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Two Republicans collide on latest Missouri special session

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Senator Ryan Silvey (photo courtesy, Missouri Senate Communications)

Sen. Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City, could be the only Missouri GOP legislator to publicly condemn Republican Governor Eric Greitens for his special session approach. Silvey, who’s the Senate Appropriations Committee vice chairman, tells Missourinet there are more efficient ways Greitens could be calling extraordinary legislative sessions.

“He could issue multiple concurrent calls,” says Silvey. “He could issue another call on the same issue for the legislature to adjourn at the same time. If you were really a fiscal conservative, you would call a special session to run concurrent with veto session.”

Greitens wants lawmakers to block a St. Louis city ordinance that would bar employers from penalizing or firing women who have had an abortion, are pregnant out of marriage or use birth control. It also prohibits landlords from denying housing to women for the same reasons. Greitens’ call also includes passing annual inspection requirements for abortion clinics.

Silvey says the session is a waste of time and money.

“While the political rhetoric and the soundbites are that this is saving lives and this is pro-life, I think the reality is whatever we pass, we’ll probably get sued over, a judge will probably put an injunction on it, and it probably won’t be resolved by January. When January rolls around, my prediction is we won’t have saved any lives,” says Silvey.

Gov. Greitens

He says he’s not attacking abortion measures.

“I’ve got a 13 year legislative record that shows I’m pro-life. That’s not a question,” says Silvey. “But I also think that we should respect our constitution and I don’t believe that we should be called back on every whim.”

Greitens tells Missourinet he hopes the state legislature understands how vital and urgent his call is. He goes on to say that the life and health of thousands of Missourians is at stake.

The Senate’s special session work is underway. The House will begin on June 20.

Meanwhile, the governor signed a bill into law on Monday that gives Missourians the option of a REAL ID to get onto planes, military bases and into federal buildings. Silvey, who co-sponsored the measure, says he was not invited to the bill signing. The House sponsor, Rep. Kevin Corlew, R-Kansas City, attended.

Silvey says the governor has not communicated directly with the legislature very well. According to Silvey, leadership and the Senate learned about this year’s first special session via Facebook. Silvey says he and leadership also learned about the current special session on Facebook.

Three bills, one proposal to end jobs ‘border war’ with Kansas to be heard today

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Three bills will be heard in two legislative committees today that aim to end the so-called “border war” between Missouri and Kansas over jobs.

All three bills would bar the issuance of certain business incentive programs to businesses that move from specific counties along the Kansas-Missouri Border on the Kansas side, to those along the border on the Missouri side. Supporters say it would end the practice of one state “poaching” companies and jobs from one side of the state line to the other. All three would be contingent on Kansas agreeing to block the offering of state incentives that would lure businesses from Missouri across the state line.

The legislation was pre-filed in December in the Senate by Senator Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City) (SB 635). Bills mirroring it were then introduced in the House by Representative Kevin McManus (D-Kansas City) (HB 1515) and later by House Speaker Tim Jones (R-Eureka) (HB 1646).

Governor Jay Nixon in November called for he and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback to put a temporary moratorium on incentives in the Kansas City region, followed by legislative action to make them permanent.

McManus’ and Jones’ bills will be heard in House Hearing Room 7 at noon.  Silvey’s legislation will be heard in the Senate Lounge at 1:00.

Nixon offers ‘border war’ solution, Republicans react

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Governor Jay Nixon has outlined his plan to end the shuffling of jobs across the Missouri-Kansas Border in pursuit of incentives meant for the creation of new jobs.

Governor Jay Nixon

Governor Jay Nixon

Step one is for he and his counterpart, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, to put moratoriums on incentives in the Kansas City region. Then he wants both legislature to make those permanent.

A moratorium on discretionary programs could include Community Development Block Grants, the BUILD program, training funds, and the majority of programs under Missouri Works.

Nixon tells Missourinet, “Ultimately we’re going to need the legislature to step up with us to make sure that we’re using the economic development dollars as efficiently and effectively as possible, getting a little more discretion in some of these deals where they are looked at for jobs created in the region, not just jobs moved from one side of the state line to the other.”

He also proposes encouraging local officials in the region to end the use of local tax dollars in “similarly inefficient and counterproductive ways.” Finally, he says, the two states should work together to leverage combined resources to promote the Kansas City region.

Republicans reacted to the Governor’s speech by calling it a “side show,” and accusing him of seeking a power grab.

Senator Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City) says he and other local leaders were “shocked” at the speech and questioned the Governor’s claim that he’s been working on issue for more than a year.

Senator Ryan Silvey (photo courtesy, Missouri Senate Communications)

Senator Ryan Silvey (photo courtesy, Missouri Senate Communications)

“This is something that we’ve been working on for months locally in Kansas City with business leaders and legislators and this is the first we’ve heard from the Governor, and what he’s come out with is not something that really any of us are that supportive of.”

Silvey says the Governor’s plan would give him unilateral discretion over economic incentive programs in the region and inject politics into them, two things he thinks the legislature won’t support.

“What the Governor is saying is that he needs discretion,” Silvey says, “so that he can say, ‘Oh, well, this is in the region of the border and therefore even though you may have met the requirements for the incentive, I’m going to say no, you can’t have it.'”

Kansas’ Secretary of Commerce, Pat George, confirmed to the Kansas City Star that discussions have been underway for more than a year, but expressed surprise that Nixon made the speech alone rather than taking part in a joint announcement.

Governor Brownback issued a statement saying, “It’s good to hear that Governor Nixon is joining this discussion.”

Asked how close Nixon thinks an agreement is, he says his senior staff has been in discussions and he has met with Governor Brownback.

“I think we’re making solid progress.”

Lawmakers want voters to consider reigning in governors’ withhold powers

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Two state lawmakers want to ask voters whether the power of governors to withhold money should be changed. Representative Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) says questions regarding the limit of that power have remained unanswered for too long.

Representative Todd Richardson (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Todd Richardson (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

“Everybody, I think, agrees that the Governor needs the ability to withhold funds when there is an actual decline in state revenue and an actual downturn in the economy, but that needs to be the extent of it.”

Richardson accuses Governor Jay Nixon of making politically motivated withholds to influence the actions of the legislature. He cites $400-million withheld in June pending the fate of Nixon’s veto of a tax cut bill, HB 253. That veto was not overturned during the veto session Wednesday, then yesterday the Governor released about $215-million of that money.

“There was absolutely no financial reason for the Governor to put every school district in the state in the middle of the discussion of HB 253. Every higher education institution, every nursing home, every home health agency … all of those groups, and others, were put into the middle of a political fight purely for political purposes.”

Richardson plans to propose a constitutional amendment in the 2014 legislative session that would clarify the definition of a governor’s withholding authority. Senator Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City) will offer a similar proposal in that chamber.

The state Supreme Court heard arguments earlier this year by lawyers for State Auditor Tom Schweich (R), who sued Nixon for withholding funds in the fiscal year 2012 budget. The Court has not handed down a decision in that case.

Backers praise Safe Haven expansion, call for more awareness

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Missouri’s Safe Havens for Newborns Act was passed in 2003 and has given parents up to 5 days in a newborn’s life to drop that child off at a fire or police station or hospital, if they decide they can’t care for that child. A law signed by Governor Jay Nixon on July 9 will extend that period to 45 days of a newborn’s life.

Senator Ryan Silvey (photo courtesy, Missouri Senate Communications)

Senator Ryan Silvey (photo courtesy, Missouri Senate Communications)

The Safe Havens for Newborns Coalition in Kansas City is one of the groups that pushed for the extension. Coordinator Debbie Howland says five days just doesn’t give a parent enough time to come to such a drastic decision.

“In the first five days of life, quite often, a baby just eats and sleeps and is not too demanding and sometimes parents who are unable or unwilling to care for their child and raise their child, that decision is not able to be made in a thoughtful manner in the first five days.”

During debate of how long to extend the law, some lawmakers wondered why it should not be extended out to one year or even further, if the goal is to save the lives of children. Sponsor, Senator Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City) admits it’s subjective.

“Maybe there will be some studies done as to what the optimal time is, but clearly at some point there has to be a cutoff. We have the foster care system and other things that potentially can kick in, and it’s not that you can’t relinquish your parental rights at some point down the road, it just becomes a different process.”

Howland’s group works to raise awareness in the Kansas City area about the existence of the Safe Haven law. She says some tragedies have still occurred since the law was passed in 2003 in cases where a mother didn’t know there was such a law.

In raising awareness, however, her group has learned that it isn’t just members of the public who don’t know about the law, but also many fire stations, police stations and hospitals as well.

“Some of these safe havens did not even realize they were safe havens, or if they did, only one or two people in the organization knew. Of course the way the law reads, as long as the child is handed to any staff member … that’s a legal relinquishment.”

Howland says the Mother & Child Health Coalition’s website has a great deal of information on the safe haven lawn, including sample policies that fire and police stations and hospitals can put in place to make sure that all staff are aware of the safe haven law and trained in how to respond if a parent brings a child in to be relinquished. She has also testified to lawmakers that safe havens should be required to have such a policy in place.

Senator Silvey says with the legislature having to cut programs from the budget, there hasn’t been money for a statewide awareness campaign, but until there is he hopes to find other ways to make sure such policies are enacted.

“My strategy will be to work with the state departments that work with this program and more informally inquire of them, ‘Hey, are you guys working with the local first responders and safe haven places to make sure they know what’s going on?'”

Since Missouri’s safe haven law was enacted in 2003, Howland says 36 children have been relinquished, and every one of them has been adopted.

The legislation expanding the Safe Havens for Newborns Act is SB 256.

Nixon again urges against veto override of bill allowing tax on out-of-state vehicle purchases (VIDEO/AUDIO)

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With the veto session a week away, Governor Jay Nixon continues to make his case that the legislature should not overturn his veto of HB 1329, a bill to allow the collection of sales taxes on vehicle purchases made out-of-state.

Click the image to view a video of Nixon’s media conference.

Nixon says of the more than 122 thousand Missourians that will face a retroactive tax bill if his veto is overturned, about 14,000 bought a vehicle from an out-of-state dealer. More than 108,000 were private transactions.

He says the issue is less about out-of-state vehicle purchases than it has been portrayed to be. “I felt like in the public there was this sense that those were all dealer or out-of-state, and when you see 89 percent this way, I wanted to get these facts out.”

The House sponsor of HB 1329, Representative Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City), says 14,000 is still a large number of purchases. “If you’re okay with incentivizing 14,000 people to cross state lines to make the second largest purchase next to their house, then I guess it’s not a big deal, but as far as the legislature’s concerned it’s a big deal.”

Nixon says the passage of a use tax should be left to local jurisdictions to decide. “This is something that has been passed since the end of the legislative session in at least two jurisdictions … running around the voters for any tax, much less a retroactive one … to run around the voters, to say that you can go back and collect a tax for something that the court said was not taxable seems to be not good public policy, not good fiscal policy and as I said before, I just don’t think it’s right.”

Silvey says the issue is one of parity at the state level, and needs to be addressed at the state level. “Because of the way the court decision yanked these taxes out, the way that they were being collected, to have all 522 municipalities, all 114 counties try to address it piecemeal, then you end up with small inequities everywhere around the state. It makes much more sense just to take care of it the way we’ve chosen to take care of it, which is just to put it right back to the status quo. Nothing changes after this bill from before the (Supreme) Court decision. It’s the way it’s been for the last sixty years.”

Representative Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City)

Silvey says if the legislature does override Nixon’s veto and the Department of Revenue holds off on issuing tax due notices, lawmakers could then strip the retroactive component from the law in the next legislative session. “I’ve spoken with members of the Senate. Senator Kehoe is willing to file the legislation if I’m not there to file it myself next year.” Silvey is seeking election to the Senate in November.

Silvey says that would be preferable to letting the veto stand, while more out-of-state vehicle purchases are made.

Nixon says overriding the veto on HB 1329 could just set up another lawsuit similar to the one the Supreme Court ruled on in March. “Nothing in this bill would fundamentally change the underlying legal theory of this: that people need to vote if you’re going to have a raise in taxes.”

Silvey accuses the governor of playing politics with the issue. “If the governor really had substantive policy issues with this, he should have helped us address it during session. He should have worked with us to find a solution instead of waiting for us to go home, issuing a veto and then deciding to hold press conferences 60 days before a General Election.”

The veto session is a week from today.

AUDIO:  Hear Mike Lear’s interview with Ryan Silvey, 5:48

House Republican leader talks Tilley resignation, veto session

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The resignation of Steven Tilley as Speaker of the Missouri House comes as Republicans could try to overturn vetoes on as many as seven bills in the September veto session.

Majority Floor Leader Tim Jones (photo courtesy, Missouri House Communications)

Majority Floor Leader and the likely eventual Speaker, Tim Jones, says he and Tilley discussed whether Tilley’s resignation would hurt the chances of securing any of those overturns.

“We ended up coming to the conclusion that with the bills that are going to be likely available for debate and override, that they’re either going to pass with a clear supermajority or an override is not going to be attainable. It’s not going to come down to one vote.”

Jones says Republicans are looking hard at two House bills for possible override attempts, on bills that passed by large margins.

“The auto tax bill that was sponsored by Representative (Ryan) Silvey. Representative Silvey is advocating very strongly for that to be overridden. There was one other bill that had 108 votes during the session. That was Representative Tom Long’s bill related to child custody. I spoke with Representative Long. He’s going to mull that over and decide whether or not he would like to move forward on that bill.”

See Silvey’s Bill, HB 1329

Jones says five to seven Senate bills could be the subjects of possible override attempts, including SB 749 dealing with health insurance rights.

Tilley says he anticipates being elected speaker at the veto session in September, and again after new lawmakers are sworn in, in January.

House budget chair responds to Governor’s budget actions

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The House Budget Committee Chairman accuses Governor Jay Nixon of “political grandstanding” in saying the legislature’s budget wasn’t balanced and withholding $15 million from it.

House Budget Director, Representative Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City)

Representative Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City) says the Governor’s assessment that the proposed budget was $50 million out of balance is simply not true. “We appropriated about $56 million less than he asked us to, so if we’re $50 million out now that means he was over $100 million out when he asked for it. Beyond that, we left about $7 million in the bank compared to his, like, $50 thousand I think, that he recommended we leave in the bank, so we way under-spent what he asked us to.”

Nixon says the legislature used a “rosy projection” that lottery revenues would grow by $35 million this year. Silvey says the Governor’s Office backed using that estimate when talking with legislative budget committee members. “We were a little skeptical of it initially too, but they told us it was attainable, the lottery told us it was attainable, and rather than tell us back then when we could have done something to address it, he waits for (the legislature) to go home and then uses it as an excuse to cut schools.”

Silvey suggests the Governor has a similar motivation for saying the legislature shouldn’t have cut $11 million dollars from the disaster recovery funds. “It’s political for him to point to that because we talked to them because we talked to (the governor’s staff) ahead of time about cutting this $11 million.”

Silvey says after talking to the governor’s staff, that was one line in the budget where lawmakers restored the “E,” or estimated amount, while most others were removed. He said the budget conference committee didn’t think additional money would be needed, “but just in case we gave them the “E.” That was fine back then when we were in session … but then, when he wants to find a reason to cut (higher) education, he goes out and throws that one under the bus too.”

See our earlier stories on the governor’s budget withholds here and here.

As he said about the withholds Governor Nixon made in the fiscal year 2012 budget, Silvey now says of the fiscal year 2013 withholds that the governor’s reasons for making them do not fit the criteria of the Constitution. “Here we are, a week to go in (fiscal year 2012), and if I’m not mistaken, I think we’re meeting the projection. So he was over-withholding well beyond what it would take even if we didn’t meet the projection and I think that’s ultimately why he got sued by the (State Auditor).”

House-Senate committee to consider blind pension fund eligibility restrictions

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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).

House leaders consider legality of blind pension compromise

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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.