Kurt Schaefer Archives

Supreme Court hears gun rights amendment arguments

July 15, 2014 By Mike Lear

The Missouri Supreme Court has heard arguments on whether what appears on next month’s ballot about a proposed gun rights amendment says all it should say.

The Missouri Supreme Court Building in Jefferson City

The Court has been asked to consider whether the title and ballot summary that voters will see next month for Constitutional Amendment 5 tells them enough about what it will do by making gun rights “unalienable.”

Attorney Chuck Hatfield asks whether voters know that would mean holding those rights to the highest legal scrutiny.

“Saying ‘unalienable’ tells us nothing,” argues Hatfield. “It tells the voters nothing about the change that we’re making to the Constitution.”

Senator Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia), an attorney, sponsored the measure in the legislature. He argues to the Court that it would put Missouri in line with rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It’s an individual right that is unalienable. It gets the highest level of review from this court,” says Schaefer. “Basically when this court is presented with those questions, and I can’t speculate on those, what they would be, but it is going to be a decision for this court of what meets that standard and what does not.”

Read the ballot language (scroll down to “Constitutional Amendment 5”)

Attorneys for the state and the backers of the ballot language say the challenge should be tossed out because of a statutory deadline barring changes to ballots within six weeks before an election, and say that absentee ballots have already been cast. They say those ballots could be invalidated if the issue’s language is changed.

Hatfield says it isn’t the job of the Supreme Court to worry about those ballots.

“If this measure passes 70 [percent] to 30 [percent] it won’t matter. If this measure fails 70 [percent] to 30 [percent] it won’t matter,” argues Hatfield. “If it’s close it’s going to matter and we may be back [in front of the Supreme Court], but today it doesn’t matter.”

Additionally, Hatfield says if his clients’ case against that language is ruled to be moot, they will have been disenfranchised because he could not have acted earlier.

“The reason we got here when we did, the reason we got to the trial court before 60 days, is because everyone doubletimed it,” says Hatfield. “The Secretary of State issued their certification early, the Auditor issued their summary statement early, we filed suit on the afternoon of the day that the Secretary certified the initiative, we were in court on the next business day. Your honor, if this case is moot, I don’t know what else to do for my clients.”

The Court is also asked to consider, if it decides ballot language is inadequate, whether it can provide new language or whether it can simply remove the issue from the ballot altogether.

It could issue a ruling at any time.

Treasurer candidate Sen. Schmitt welcomes debate about tax cut proposals (AUDIO)

July 2, 2014 By Mike Lear

Republican state Senator Eric Schmitt (R-Glendale) ended months of speculation about his political future Wednesday by declaring his candidacy for the State Treasurer’s office in the 2016 campaign cycle.

Senator Eric Schmitt

Schmitt has helped author the major tax cut proposals of the last two legislative sessions, both of which were vetoed by Governor Jay Nixon (D), with the latter of the two vetoes having been overturned. He knows if he becomes the Republican nominee for Treasurer in 2016, those tax cut bills are likely to be focused on by any Democratic opponent. He says he welcomes that debate.

“I hope that this campaign is about issues like reforming our tax code, and again I’m proud of the leadership role that I’ve been able to have in that debate,” says Schmitt. “I think any time we can allow people to keep more of what they earn, people to have more take home pay, that means a lot for families all across this state.”

Schmitt as Treasurer he can draw on his time as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and Local Government.

“In that office I think you are uniquely positioned to make sure that people are aware of what that growth strategy is, what it should be for our state, and I’m looking forward to that,” says Schmitt.

Schmitt, a lawyer, cannot seek another term in the Senate. He had been considered a likely candidate for attorney general.

Senator Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) has already declared his candidacy for Attorney General and House Speaker Tim Jones (R-Eureka) has also been considering running for that office. Schmitt says they didn’t factor in his decision not to join that race.

“The treasurer’s office is a natural … there’s alignment there with some of the things I’ve spent a lot of time on and policies I’ve advocated for, so for me that was the office that made sense,” says Schmitt.

One of his priorities during his time in the legislature has been finding ways to help patients and families deal with autism. Schmitt has an autistic son, and says that will remain a priority to him if he is elected Treasurer.

“I empathise and I want to do everything I can in that office to make programs available for folks,” says Schmitt. “One of the things I think I can also bring to that job is I have a good working relationship with both Republicans and Democrats in both the House and the Senate, and so to the extent there are priorities that we need to get passed I feel confident working with the legislature to try to move those priorities through.”

At the end of April, Schmitt had more than $866,000 in his campaign account.

AUDIO: Mike Lear interviews Senator Eric Schmitt, 10:22

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

June 25, 2014 By Mike Lear

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.

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)

June 25, 2014 By Mike Lear

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)

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.

Budget agreement includes $5.1-million boost for state Children’s Division

May 6, 2014 By Mike Lear

The House-Senate budget conference committee has adopted most of the additional money for the Children’s Division within the Missouri Department of Social Services that had been proposed by Governor Jay Nixon (D) and the House. The Senate had removed the nearly $6-million increase over concerns the money would go to pay increases for undeserving employees and technology upgrades that would not succeed in addressing issues facing the Division.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (left) and House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream preside over the budget conference committee.

The money was aimed at offering incentives to recruit and retain child abuse investigators and reduce among them a high turnover rate, and to help them whittle down a high caseload and respond faster to reports of abuse.

More than $2.2-million was proposed to create a career ladder in the Children’s Division to offer better pay and responsibility to investigators who earned them. More than $1.5-million was proposed to provide investigators with tablets and internet connectivity so they could more quickly deal with reports. $347,000 was proposed for secondary trauma and child abuse training and $955,704 was proposed to give a 2-3% increase in salary to investigators, beyond a 1% across-the-board salary increase already included in the budget.

The conference committee did not include $828,000 to forgive student loans to investigators in circuits that have seen a high rate of turnover.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) had been a vocal critic of the proposals when his committee removed them from the budget. He was concerned about offering a larger pay increase to those investigators than other state employees would receive, given the highly publicized issues that division has had completing investigations.

Schaefer says his opinion changed after meeting with the Division’s Director, Tim Decker.

“He gave me a personal assurance,” says Schaefer, “That he would direct those increases towards those employees that truly arr meritorious and doing a great job for the State of Missouri, and he would not give those increases to people that did not deserve it or were not doing a good job.”

Schaefer says he was impressed with Decker.

“He’s got a lot of ideas and I’m hoping that he can carry those forward and that what we did, we can help him carry that forward, and he can get some changes in that division.”

Schaefer says he will be watching for improvements in the Division’s performance when handling abuse reports.

The legislature must get its budget proposal to Governor Nixon by the close of business Friday.

Legislature adopts Gov. Nixon’s plan to pay for new Fulton mental hospital

May 6, 2014 By Mike Lear

The state legislature appears to be moving forward with Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) plan to fund the rebuilding of Fulton State Hospital.

The Biggs Maximum Security Forensic Center is part of the Fulton State Hospital complex.

The House-Senate budget conference committee Tuesday morning adopted language for the final legislative budget proposal to pay for the new mental hospital through the sale of $198-million in appropriation bonds. It would make the first payment on those bonds in fiscal year 2015, in the amount of $14.2-million. The plan would pay those bonds off over 25 years.

This plan would cost more in interest in the long-term but less annually bond payments. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) says that was one of the considerations for using it, rather than a 5-year bond proposal that had been offered by House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood).

“We’re being very cautious watching revenues right now,” says Schaefer. “They’re certainly not where the Governor predicted we would be and even though we were at a lower number we’re starting to have some concern about that as well. Given that uncertainty and … the primary goal here is to get Fulton built, going with the $14-million-a-year bond payment was a safer option at this point than the $44-million-a-year bond payment.”

Stream says the goal was just to get to the governor a plan to replace Fulton.

“I think everybody in this building wanted to fund Fulton. That was a number one priority,” says Stream. “We were moving three or four footballs down the field and hoping that one would pass. Every one of these options had plusses and minuses to them. This particular one, it’s a plus in that it only spends $14-million a year, but it does go out over 25-years which means that we’re going to be on the hook for more in interest.”

Nixon’s plan had called for making the first payment on those bonds in the mid-year supplemental budget, but the legislature did not include that first payment in that bill since it was weighing multiple proposed plans to pay for the new hospital.

Lawmakers and the Governor say ground is expected to be broken on the new facility in the spring of 2015. Nixon last month announced the selection of a lead design firm for the project.

The state began operating a mental hospital at Fulton in 1851. The oldest buildings still in use at the site date back to 1937. It is the state’s only maximum-security psychiatric hospital and is widely regarded by elected officials in both parties to be unsafe for patients and staff. The structure is also blamed for a large portion of the state’s workers’ compensation claims each year.

Increases for Children’s Division still pending for legislative budget proposal

April 29, 2014 By Mike Lear

The Senate Appropriations Chairman says some of the money Governor Jay Nixon (D) and the state House proposed adding to the budget for the state Children’s Division might make the final legislative budget plan.

The Senate Budget Committee didn’t follow the proposal to add $4.6-million to pay for increases to the career ladder for child abuse investigators and the creation of two new levels of caseworkers, more technology upgrades, and student loan forgiveness.

The Senate is working through the budget now and once it is done, some of its members will confer with counterparts in the House to arrive at a final proposal to send to Governor Nixon.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) says he’s open to possibly restoring the dollars for the technology upgrades, that would include giving caseworkers internet-enabled I-Pads and WiFi service to expedite filing of and retrieval of information in child abuse investigations.

“We see a lot of proposals in the state budget that if you just put more money into technology we’ll fix all these problems,” says Schaefer, “just because we put the money there doesn’t mean it’s going to solve anything. I have had some discussions along the lines of the I-Pad proposal, though, and I do think that probably is one that is probably worth looking at in [budget conference with the House].”

Deputy Director of Missouri Kids First Emily van Schenkhof says she hopes the proposed boost in pay can also become part of the budget the legislature will propose.

“Right now there is no incentive for someone who is a really good investigator to stay in the trenches and doing this work,” says van Schenkhof. “They can make more money as a supervisor and they can make more money in private industry. As a result of that we see incredibly high turnover in front line workers because this work is hard. It’s extremely hard. It’s not well compensated.”

Schaefer says doesn’t think the pay increase received enough study by legislators this year and doesn’t fit in with the recommendations of the Personnel Advisory Board.

Missouri legislature passes proposed rewrite of criminal code

April 24, 2014 By Mike Lear

The state legislature has sent to Governor Jay Nixon (D) a roughly 600-page proposal to update Missouri’s criminal code. The proposal was passed out of both chambers Thursday with wide majorities favoring it.

Representative Stanley Cox prepares for debate before final passage of the roughly 600-page criminal code bill, on his desk. (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The bill, whose development began five years ago with a subcommittee put together by the Missouri Bar, could face a challenge with Nixon. He has said the proposal is too big, creating too much room for error in Missouri’s system of criminal laws and punishments. He wanted it broken into smaller sections to be considered individually.

That idea was dismissed by some who have worked on the plan for years, including Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia). He and other backers of the bill say there are multiple opportunities for review even after it is enacted, including by the Missouri Supreme Court’s Standing Committee on Criminal Procedure. The effective date of the legislation was also pushed back to January 1, 2017 to allow further time for review.

“As much as I can see,” Kelly told the bill’s House sponsor, Stanley Cox (R-Sedalia), “this is delay for delay’s sake rather than for any policy reason.”

A fellow Columbia lawmaker and attorney, Senator Kurt Schaefer (R), agrees with Nixon.

“Public safety is the most important thing the State of Missouri does,” says Schaefer, “and the impact on victims and victims’ families if something does not go right is terrible.”

“I can tell you as a prosecutor who has personally dealt with changes in statute in the field when you’re prosecuting a case,” says Schaefer, “a lot of times you don’t know what those things are until you are presented with a fact pattern that nobody thought of and suddenly that statute has to apply to it and then you find something that may have been an unintended consequence.”

Schaefer says he would like to have seen the code addressed chapter-by-chapter. He voted against the bill in the Senate.

Cox and Senator Jolie Justus (D-Kansas City), the sponsors of the bill in their respective chambers, both told Missourinet previously that they believe they could overturn a veto of the bill if that’s what Nixon decides to do. It cleared both chambers Thursday with margins that could overturn a veto if no large number of lawmakers switches sides.

Senator Bob Dixon (R-Springfield) hopes the strong votes send a strong enough message that a veto override attempt won’t need to be made.

“It reflects the diligence with which everyone working on this bill, from staff all the way to agencies that answered questions for us, worked on it,” says Dixon. “It was probably the most fully vetted bill that’s ever gone through the General Assembly.”

See the House vote on the criminal code bill

See how thirteen of the people who worked on the criminal code bill were honored

Senate budget committee criticized for pulling money for child abuse investigators

April 10, 2014 By Mike Lear

Governor Jay Nixon (D) is lending his voice to those concerned about the removal from the budget of $4.6-million for the state Children’s Division by the Senate budget committee.

Advocates for children and prevention of abuse say the money would have supported efforts to retain investigators in the division and allow for more expedient response to reports of abuse. They say high turnover and low numbers among investigators as well as slow response has resulted in a backlog of abuse reports and some causes going uninvestigated.

The items eliminated included more than $2.2-million for the Children’s Division Career Ladder including the creation of two new levels of caseworkers, more than $1.5-million for a “mobility project,” involving the use of I-Pads and WiFi for investigators to be able to respond to and deal with reports more quickly and $828-thousand for student loan forgiveness for new investigators.

The Governor included those amounts in his budget proposal and House budget makers kept it in theirs, but this week the Senate budget committee removed it.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) says the career ladder increase would have gone above-and-beyond an overall 1-percent increase in pay for state employees that is included in the FY-15 budget proposal.

Schaefer acknowledges the argument that the state needs to do more to retain child welfare investigators, but says, “This late in the process with that coming up when it did I think that would be difficult … pay increases for employees and additional things for employees that are presented to us as an incentive to give to those employees, those are intriguing ideas but I think we need a little more information on that.”

The Senate committee did not remove $347-thousand dollars for secondary trauma and child abuse training. “Our concern is making sure we’re getting money on the ground for services,” says Schaefer.

The removal of that money disappointed Emily Van Schenkhof, Deputy Director of Missouri Kids First. She says it would allow Missouri to do a better job of investigating reports of child abuse.

“These increases in Children’s Division are vitally important for the safety of Missouri’s children and for us to make positive steps forward in improving our response to investigating.”

Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee for Health, Mental Health and Social Services, Sue Allen (R-Town and Country), says she will fight to restore the funding for the I-Pads and WiFi for investigators.

“Possibly, maybe there is a level of looking at either the loan forgiveness or the career ladder,” says Allen. “We probably can’t do it all, but we kind of prioritize and figure out which things we can do now, and then maybe we put the next things on the burner for next year.”

Told of Schaefer’s concerns with the budget items, Governor Nixon was asked what his message to Schaefer would be.

“Follow the House position and have a little discussion in your committee on stuff this important,” answers Nixon. “The House had interim committees about it. We all have. Everybody here is well aware of the challenges that are faced, the difficult situations that occur in the Children’s Division and are aware that we worked hard with a number of policy makers as well as folks in the legislature to come up with a solid set of recommendations.”

Once the Senate budget committee completes its work on the proposed budget, the full Senate will vote on the proposal and then conferees chose in the House and the Senate will meet to work out differences between the two chambers’ proposals. A budget plan must be sent to the Governor by 6 p.m. May 9.

$33-million added to budget proposal for new State Historical Society building

April 7, 2014 By Mike Lear

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) says its time the State Historical Society of Missouri had a better building, and he wants to make sure it gets done this year rather than hope the legislature will pass a capital improvements bill.

So, he’s added $33-million for a new building to the Senate budget proposal.

“I think it’s time to build that facility,” says Schaefer, ” and to make sure that the priceless collections that we’ve got right now that are in the basement of the University [of Missouri] Library don’t succumb to water damage or anything else and that they’re available for the public to enjoy.”

Schaefer says the new building would go on the University of Missouri campus. He says if that money stays in the budget, it would come out of dollars being held back for a capital improvements bill.

The Senate Budget Committee continues work on the fiscal year 2015 spending plan on Tuesday.