Legislature
Missouri in line for $4.5 billion from federal stimulus bill
Last spring, as Missouri businesses shed hundreds of thousands of jobs, Gov. Mike Parson warned that the state was headed for the worst financial crunch since the 2008 recession. Ten months later, Parson presented a budget plan that anticipates a $1.1 billion surplus on July 1, the biggest in state history. And if the $1.9 […]
Funding safe havens: Increase sought in tax credit for domestic violence shelter donations
A group of donors walked through the halls of Rainbow House, an emergency children’s shelter in Columbia. Artwork from kids who’d spent time at the shelter adorned the walls, ranging from self-portraits to colorful scribbles. Suddenly, one donor stopped at a piece and stared. There, years later, was the same drawing they’d made when they […]
Democrats push for release of secret report on Missouri Gaming Commission licensing process
Democrats on the House Budget Committee are pushing the Missouri Gaming Commission to release a report on licensing investigations that cost $395,000. During a hearing Thursday on the commission’s budget for the coming year, State Rep. Sarah Unsicker, D-Shrewsbury, asked for details about the report delivered to the commission in January by the Kansas City […]
School choice bills have been pushed in Missouri for years. Will the pandemic pave the way?
Missouri’s legislative leaders have spent the last decade vowing to pass significant school-choice legislation. Yet despite massive GOP majorities in both the House and the Senate, they often fall short. Since the expansion of charter schools into unaccredited districts in 2012, attempts to push through education reform have crashed into a wall of resistance year […]
Missouri House committee votes to forgive federal unemployment debts
Thousands of Missourians facing repayment of mistakenly paid unemployment benefits would get some relief under legislation passed with a bipartisan vote Wednesday in a Missouri House committee. The bill, which will likely be debated on the House floor next week, would forgive debts due to overpayments from federal coronavirus relief programs but would not stop […]
Republicans renew push to make it harder to change Missouri’s constitution
When Alice Barber was collecting signatures to put the Clean Missouri constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2018, she once stood outside the Springfield DMV in the snow for three hours — until her hands went numb inside her gloves. “I got about fifteen signatures,” she recently told the Missouri House elections committee. “The ballot […]
Census delay in releasing population data throws states into chaos
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Census Bureau won’t be releasing population data needed to redraw state legislative and congressional district boundaries until Sept. 30 — six months after that data is typically made available. The latest pandemic-spurred delay, announced by bureau officials on Friday, hugely scrambles the once-a-decade redistricting process for states with deadlines looming this […]
With gun deaths climbing, Missouri lawmakers push to loosen firearm restrictions
While Missouri continues to struggle with one of the highest rates of gun deaths in the country, Republican lawmakers are advancing a litany of bills aimed at further loosening the state’s gun laws. One proposal would allow guns on college campuses, while another would ban churches from prohibiting guns in places of worship. Others aim […]
Missouri House tucks lawmakers cast out of caucuses into tiny offices
For most Missouri lawmakers, a fourth-floor office is about the best perch in the Capitol Building, absent a stint in the much larger offices of the legislative leadership. On the north side of the building there’s a panoramic view, with the Missouri River in the foreground framed against limestone bluffs a mile across the floodplain. […]
Gov. Parson signs bill to approve $324 million for rental assistance
Gov. Mike Parson signed into law Thursday legislation allocating $324 million in funding for rental assistance — part of the COVID-19 relief package passed by Congress in December. The funds are available for both tenants and landlords through the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC). The federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program includes up to 12 months […]
Missouri lawmakers eye federal funds to cover cost of mistakenly paid unemployment
A legislative committee may have found a way to relieve all the debt of Missourians who were mistakenly paid too much from federal and state unemployment programs after COVID-19 crashed the economy. The best part for lawmakers? They might be able to use federal funds, instead of general revenue, to cover the cost to the […]
Missouri company accused of illegal gambling has sued the state
A Missouri-based company accused of operating illegal gambling devices filed a lawsuit alleging state law enforcement’s crackdown on rogue slot machines is a campaign of “harassment and intimidation.” Torch Electronics LLC filed its lawsuit on Friday in Cole County against the Missouri Department of Public Safety, Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Missouri Division of […]