 493. He says it would violate the state’s Constitution by allowing, in specific circumstances, tax dollars to go to private schools. He and other critics said the bill was merely an effort to get school voucher language into state law and did nothing to address the problems created by Missouri’s 1993 transfer law.

Curtis disagrees with that assessment.

“That was a clever marketing strategy, but that’s it,” says Curtis. “If you ask me it only allowed us to continue running in place, given that Normandy’s been unaccredited for the past 20 years, as opposed to taking a step forward towards progress.”

The Normandy district will be replaced July 1 with a new entity called the Normandy Schools Collaborative, that will have no accreditation status whatsoever. The State Board of Education has voted to prohibit new student transfers from that district and deny the transfers of more than 130 students who moved to the district last summer but didn’t attend it in the 2012-13 school year.

Curtis thinks the Board has acted based on the Governor’s announcement that he would veto the legislation, and says the combination of its actions and that veto leave Normandy students and parents trapped.

“It doesn’t leave (those parents and students) in a place where they have hope for progress,” says Curtis. “There will certainly be lawsuits against the Board’s actions. Even with regard to students not being able to continue transferring when they lawfully transferred in the first place, it only creates more uncertainty there.”

Curtis wants to see a plan for fixing the transfer issue from the governor, and has a similar criticism of the Legislative Black Caucus.

“Where is the leadership of the Black Caucus with regard to this issue?” asks Curtis. “It’s only our districts that are effected by the lack of action with regard to this issue”

Some of that caucus’ members and other House Democrats who opposed SB 493 said an alternative was offered, that they referred to as a “clean” transfer fix, but Curtis says it didn’t go far enough to address all the issues related to transfers.

Attempts to reach for an interview Representative Tommie Pierson (D-St. Louis), a Legislative Black Caucus member and critic of the transfer legislation, have been unsuccessful. Pierson joined Nixon at a media conference in St. Louis Tuesday to veto SB 493. He later released a statement saying Nixon is “to be commended for the veto” and called the legislation, “an anti-public education bill masquerading as a fix to the flawed student transfer law that is pushing previously financially stable districts into bankruptcy.”

 

Gov. Nixon signs bill to restrict protests at funerals

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Legislation has been signed into law by Governor Jay Nixon (D) that is meant to protect families of fallen Missouri soldiers from protests at funeral services.

Representative Stanley Cox (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Stanley Cox carried HB 1372 in the state House.  (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

House Bill 1372 makes it a class “B” misdemeanor to protest within 300 feet of the site of a funeral within an hour before or after a funeral or burial service. A class “B” misdemeanor carries up to six months in jail. The offense increases to a class “A” misdemeanor for repeat offenders, and could face up to a year in jail.

The restrictions do not apply to a funeral procession outside the 300 foot buffer zone.

The law is based on one that was passed by the City of Manchester and was upheld by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis when a court challenge was brought by Shirley Phelps-Roper, a member of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. It is that organization’s protests that prompted the law’s restrictions.

The bill was passed unanimously by both the House and the Senate.

MO House Speaker says VA problems support argument against Medicaid expansion (AUDIO)

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The Republican Speaker of the Missouri House says recent problems with the Veterans Health Administration support the stance his caucus has taken against Medicaid expansion. Tim Jones (R-Eureka) has been opposed to using federal dollars to expand eligibility for that program in Missouri since Governor Jay Nixon (D) raised the issue in late 2012.

House Speaker Tim Jones (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

House Speaker Tim Jones (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

He says issues that have come to light  – veterans needing care being on secret waiting lists, some veterans dying while waiting for care, and records being falsified to reflect shorter wait times than actually experienced – illustrate the problems of having government-run a healthcare system.

“We actually look extremely smart and wise in not expanding Medicaid up to this point,” says Jones.

“The VA healthcare system, the federal Obamacare law and state Medicaid systems – the commonality is they’re all run by a form of the government,” says Jones. “The Medicaid system has now got the heavy hand of the federal government trying to use the carrot-and-stick approach of using the federal bill to expand the state systems.”

“We cannot put our heads in the sand and ignore potential similarities and analogies that can be drawn between the federal government running one massive national healthcare system on one hand versus another,” he adds.

Jones says Medicaid must be reformed rather than just have millions more in tax dollars be applied to the current system.

Medicaid expansion is an issue many Democrats running this year for state legislative seats will focus on.

AUDIO:  Jones says running on Medicaid expansion in this year’s campaigns would be a mistake

Missouri Democrat leader discusses focus on state legislative races (VIDEO)

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The Missouri Democratic Party hopes to take some of the seats currently held by a large Republican majority in both chambers of the state legislature.

Chairman Roy Temple says there is a real opportunity for his party to make headway in those races. One issue that he thinks works in his party’s favor is Medicaid expansion.

“Medicaid is just a great example of where the current majority has worked around an ideological agenda instead of focusing on practical problem solving that would benefit Missouri families, Missouri communities and Missourians,” says Temple. “I think Medicaid is a great example of that but it’s not the only one.”

Several House Republicans have said they support some level of Medicaid expansion, perhaps coupled with reform. Temple thinks they’re only trying to defuse that as an issue in their races.

“They’ve come to realize that is a case that can be made against them, that they can be held accountable for their failure to act and for the harm that they’ve inflicted on Missourians in terms of healthcare,” says Temple.

He expects support from key, current Democratic office holders in state legislative races, and that includes support from Governor Jay Nixon (D).

“Governor Nixon clearly understands the harm that’s being inflicted by the current supermajorities in the General Assembly,” says Temple. “In fact there’s a fair argument that he understands it better than any other person in the State of Missouri because he has to deal with the consequences of their actions more directly than perhaps anyone else.”

Nixon has been criticized in the past for not coming to the aid of fellow Democrats in campaigns. Temple doesn’t comment on such critiques.

“I really have no interest in looking behind me or watching in the rear view mirror. I’m interested in looking forward,” says Temple. “We have an opportunity before us and I’m trying to marshal every available resource and every person who’s willing to assist us in that effort.”

Gov. Nixon launches energy initiative

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Governor Jay Nixon (D) has launched the development of a comprehensive State Energy Plan. He has written an executive order that will have the Economic Development Department’s Division of Energy take public opinions for a report due at the end of May, 2015. Nixon says the goal is to make sure Missourians have access to “clean, reliable, affordable and abundant energy,” while attracting high-paying energy jobs to the state.

In a statement from Nixon’s office, he writes, “How we produce and consume energy will have profound and lasting impact on our economy, our security and our quality of life,” Gov. Nixon said. “With so much at stake, we need to have a clear vision for what our energy future should look like, and how to get there. That is why I am charging our Division of Energy with gathering input from stakeholders around the state and developing a detailed and comprehensive plan for meeting Missouri’s needs for clean, reliable, affordable and abundant energy now and in the future.”

Nixon’s office says in public meetings across the state, the initiative will solicit input from the public and energy stakeholders including consumers, businesses, public utilities, renewable energy companies, academic researchers and environmental advocates.

Nixon announced the executive order during a speech to Midcontinent Independent Service Operator (MISO) stakeholders in St. Louis. Read the full text of his address here.

Missouri executes John Winfield for 1996 double murder (VIDEO)

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Missouri has carried out the execution of 46-year-old John Winfield for the murders of two women in St. Louis County 18 years ago. Winfield received a lethal injection of pentobarbital at 12:01 Wednesday morning and was pronounced dead at 12:10.

John Winfield (courtesy; Missouri Department of Corrections)

John Winfield (courtesy; Missouri Department of Corrections)

Winfield appeared to tell the witnesses that were there for him, “I love you,” after the curtains were opened to the execution chamber. After the 5 grams of the drug was administered, Winfield took a series of deep breaths and then stopped moving. The execution appeared to take less than a minute.

Winfield declined to make a final statement and did not accept food prior to the execution. His body was released to one of his attorneys.

The execution was witnessed by five members of the family of one of the women he killed, Shawnee Murphy, as well as his ex-girlfriend Carmelita Donald whom he shot four times leaving her blind, three members of her family, his mother, his daughter, and two of his friends. There were no representatives present of the other woman he fatally shot, Arthea Sanders.

Winfield is the seventh man executed in Missouri since November, and the seventh since the state began using pentobarbital compounded by a pharmacy that the Department of Corrections will not officially confirm the identity of.

Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman Mike O’Connell offers the timeline of the John Winfield execution.

Winfield’s execution proceeded after the United States Supreme Court declined two applications for stays filed by his attorneys. One asked for a stay until the resolution of an appeal Winfield had pending in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals related to Missouri’s execution protocol. The other had asked the Court to stay his execution while it reviewed the 8th Circuit Court’s records and considered his argument that consideration of his petition for clemency was interfered with by Department of Corrections officials.

A short time later, Governor Jay Nixon (D) denied Winfield’s petition for clemency.

In a statement, Nixon wrote, “John Winfield’s violent rampage on the night of Sept. 9, 1996, left two women dead and another permanently blinded. The two murder victims, Arthea Sanders and Shawnee Murphy, were killed while trying to help Carmelita Donald escape from the armed Winfield. Carmelita Donald herself was shot and permanently blinded by Winfield, who showed no mercy that night on his victims. The jury in this case properly found that these heinous crimes warranted the death penalty, and my denial of clemency upholds the jury’s decision.

“I ask that the people of Missouri remember the victims of John Winfield, both those who were killed and those who survived, and keep them and their families in their thoughts and prayers.”

After the execution was carried out, Attorney General Chris Koster also issued a statement. He writes, “Nearly two decades have passed since John Winfield’s cowardly acts of rage and jealously changed the lives of three families forever. He brutally murdered two defenseless young women, one in front of her children, and attempted to murder the mother of his own children, leaving her permanently disabled. For his actions, a court lawfully sentenced him to death under Missouri law, and tonight that sentence has been carried out.”

Ahead of Winfield’s lethal injection, Missouri was again the subject of national attention for its executions. It was one of three executions scheduled to take place within 24 hours of one another from Tuesday to Wednesday evening. It became the second execution since one widely regarded as “botched” in Oklahoma; that of Clayton Lockett in April.

An independent autopsy has revealed that the execution team there failed to set a properly functioning intravenous tube in Lockett’s leg. He died of a heart attack 43 minutes after the first drugs were administered.

A condemned Georgia inmate, Marcus Wellons, was executed late Tuesday night by lethal injection for the 1989 rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl. In Florida, John Ruthell Henry is scheduled to be executed Wednesday evening for murdering his wife in 1985.

 

House Republican leaders: Nixon using fear tactics to back vetoes, overturn attempts uncertain this soon

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House Republican leaders accuse Governor Jay Nixon (D) of using fear tactics and overblown numbers in his assessment of the ten tax break bills he vetoed last week, but they don’t yet know if their party will seek to overturn his vetoes.

Nixon says those ten bills would cost state, county and city budgets $776-million dollars in revenue he says would be lost to “sweetheart deals” for special interests. He has been traveling the state to promote his arguments in defense of the vetoes, and telling local governments to leave room in their budgets to absorb the losses he says would be incurred if the legislature overturns those vetoes.

House Speaker Tim Jones (R-Eureka) tells local governments to use their own analysis.

“Because my impression of what these bills tried to do, what their intent was, was to reign in Governor Nixon’s out of control Department of Revenue, which has been out of control in many ways,” says Jones.

Majority Floor Leader John Diehl (R-Town and Country) says the local government leaders he’s talked to aren’t taking the Governor’s message about those ten bills seriously.

“His playbook of scare tactics is wearing pretty thin with people,” says Diehl of the governor. “He’s cried wolf on numerous different occasions over the past couple of years, none of which have proven to be true.”

Legislative analyst estimates on what the fiscal impact of most of those bills could be are still being updated, but Jones says he’s hearing that Nixon’s estimates are off.

“The consensus is that the governor’s numbers are completely inflated and generally seem to be pulled out of thin air without a lot of backup data,” says Jones. “I know that’s why the proponents of the bills and the sponsors are doing their best to make sure that their analysis is fully supported by the facts. They were comfortable about that the first time around, so we’re just going back and double checking.”

Several House Republicans have alluded to possible attempts to override Nixon’s vetoes of at least one of those bills when lawmakers return for the annual veto session in September, but Diehl says it is premature to predict whether such attempts will be made.

“We will take a look at the governor’s veto message to see if any valid points are raised in the veto message. Here, I don’t think there are any,” says Diehl. “We then take that veto message and the bill and we’ll discuss it as a caucus in August when we all meet again.”

Diehl says House and Senate Republican leaders must also meet before any decisions will be made about addressing the governor’s vetoes.

“I think it’s premature,” says Diehl of announcing overturn attempt now, “but I think there’s a strong possibility that we’ll make efforts to do that.”

See an earlier story on the ten bills vetoed by Governor Nixon

Nixon vetoes ten bills he says would have hurt state, local budgets

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Governor Jay Nixon (D) has vetoed ten tax cut bills that he says could have reduced state and local revenues by more than $776-million dollars.

Nixon called the bills “secret, sweetheart deals so that the well-connected can pay less, while asking all Missourians to pay more,” and said they reflect, “priorities that are dangerously out of whack.” He says they would “undermine local public services and flout the will of the voters by eroding revenues that support services like firefighters and cops, libraries and ambulance services, snow plows and health inspectors, public transit and road repair.”

Republicans say Nixon is wrong in his assessment of those tax cuts, and say they would have a positive net impact on the economy.

See Nixon’s statement along with his veto letters on each of the ten bills

Nixon says because the legislature might overturn his vetoes he will make adjustments to the budget in case these bills still become law.

“I’ve got to assume that even though I’m vetoing them that I have to deal with them budgetarily. I don’t have the luxury of closing my eyes,” says Nixon, “So the negative impacts of these are going to be felt in the next few months because of the action taken by the legislature. I can’t not account for them.”

Nixon encourages city and county governments, who he says also stand to lose money if those bills become law, to also make adjustments to their budgets to account for the possibility that his vetoes get overturned.

“They’ve got to balance their budgets. The budget starts on July 1. Taking hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars out of local, voter approved levies must be dealt with by mayors, city councils, county councils, ambulance districts, fire districts, all of those folks now,” says Nixon. “They’ve got, just like I do … hard decisions to make right now.”

Nixon doesn’t say what actions he will take with the budget in relation to the ten bills vetoed Wednesday. That could include withholding money appropriated to certain parts of the budget, or making restrictions to some lines that are contingent on his vetoes being sustained.

Lawmakers return to the Capitol in September to consider whether to attempt to overturn any of Nixon’s vetoes.

The bills vetoed Wednesday by Nixon are SB 693, SB 584, HB 1865, SB 612, SB 860, HB 1296, SB 727, SB 662 and HB 1455 and SB 829.