Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent

‘Let the courts decide’: Kehoe says he will sign gerrymandered Missouri congressional map

by Rudi Keller and Steph Quinn, Missouri Independent
September 25, 2025

The courts will determine if the bill revising Missouri’s congressional districts is constitutional, Gov. Mike Kehoe said Thursday after announcing his plans to sign the measure this weekend.

Speaking to reporters after an event in Columbia, Kehoe said he felt confident he was on firm legal ground when he called lawmakers into a special session.

“We’ll let the courts decide that,” Kehoe said. “We wouldn’t have went into this without feeling like we had good advice on that.”

Over 10 days this month, lawmakers met and passed a revised map for Missouri’s eight congressional districts so Republicans could have an advantage in the 5th District, currently held by U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat.

“Missouri’s conservative, common-sense values should be truly represented at all levels of government, and the Missouri First Map delivers just that,” Kehoe said in a news release announcing he would sign the bill on Sunday.

Even before the special session began, legal challenges were being filed. The NAACP has a case argued Sept. 15 challenging Kehoe’s authority to have called a special session on redistricting. Additional court challenges are underway in Cole and Jackson counties seeking to have the new map declared void because the Missouri Constitution directs lawmakers to draw districts after the census every 10 years, but is silent on whether it can be done at other times.

Kehoe said he relied on his advisers on the legality of his decision to call a special session.

“I really believe they’re very good on these issues, and we think we’ll withstand all those challenges,” he said.

The case in Jackson County alleges the map is incorrect because a voting district designation is used twice in the bill. The court must decide if that is a mistake that scuttles the bill but Kehoe on Thursday said he believes it is a mistake in census mapping, not in the bill.

“Once you look at the map, if you just read the language, it doesn’t seem to make sense,” Kehoe said. “But if you read the language and you look at the map, you can see somewhere along the line there was some sort of error when they put those numbers on out of the 60,000 voting districts across the United States.”

As the case that is the most advanced in challenging the new map, the NAACP lawsuit is likely the first that will be decided. At an “emergency meeting” Wednesday, Missouri NAACP president Nimrod Chapel said the group will not waver in their effort to throw out Missouri’s new congressional map.

If successful, the lawsuit will not only get the new map tossed but also remove a proposed constitutional amendment from the ballot that would change the way majorities are counted for constitutional changes proposed by initiative petitions.

“We recognized instantly that gerrymandering in the state of Missouri targeted two Black congressional districts, Kansas City and St. Louis,” Chapel said. “Not only is this an attack on the most populated urban centers within the state of Missouri, but it’s also an attack on Black and brown voices whose needs are distinct, in some ways, from rural Missouri.”

Since the special session ended on Sept. 12, the NAACP has filed an amended petition asking for the map to be scrapped. The state’s attorney, Solicitor General Louis Capozzi, has said the lawsuit should be dismissed because lawmakers have already adjourned.

Chapel also said he believes that the use of the same voting district designation twice in the bill is a mistake that will undermine the new map.

“There is a map that’s been proposed and is sitting on the governor’s desk that cannot be signed,” Chapel said, “and the reason that it cannot be signed is because it has precincts that will get to vote on multiple occasions.”

Chapel said the NAACP is prepared to appeal the case to the Missouri Supreme Court if the judge sides with the governor.

“We’re suing them,” he said, “and we will keep suing them until they get it right.”

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com.

When a tornado struck Joplin on May 22, 2011, killing 161 people and causing about $2 billion in damage, President Barack Obama issued a major disaster declaration the next day.

That action immediately made help available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, for people to pay for temporary housing and begin repairs. The declaration also made state and local governments, as well as some not-for-profit aid agencies, eligible for reimbursement of 75% of the cost of recovery and rebuilding.

By the time the books were closed, FEMA had distributed $37.1 million to individuals for recovery needs and provided $161.6 million for public recovery and rebuilding costs.

In St. Louis, a May 16 tornado cut a 22-mile path across the region, damaging or destroying 16,000 structures and killing five people. Damage is estimated at $1.6 billion, making it the biggest weather disaster for Missouri since the Joplin tornado.

Gov. Mike Kehoe made a formal request on May 26 for President Donald Trump to extend similar help. Nine days later, that request is still pending as Trump waits for the results of a formal assessment of damages.

It is part of a pattern in Trump’s second term of longer waits and, oftentimes, denials of state requests for disaster declarations.

Kehoe on April 2 requested a declaration for help following severe storms and flooding in southeast Missouri. Trump issued the declaration May 21, 49 days later. That is the longest period from request to approval in the past 15 years.

A May 1 request, for storms and flooding from March 30 to April 8, was also approved May 21.

Another disaster declaration request from Missouri, submitted May 19, is also awaiting action by the president.

The 20-day wait for the May 1 request was longer than all but six of the 20 federal disaster requests submitted by Missouri governors from the start of 2010 through the end of 2024. The average wait during that period, from a governor’s request to a presidential declaration, was 16 days.

St. Louis area state lawmakers, called to Jefferson City for a special session, said the delay is adding to the hardship thousands face, with some people camping outside destroyed homes because they have no money for shelter.

“Some people are staying in homes that are completely unsafe to stay in after the storm has wiped out their entire neighborhood,” state Sen. Brian Williams, a Democrat from University City, said in an interview with The Independent. “It’s saddening, it’s disheartening, and I’m not interested in any conversation outside of ensuring that storm victims are taken care of.”

A federal disaster declaration can make help available for individuals and public needs, or it can be limited to assisting with public recovery costs.

Nationally, over the last four years, FEMA has provided more than $12 billion to individuals and $133 billion to state and local governments, tribal nations, territories and some nonprofits to help in recovery efforts, Stateline reported in February.

When individual assistance is provided, victims can receive up to $770 for immediate emergency needs, plus up to $43,600 to assist with home repair costs and $43,600 for other recovery costs.

A federal disaster declaration also provides emergency SNAP and unemployment benefits.

The main purpose of the special session is to consider legislation offering tax incentives for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals to remain in Missouri.

The bill providing stadium aid also includes a tax credit of up to $5,000 for payments against an insurance deductible in a disaster area. A spending bill requested by Kehoe includes $25 million, to be spent by the Missouri Housing Development Commission to assist in repairs.

But with 37 Missouri counties covered by disaster requests submitted this year, lawmakers from both St. Louis and rural areas say the money is inadequate.

State Sen. Jason Bean, a Republican from Holcomb, said the $25 million is “a drop in the bucket” for disaster needs. Bean represents 10 southeast Missouri counties that include the three with the highest poverty rates in the state.

Eight of the 10 counties in Bean’s district were included in Trump’s disaster declaration for storms and flooding on March 14 and 15. All 10 were included in the disaster declaration for the March 31 to April 8 storms and flooding.

The delay in receiving help is frustrating, Bean said during a hearing on the spending bill.

“We need to realize that people have been living in shelters,” Bean said. “They’ve been living in other homes for some time. So once again, the speed of our response, I think, is something we’ve just got to address.”

Massive, obvious disasters like Joplin no longer get quick responses from FEMA. Since taking office, Trump has tried to push more costs to state and local agencies, even suggesting that FEMA be abolished.

Now, every disaster must go through the formal assessment process to determine if it meets the standards for federal assistance.

FEMA uses cost per capita to gauge whether local and state governments can handle recovery themselves, or if they’ll need federal help. Those thresholds currently stand at $4.72 per capita for counties and $1.89 per capita for states.

But just meeting those thresholds isn’t enough. Trump can accept or deny applications at his discretion.

“After a thorough assessment, FEMA will approve a disaster declaration request if the assessment shows the event’s damage exceeds the state, local governments, and voluntary organizations’ capacity to respond,” a FEMA spokesperson wrote in an email to The Independent. “Just like all declaration requests, this decision is based on policy, not politics.”

During testimony on the special session legislation, Casey Millburg, policy director for St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer, said Kehoe and the state’s congressional delegation have all been pushing for action on the disaster request.

“There’s certainly a tremendous amount of uncertainty in our minds,” she said. “We are certainly hopeful.”

The congressional delegation push began the day after Kehoe requested aid for tornado response.

“Missourians are still recovering from the recent tornado, and our communities are in desperate need of federal assistance,” U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, a Republican from St. Louis County, said in a news release May 27, the day after Kehoe made his request.

Wagner, five of Missouri’s eight U.S. House members and both U.S. Senators signed a letter to Trump on May 27 urging swift action.

“These resources are essential to stabilizing affected communities and safeguarding public health and safety,” the letter stated. “Given the scale of devastation and the urgent need for federal assistance, we respectfully request swift approval of Missouri’s disaster declaration. We appreciate your attention to this matter and stand ready to support efforts to ensure resources reach those who need them most.”

During a hearing on the special session legislation, state Sen. Barbara Washington, a Democrat from Kansas City, asked budget director Dan Haug whether FEMA would approve the request to help St. Louis.

“Have we received notice that FEMA is going to help?” she said. “Because there are other states that have been denied assistance from FEMA, and so have we received any guarantee that we’re actually going to receive funding from FEMA to help?”

Haug said no assurances have been received.

“I think the governor’s office, in communication with our federal officials, feel confident in the result,” Haug said.

Williams, however, said the state shouldn’t count on it.

“I am not optimistic,” he said, “that FEMA is going to step in and do anything.”

Missouri Senate Republicans invoked a rarely used rule Wednesday to shut down a Democratic filibuster blocking a vote on a measure overturning the abortion rights amendment passed by voters in November.

That action was immediately followed by another use of the rule, this time to get a bill passed repealing the paid sick leave law that was also approved by voters.

The use of the rule — a procedural maneuver known as “calling the previous question,” or PQ — requires a signed motion from 10 members and forces an immediate vote on the bill under debate.

Sen. Adam Schnelting, a Republican from St. Charles, made the motion for a PQ on the abortion amendment shortly after 5 p.m. By 5:30 p.m., that bill, which must be approved by voters on a statewide ballot, had passed.

The sick leave repeal followed, and by 6 p.m. both bills were finished.

In the hour leading up to the vote, Democrats warned that Republicans were destroying months of good will and could expect no more cooperation this year and well into the future.

“Nothing will happen, nothing,” said Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck. “The banner year that everybody had in this place? That is over with.”

Wednesday’s use of the previous question rule is the first time since 2020 when it was invoked and the first time since 2017 when it was used during a regular session. Used regularly in the Missouri House, it is used rarely in the Senate because the chamber has a tradition of unlimited debate and negotiations over difficult issues.

“What we’re doing today is a failure of the Senate,” said state Sen. Stephen Webber, a Democrat from Columbia. “And when there’s a failure in the Senate, there needs to be a response, and that response can’t last forever, but that response has to happen, and it has to be painful, and has to make us all understand that when the Senate doesn’t function as a body, we all lose.”

Just as Republicans were moving to put an abortion ban on the ballot, protests erupted in the Senate gallery, with abortion-rights activists shouting down lawmakers. The gallery was briefly cleared, including the press, and the Senate continued with its work until it adjourned for the year a few hours later.

State Sen. Nick Schroer, a Defiance Republican, said using the PQ is always a last resort. But it was his understanding that “goal posts were being moved” in negotiations by Democrats.

“I don’t know what transpired, but I do know that we hit a log jam,” he said, leaving the PQ as the only way forward to pass the sick leave repeal and abortion ban.

Abortion ban

The proposed ban seeks to repeal the constitutional right to an abortion but allow exceptions for medical emergencies, fatal fetal anomalies and for survivors of rape and incest in the first 12 weeks of gestation.

Missourians could see the question on the November 2026 ballot, or as soon as this year if the governor chose to call a special election on the issue.

The proposed ban, if approved by a simple majority of voters, would reinstate several targeted regulations on abortion providers, or TRAP laws, that were recently struck down as unconstitutional by a Missouri judge.

It would also ban gender transition surgeries and prescribing medications for gender transition, including puberty blockers, for children younger than 18.

The amendment also includes a severability clause. This could allow the rape and incest exceptions in the amendment to be challenged in federal court as being discriminatory and in violation of the 14th Amendment.

If approved, the amendment would also require any legal challenges to the state law around reproductive health care be heard in Cole County. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office was recently unsuccessful in convincing the courts to move an ongoing legal battle between the state and Planned Parenthood from Jackson County to Cole County.

The language that could appear on each ballot does not mention the amendment would ban abortions, a detail that’s been highly-criticized by Democrats as deceiving.

Democrats have also accused Republicans of including the ban on gender-affirming care for minors, which is already illegal in Missouri, as a form of “ballot candy” — a ruse aimed at tricking voters to support a measure they might otherwise vote against.

Schroer said removal of the transgender health care provisions was a deal breaker for conservative senators.

“We talked to a lot of our members,” he said, “and they said that issue needs to be included.”

Amendment 3 narrowly passed in November following a multi-million dollar campaign by abortion-rights advocates. A day later, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU of Missouri sued the state, challenging several of Missouri’s laws focused on abortion facilities and providers.

An amendment to alter the language so it directly states that it is repealing Amendment 3 was defeated just before the motion to cut off debate.

While many sitting Republicans have previously opposed abortion exceptions outside of those to save the mother’s life, many said the November election showed Missourians’ desire for a less stringent law.

Missourians overwhelmingly support abortion exceptions for survivors, an August 2022 SLU/YouGov poll found. The polling was done several weeks after Missouri became the first state to enact a full abortion ban following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Since Amendment 3 took effect, surgical abortions are being performed but medication abortions have not.

Three of the state’s several Planned Parenthood clinics have restarted surgical abortions for those up to 12 weeks gestation at clinics in Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis.

The clinics were authorized to begin the procedure again for the first time in nearly three years after a judge struck down many of the state’s abortion regulations, citing them as discriminatory.

Medication abortion — the most common means of ending a pregnancy — remains inaccessible in Missouri after the state health department rejected complication plans submitted by the clinics outlining continued care for patients in the case they had any adverse effects from the medication.

Sick leave law

If the bill is signed by the governor, the paid-sick leave benefits approved by voters that went into effect on May 1 will be stripped away on Aug. 28.

The bill also removes the requirement that the minimum wage be indexed to inflation, which has been in place since 2007

The paid sick leave and minimum wage provisions passed with 58% of the vote in November as Proposition A, garnering support from unions, workers’ advocacy groups, social justice and civil rights groups, as well as over 500 business owners.

“Workers are earning paid sick leave right now,” said state Sen. Patty Lewis, a Democrat from Kansas City, “and then it’s going to get taken away and they’re going to be fired up about it.”

GOP critics have portrayed paid sick leave as a “job killer” that would hurt small businesses. The bill was sponsored by state Sen. Mike Bernskoetter, a Republican from Jefferson City, and Republican state Rep. Sherri Gallick of Belton.

Senate Democrats have been in negotiations with Republicans over the last month to modify the bill, in what they’ve said is an effort to maintain the will of the voters in expanding paid sick leave rather than gut it entirely, as well as make it easier for businesses to comply.

State Sen. Tracy McCreery, an Olivette Democrat, said senators have “worked tirelessly to figure out some kind of compromise.”

The Democrats spent two nights blocking a vote on the paid sick leave repeal earlier in the session.

Under Proposition A, employers with business receipts greater than $500,000 a year must provide at least one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. Employers with fewer than 15 workers must allow workers to earn at least 40 hours per year, with larger employers mandated to allow at least 56 hours.

The measure made sick leave guaranteed for 728,000 workers who lacked it statewide, or over 1 in 3 Missouri workers, according to an analysis from the progressive nonprofit the Missouri Budget Project.

Richard Von Glahn, policy director for Missouri Jobs with Justice, the organization that helped lead the campaign for Proposition A, said it’s a slap in the face to voters that will create “disgruntled employees” and cause “chaos” for businesses.

“Proposition A was passed so overwhelmingly, with so much support from Republican voters, it seemed that it would be so controversial in the legislature that Republican politicians would be more hesitant than they apparently are,” he said, “to overturn the will of their own voters, and cause them economic pain.”

The message lawmakers are sending is: “They don’t believe that you deserve economic security,” he added.

It could also cause backlash for the lawmakers from districts who supported the measure, he said.

“We’re going to make sure that workers don’t experience this as something that just happens to us without understanding these are decisions made by people, and workers have the ability to hold people accountable for those decisions,” he said.

Von Glahn said it’s not the end of the fight for paid sick leave, and advocates will consider putting it on the ballot again as a constitutional amendment, a move that would make it much harder for lawmakers to repeal.

“I’m confident,” he said, “this is a policy that Missourians want and we’re going to continue to fight for that through every means necessary.”

Republican fractures

Sen. Mike Cierpiot, R-Lee’s Summit, speaks on the Senate floor on Feb. 10, 2021 (screenshot courtesy of Senate Communications).

The debate Wednesday afternoon began about 12:30 p.m. and Democrats held the floor for much of the time. But near the start of the debate, state Sen. Mike Cierpiot, a Lee’s Summit Republican, aired his grievances with the leadership of Missouri Right to LIfe.

Cierpiot accused the organization, one of the most visible anti-abortion groups in the state, of focusing more on enforcing purity of thought and maintaining its influence within the GOP than writing laws acceptable to most Missourians.

Amendment 3 reinstated abortion rights lost in 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. If Missouri Right to Life’s leaders had not demanded a ban with no exceptions for rape or incest, he said, Amendment 3 might have been defeated.

“Their leadership, Ms. (Susan) Klein, and Mr. (Dave) Plemmons and Mr. (Steve) Rupp have been much more interested in causing Republican brush fires over issues with much smaller or no impact on the huge effort for life,” Cierpiot said.

The problems with Missouri Right to Life was evident in the 2024 elections when it made single-candidate endorsements, freezing out candidates who had been ardent anti-abortion legislators. The organization endorsed then-Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft in the Republican primary for governor, then refused to endorse Republican nominee Mike Kehoe for the general election.

Other Republicans who won without the endorsement of Missouri Right to Life joined in the criticism. State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican from Arnold, said the law triggered by the 2022 abortion decision was negotiated in spite of Missouri Right to Life, not with its help.

“I don’t know that I really care, frankly, that they didn’t endorse me,” Coleman said. “What I do care about is that they didn’t endorse Gov. Kehoe in the primary, and they didn’t endorse him in the general.”

Christian Chenet, 28, was being held in the Cole County Jail. Bond will be set later today, Cole County Prosecuting Attorney Locke Thompson said in an email and Chenet will have his first court appearance Friday if he does not post bond.

The first degree harassment charge is a felony and the assault charge is a misdemeanor.

“Harassment and assault cases are kept on an automatic 24 hour hold, so he won’t have the ability to bond out until the judge sets a bond,” Thompson said.

The incident that led to charges began about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday when Chenet, who is a legislative assistant to state Rep. Kem Smith, a St. Louis Democrat, went to Izzy’s Burgers and Shakes to retrieve a purse left behind by state Rep. Kathy Steinhoff, a Columbia Democrat.

Smith declined to comment on Chenet’s arrest. Steinhoff also declined to comment. There is no attorney yet listed for Chenet on Casenet.

The incident became heated when the owner of Izzy’s, Taisir Yanis, refused to turn over the purse, looked inside to determine the owner and stated he could only release it to Steinhoff.

“This enraged the defendant and he became angry that the victim was in the purse,” according to the probable cause statement from Jefferson City Police officer Mitchell Rossian.

Chenet called Yanis a “f---ing racist,” Rossian wrote, who told Chenet to leave and followed him outside.

Yanis told officers that he told Chenet not to come back to the business, Rossian wrote. Yanis told officers that is when Chenet told him, “stay here. I’m going to go get my gun.”

Chenet went to a vehicle and told responding officers that he had a gun in the car. A search found a Glock 9mm pistol.

Chenet told officers that Yanis pushed him and he ran to his vehicle. He said had called 911 and “mentioned shooting (Yanis).”

Under questioning, Rossian wrote, Chenet “still thought his actions were justified during the interview.”

by Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent

February 12, 2025

Members of the Missouri House Budget Committee on Wednesday made Attorney General Andrew Bailey defend his request for millions in additional funding and his decision to sue Starbucks for allegations it discriminated against white applicants in hiring and promotions.

Republican members of the committee led the questioning of Bailey’s request for new funds, asking why he needed more money when his office hasn’t spent all it was given in past years.

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“You’re asking for more personal service (funding), but you’re leaving $2 million on the bottom line,” said state Rep. John Voss, a Republican from Cape Girardeau. “So why do you say that they’re not funded when I think there’s sufficient room for you to use that? I honestly think the issue isn’t money. It’s something else preventing you from being able to hire attorneys.”

Democrats took the lead on the Starbucks case, filed Tuesday in federal court.

“I’m just curious if white-served coffee tastes a little bit better because if it does I’m happy to have some,” said state Rep. Raychel Proudie, a Democrat from Ferguson.

Bailey defended the budget request by saying his office was seeking to hire experienced attorneys to handle more complex cases and to mentor lawyers hired for their first job after law school.

The Starbucks case, Bailey said, was filed because he believes the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs and executive incentives are illegal.

“The statute in the (Missouri Human Rights Act) says that if it appears to the attorney general that any of these rights are being either violated or even that anyone is suppressing those rights, that the attorney general then, under the statute, has the authority to take legal action,” Bailey said.

Lawmakers appropriated $44.7 million for Bailey’s office in the current fiscal year and he is asking for $47.4 million for the year beginning July 1. State budget office documents show Bailey spent only $28.2 million of $43 million set aside for his office in fiscal 2024, leaving the remainder, including $1.7 million in general revenue, unspent.

Over the past eight years, the attorney general’s office has had a growing vacancy problem, with more than 32% of authorized personnel slots unused in fiscal 2024. In fiscal 2017, about 22% of the authorized personnel slots, designated as full time equivalents or FTEs in state budget documents, were unused.

Part of the personnel issue for his office, Bailey said, is expanded legal teams at individual state agencies and the lure of private practice once attorneys have gained experience.

The increased funding, he said, will help cut turnover by allowing him to recruit more experienced attorneys to work with the newly graduated lawyers. He is not, he said, asking for additional personnel slots.

“I noticed when I took over, to put it in military terms, I had a lot of privates and a lot of lieutenants, but not a lot of sergeants,” Bailey said.

Voss, however, wasn’t convinced that the extra money is needed.

“I think you have the money,” Voss said. “I just don’t think that’s the real problem.”

In the Starbucks lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Bailey alleges that hiring and promotion decisions, as well as executive bonuses, were tied to a quota system for women and minority recruitment.

In 2020, the lawsuit states, 69% of Starbucks’ employees in the United States were women and 47% were Black or other minorities. In September, the filing states, 70.9% of Starbucks employees were women and 52.2% were Black or other minorities.

“In other words, since 2020, Starbuck’s workface (sic) has become more female and less white,” the filing states.

“As Attorney General, I have a responsbility (sic) to protect Missourians from a company that actively engages in systemic race and sex discrimination,” Bailey said.

As a result, Bailey wrote in the lawsuit, “Missouri consumers pay higher prices and wait longer for goods and services that could be provided for less had Starbucks employed the most qualified workers, regardless of their race, color, sex, or national origin.”

Starbucks said it does not discriminate in a statement in response to the lawsuit.

“We disagree with the attorney general and these allegations are inaccurate,” the company stated. “We are deeply committed to creating opportunity for every single one of our partners (employees). Our programs and benefits are open to everyone and lawful. Our hiring practices are inclusive, fair and competitive and designed to ensure the strongest candidate for every job every time.”

In the hearing Tuesday, state Rep. Betsy Fogle, a Democrat from Springfield, said she sees nothing wrong in Starbucks increasing its employment of women and minorities.

“There are a lot of us in this room that celebrate that fact,” Fogle said. “We want women in the workforce. We want individuals and groups who have historically been out of the workforce to be full participants.”

In reply, Bailey said he is trying to promote fair hiring for all applicants.

“It is my opinion that everyone should have equal access to job opportunities, and the decisions should be made in accordance with the statutes and promotion of merit,” he said.

State Rep. Aaron Crossley, a Democrat from Independence, asked Bailey about other lawsuits against private companies, requesting a list of those actions.

“And then also, could we please get a breakdown of your office’s staff and by gender and by race,” he said, “just make sure that we’re practicing what we preach.”

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com.

Missouri universities and research organizations will need to cut about $100 million from administrative costs for research funded last year by the National Institutes of Health or replace the money from other sources if President Donald Trump’s attempt to reduce indirect costs is successful.

There were 1,553 grants worth $901 million issued by the NIH to Missouri institutions during the most recent federal fiscal year. The recipients reported spending as much as 30% of their grant on indirect costs to support their research.

The grants allow research into medical problems, such as pandemic preparedness or the control of infections acquired in hospitals. They also cover agriculture and veterinary research, like the Swine Resource Center at the University of Missouri, and public health problems such as how policies on E-cigarettes impact youth tobacco use.

A federal judge on Monday evening issued a temporary restraining order blocking the cuts in response to a lawsuit joined by 22 states, not including Missouri. The order covered all federal funding cuts made since Trump took office Jan. 20.

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By far the biggest recipient of NIH grants was Washington University in St. Louis, which received 1,192 grants totaling $732 million, followed by the 162 grants worth almost $70 million to the University of Missouri’s Columbia campus.

Both universities spend well above the 15% cap on indirect costs set as the goal for NIH research under the new policy.
Other significant recipients of NIH grants in Missouri include St. Louis University, which received 63 worth $25.8 million; Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, which landed 26 grants worth $9.7 million; and the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, which received 19 grants worth $5.1 million in the most recent fiscal year.

Washington University reported it will have about $189 million in indirect costs for its grants, or about 26% of the total. The University of Missouri reported its indirect costs will be about $21 million, or 30% of the amount awarded.

In a message to the Washington University campus, Chancellor Andrew Martin said the campus administration is reviewing the new rule, which will “have a significant impact on institutions like WashU” and is working to get the new rule reversed.

“We’re mobilized on multiple fronts,” Martin wrote. “Our leadership team is closely reviewing the policy, and our government relations team is engaging with congressional representatives and others to ensure that they understand the consequences of these cuts and are encouraged to act to address this threat to research and its many benefits to society.”

To get indirect costs below 15% for the grants awarded in fiscal 2024, Washington University would have to cut about $80 million in administrative expenses or find it from other sources.

At the University of Missouri, indirect costs exceed the new threshold by about $10 million for the Columbia campus. There are a handful of grants for the other three campuses — University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of Missouri-St. Louis and Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla — that would add about $1.7 million to that amount.

The university system administration was unable to say Monday whether it would cut costs — likely resulting in job losses — or cover the shortfall from other resources.

NIH funding supports research in agriculture, biomedical sciences and advanced technologies at the university, according to a statement issued by University of Missouri spokesman Christopher Ave.

The change in indirect funding “would mean significant annual reductions in funding for our vital NIH-sponsored research that saves lives, creates jobs, enhances national security and improves quality of life for people in every part of our state and across the nation,” Ave said. Like Washington University, the UM System is working to get the decision reversed, the statement said.

“Our leadership is communicating with key stakeholders in government, the private sector, other universities and other communities,” Ave said.. “Leaders of our campuses have directed faculty and staff working on NIH and other federal grants to continue their important research and to keep submitting NIH proposals as well as other federal agency grants as we further assess the situation.”

Pointer, 76, was housed at the Moberly Correctional Center, where the state prison agency keeps offenders with kidney disease because it has a dialysis center, department spokeswoman Karen Pojmann wrote in an email to The Independent.

Pointer was pronounced dead at 5:13 p.m. last Friday and “had been on dialysis for many years, had been incarcerated since 2009 and had been at Moberly Correctional Center for 10 years,” Pojmann wrote.

Pointer was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2009 after pleading guilty in the murder of his estranged wife in St. Louis.

An autopsy has been ordered, local law enforcement was notified and an investigation of the death is underway, Pojmann wrote.

Pojmann did not share any information regarding the manner of Pointer’s death. The Independent learned how he died from Déna Notz, a former corrections officer who founded an organization called Collectively Changing Corrections. Notz shared an email from a man incarcerated at the Moberly prison who saw Pointer bleeding.

“Friday night I witnessed a man I loved, James Pointer, a Vietnam veteran, bleed out from his femoral artery on a cold, dirty prison floor,” the inmate wrote. “It took medical so long to get to him that he died.”

The email was chilling, Notz said.

“It doesn’t surprise me because of all the stuff I hear,” she said,“but I still cannot believe that something like this happened.”

The description of events was confirmed by Tammy Mogab, a woman whose brother Shawn Scrivens is an insulin-dependent diabetic housed at the Moberly prison. Scrivens told a Phelps County judge he had not received an insulin shot in 124 days when he pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Mogab said she spoke to her brother on the telephone on Saturday as well as other men incarcerated at the prison.

“There are witnesses to the death of Mr. Pointer,” Mogab said, “and now all the dialysis patients are afraid to take their treatments.”

The Randolph County Ambulance District received an emergency call for the prison at 4:37 p.m. Friday and arrived on the scene at 4:49 p.m., district Superintendent Clay Joiner said.

“We did everything we could in this situation,” Joiner said.

Dialysis treats kidney failure and over time, preferred access points in a person’s arms can become scarred or otherwise unusable. A permanent catheter inserted into a blood vessel in the upper leg is a last-resort method.

Rapid bleeding can occur if the access port at the end of the tube becomes dislodged and there is no clamp to close off the tube.

The femoral artery is one of the largest in the human body. A person can bleed to death in 2 to 5 minutes if no action is taken to staunch the flow of blood.

Joiner said he has responded to similar emergencies among dialysis patients in their homes.

“When your femoral artery is bleeding out, you have very little time,” Joiner said.

Randolph County Coroner Charlie Peel will rule on the cause of death for Pointer. He said that he is not ready to release any information about what he observed or was told by the department.

“We are in the middle of an investigation,” Peel said.

Many of the autopsies on people who die in the custody of the department are conducted at the Boone County Medical Examiner’s office in Columbia. Autopsy records obtained by The Independent for deaths at the Algoa and Jefferson City correctional centers show that in the past two years, the time elapsed from the date of the death to a completed report has ranged from 30 to more than 250 days.

There were 11 deaths at Moberly Correctional Center in 2024, fifth most among the 19 adult prisons operated by the department. The prison system recorded 139 deaths in 2024, the highest number of deaths in custody in its history.

The inmate who wrote to Notz stated that it was the fourth time in the past month that Pointer’s access point opened. He blamed medical staff working for contractor Centurion Health, not department officers.

“How inept does a nurse have to be, does a company have to be, to allow this man to bleed out of an open artery four times in one month?” the inmate wrote. “DOC staff is not to blame for this atrocity. Medical staff is responsible and they alone must pay.”

Health care in Missouri’s prisons is performed by Centurion Health under a contract, recently renegotiated, that pays the company $21.65 per day for each person in custody.

The state will pay Centurion approximately $203 million in the coming fiscal year, an increase of about 11% from the previous rate.

Centurion did not respond to telephone and email messages seeking comment.

A bill changing the terms of the Missouri minimum wage law approved by voters four months ago will leave all the promised benefits in place but may delay their implementation, the chairman of a House committee looking at the law said Wednesday.

State Rep. David Casteel, a High Ridge Republican, told members of the House Commerce Committee during a hearing that they will rewrite the several bills seeking to change Proposition A. That process will take time, he said, telling them not to expect a vote at the panel’s regular meeting next week.

“No one in this body is trying to overturn the choice of the people,” Casteel said.

In an interview, Casteel said he’s considering ideas that would delay a minimum wage increase set for Jan. 1, 2026, or the provision requiring most employers to offer paid sick and family leave.

“We’re going to get into the nitty gritty of everything within the bill,” Casteel said. “There’s a lot we don’t like, and there’s a lot we do like, about all the bills that have been and will be presented.”

Republicans who control the legislature must find a sweet spot between the 58% majority who approved Proposition A and the major business groups who opposed the measure and are among the GOP’s most reliable supporters.

Proposition A increased the minimum wage in Missouri to $13.75 an hour on Jan. 1 and $15 an hour next year. In future years, the wage would be adjusted for changes in prices, a provision that has been in state law since 2006. It also requires employers with business receipts greater than $500,000 a year to provide one hour of paid sick and family time for every 30 hours worked.

The paid leave provisions take effect May 1.

On Wednesday, the Commerce Committee held public hearings on two of the five bills on its agenda that would alter aspects of Proposition A.

One of the bills, filed by state Rep. Carolyn Caton, a Republican from Blue Springs, would repeal the inflation adjustment. It would also allow employers to pay workers younger than 20 the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and exempt all employers with business receipts less than $10 million annually.

“It isn’t that we don’t want to pay people,” Caton said. “We want to pay people well, but we need to do so in a manner that is going to protect our small businesses.”

The other bill, filed by state Rep. Scott Miller, a Republican from St. Charles, would exempt workers under 21 from the state minimum wage and businesses with fewer than 50 employees. It would also allow employers to reduce the final paycheck of anyone who doesn’t give at least two weeks notice before quitting, or any employee who violates the provisions of the employer’s worker handbook.

“If a business is going to be obligated by law to pay a minimum wage, which is, frankly, the government is price-fixing labor, then the government ought to performance-fix the employees,” Miller said.

The campaign to pass Proposition A drew no large-scale opposition prior to the vote. But a court challenge filed in early December by major business advocacy groups asks the Missouri Supreme Court to invalidate the vote. The court has set the case for arguments on March 12.

At the same time, those business groups — Associated Industries of Missouri, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry and industry groups representing retailers, restaurants and grocers — are urging lawmakers to repeal portions or delay their implementation.

“In an ideal world, we would love to roll it all back,” Kara Corches, president and CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said in a recent webinar. “But part of the legislative process, or the sausage making process as we say sometimes, you don’t always get, in the end, what you started with.”

Ron Berry, lobbyist for one of Proposition A’s biggest backers, Missouri Jobs with Justice Voter Action, said during Wednesday’s hearing that the proposals to exempt businesses with fewer than 50 employees would cover 96% of all private businesses.

Responding to a question about the difficulty employers will have covering the additional cost, Berry said labor isn’t the only thing driving up prices.

“Whether it’s wages or it’s the cost of energy, all of you know inflation is higher, and we’re all having to tighten our belts,” Berry said.

Buddy Lahl, CEO of the Missouri Restaurant Association, told the committee that his members want the exemption threshold raised to 100 employees as well as implementing the $10 million revenue floor.

He also said the sick leave provisions should not allow hours to be carried over from one year to the other.

“It should be a use it or lose it thing,” Lahl said.

Business lobbyists also warned of job losses, or even businesses that won’t survive, if the increased minimum wage stands.

State Rep. Steve Butz, a Democrat from St. Louis, said he didn’t believe that argument, noting that Missouri voters increased the minimum wage twice before without sinking the state’s economy.

“We’ve had other increases in minimum wage,” Butz said. “We always have been told that it’s going to kill jobs and jobs continue to grow in the state.”

Keeping Missouri state government operating through June 30 will cost $2.1 billion more than lawmakers budgeted last year thanks to lowballed spending estimates, sluggish lottery sales and new programs in education and other areas.

The election-year budget plan approved last year totaled $51.6 billion after Gov. Mike Parson was finished with vetoes that fell heavily on earmarked items inserted by legislators. While Parson was paring back on pork, lawmakers slashed spending in the Medicaid program to keep the topline total down.

New Gov. Mike Kehoe on Tuesday delivered his $53.7 billion budget for the coming fiscal year. It came with the supplemental spending request that took up most of a six-hour hearing Wednesday in the House Budget Committee.

Gov. Mike Kehoe dips deeply into surplus as Missouri budget grows to nearly $54 billion

The Medicaid program spent $12.6 billion on medical services in fiscal 2024 and billions more on mental health and other services. Lawmakers appropriated $13.6 billion for medical services the current year and Kehoe is asking for $15.8 billion in the year starting July 1.

The biggest item in the supplemental spending request is $942 million to cover a Medicaid shortfall. More realistic budgeting last year would have reduced that amount, MO HealthNet Director Todd Richardson told The Independent.

“They took about a 25% core cut last year,” he said.

The supplemental request is larger than last year, which was $580 million, but smaller than each of the three previous years, when federal pandemic aid and state employee pay raises inflated the totals.

Along with the new governor, the budget committee has a new chairman, state Rep. Dirk Deaton, a Republican from Noel. It also has a new vice-chairman, GOP state Rep. Bishop Davidson of Republic, who is also new to the committee.

Under state budget rules, lawmakers cannot add items to the supplemental budget but they can reduce or eliminate them. Deaton said it is too early to say whether the proposal will see major changes.

“We’re still doing the due diligence, and we certainly need to take a look at it and make sure there’s the justification for it, and run everything through the traps,” Deaton said.

Davidson said he’s working to learn the jargon and the process for setting spending levels.

“We have a really awesome staff that are not only good analysts and good researchers, but they’re good teachers as well,” he said.

Major items in the supplemental request include:

$142.4 million for the state foundation formula for public schools. Of that amount, $47.4 million is due to increases mandated by a major education bill passed last year. The remaining $95 million is general revenue being used to replace a shortfall in lottery proceeds.$129.8 million for the Department of Mental Health to eliminate waiting lists for developmental disability and behavioral health services.$110 million for the mental health agency to pay community providers of services for people with developmental disabilities.$95 million to cover the expected cost of home and community-based services in the Medicaid program.$20.7 million to cover a higher rate for health care provided to people in the custody of the Department of Corrections. The department extended the current health care contract with Centurion Health for four years, paying $21.65 per day for each person in custody.

In the early part of the hearing, State Budget Director Dan Haug and department leaders in attendance were often peppered with detailed questions about the budget lines. Later, as the hearing continued through lunch time, the time spent on each shortened.

And when Haug got to the Medicaid request, he even drew laughter.

“This is a page I probably should skip,” Haug joked when he reached the request. “It is only about a billion dollars.”

He received few questions about the request.

Lawmakers wanted to know why the lottery isn’t producing as much as promised last year. The budget included $430 million from the lottery for education programs, a 5% increase over the previous year.

Instead, net proceeds available for education are down more than 15% during the first six months of the year.

Haug attributed part of the decline to a dearth of major jackpots, which draw ticket purchases from people who rarely play. State Rep. Louis Riggs, a Hannibal Republican, asked if video games that pay out cash prizes, which have infiltrated every corner of the state at convenience stores and other locations, were to blame.

“How much is that attributable to folks sitting there gorked out all day on those machines, which I don’t think we’re getting any tax revenue from, instead of playing the lottery?” Riggs asked.

Haug said there were no studies, so the answer is unknown.

“That could be a possibility but it is hard for us to quantify it,” he said.

Sometimes the questions focused on issues that weren’t addressed in the supplemental budget but are causing pain at home. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has struggled to implement a new payment system for child care vendors and in August promised to clear a staggering backlog by the start of November.

On Wednesday, Kari Monsees, deputy commissioner of education, said 70% of the backlog has been cleared and the target for clearing it is the end of February.

That wasn’t an answer that pleased the committee.

“When you have providers saying they are taking money out of their child’s savings accounts to keep their business open so we have child care, I have a problem with that,” said state Rep. Stephanie Hein, a Springfield Democrat.

The education agency took over the child care program when Parson reorganized state government and created the Office of the Child in the department. The department changed its software vendor in December of 2023, and both providers and families enrolling in the program began noticing issues tracking and receiving payment. Some child care centers closed and others turned away families using the subsidy program during months of missed payments.

There are backlogs of payments from before the changeover that must be met, said state Rep. Don Mayhew, a Crocker Republican.

The plan for catching up payments only covers those made through the new software, he noted.

“It didn’t include the providers from the previous year who are stuck in this purgatory of old system versus new system,” Mayhew said.

When the committee finished with the supplemental plan, Haug gave a quick overview of the budget proposal for the coming year.

Kehoe is proposing a $200 million increase in the foundation formula, which covers the extra costs imposed by last year’s legislation, but balked at adding another $300 million that the formula shows would meet the full obligation to schools.

A key factor, the state adequacy target — a measure of how much schools that meet state standard spend — increased, driving the $300 million request.

“Just to be clear, we are not cutting funding to K through 12 education,” Haug said. “We are increasing funding by $200 million in K through 12 education, the largest increase they have gotten under this current formula, the largest increase we could find back to the 90s.”

Haug also discussed how Kehoe would keep his promise to eliminate the state income tax, which provides about 70% of state general revenue.

“I don’t think anyone here wants to cut 70% of state government,” Haug said. “There would have to be some revenue replacement there.”

The Attorney General’s Office did not violate the Missouri Sunshine Law when it refused to turn over records showing how it fulfilled a request, the Western District Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

In a split decision, a three-judge panel ruled that the office reasonably concluded the records being sought by St. Louis attorney Elad Gross were exempt from disclosure because of his threatened litigation.

Gross was seeking records about then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s participation in a U.S. Supreme Court case seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the Republican Attorneys General Association’s robocall efforts encouraging “patriots” to participate in a march that ended on Jan. 6, 2021, with a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Eric Schmitt denies involvement in call for Trump supporters to march on U.S. Capitol

“This case presents a unique question for which we have found no direct precedent – application of (Sunshine Law exemptions) to records created by a public governmental body in responding to a previous Sunshine Request where the threatened litigation concerns the public governmental body’s handling of that previous records request,” Judge Edward Ardini wrote in the 2-1 decision.

The Sunshine Law allows government agencies to close records about “legal actions, causes of action or litigation.” That exception doesn’t allow a record that should be open to be closed just because it might become evidence in a court case, Ardini wrote, but it does allow records created in contemplation of possible litigation to be closed.

“The nature of these records rendered them not merely discoverable or admissible in an enforcement action over the AGO’s compliance with the Sunshine Law concerning its response to Gross’s first request but go to the very core of such an action by disclosing the precise means utilized by the AGO to comply with its legal responsibilities,” Ardini wrote.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Alok Ahuja wrote that there was no prospective or actual litigation when the records were created, so they must be open.

An “open ended application” of the litigation exemption which “authorizes the closure of any records which may ‘go to the very core of’ litigation threatened after the records’ creation, would result in precisely the sort of ‘extreme’ consequences of which (an earlier precedent) warned,” Ahuja wrote.

Since the lawsuit was filed in 2021, Schmitt has been elected to the U.S. Senate and replaced by Andrew Bailey, who defeated Gross, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, last year.

In an email to The Independent, Gross said he would appeal the decision.

“Attorney General Bailey is wrong to prevent taxpayers from seeing what our government is doing with our money,” Gross said. “We need transparency in our government.”

Gross has sued over Sunshine Law questions in the past, losing at the trial court level before gaining a win on appeal.

In 2021, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled, in a case brought by Gross, that government agencies cannot charge for time attorneys spend reviewing public records are requested under the Sunshine Law.

In the case decided Tuesday, Gross lost a summary judgment decision in Cole County. He raised 12 points in the appeal.

Along with arguing the trial court made a mistake by allowing the attorney general’s office to close some records, Gross sought to overturn the decision by claiming Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green made other errors.

Gross argued Green wrongly terminated the discovery process, limited his ability to question staff witnesses in person, and allowed the attorney general’s office to move the date promised for the delivery of records.

The decision was unanimous except for Ahuja’s dissent related to the question of whether the documents were related to litigation.

A confrontational legislative hearing Monday — with a witness calling a state senator a fascist and lawmakers battling over whether the state should put a bounty on undocumented immigrants — set the tone for this year’s debate on immigration and the state’s role in border security.

The most aggressive approach, in a bill filed by state Sen. David Gregory, would award a $1,000 bounty for tips that result in the arrest of a person present in the United States without authorization. Gregory, a Republican from Chesterfield, wants to authorize bounty hunters, usually employed by bail bond businesses to catch absconders, to track down people identified in tips.

And if the tip proves accurate, the person arrested would be charged with “trespass by an illegal alien,” and subject to life in prison without parole if federal immigration authorities declined to take custody.

“This bill seeks to create an ICE program at the state level,” Gregory told the Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee. “That’s essentially all it does. This is an ICE program inside the state of Missouri.”

State Sen. Barbara Washington, a Kansas City Democrat, said it encourages people to make reports based on skin color or English proficiency.

“Don’t tell me it is not going to happen because it is happening now,” Washington said.

Gregory’s bill — and another heard Monday from state Sen. Jill Carter, a Joplin Republican — are among several introduced by Republicans this session seeking to make it more difficult for undocumented immigrants to remain in the state.

Carter’s bill would also create new crimes based on immigration status. For simply being undocumented, a person could be charged with “improper entry” and could be punished by a fine of up to $10,000 and removal to a U.S. port of entry for deportation.

The crime of “aggravated illegal presence” would be a felony applying to undocumented people who violated any other Missouri law. The penalty would be increased if the violation was a felony law.

Immigration and border security have been a major issue for the GOP nationally, helping get President Donald Trump elected to a new term. Trump promised mass deportations, and roundups began almost immediately after he took office.

There were 956 arrests on Sunday, the BBC reported. Colombia, which initially refused to accept incoming flights of people being deported, relented after Trump threatened to impose a tariff of 25% on all imports from the South American country.

Federal courts have blocked attempts in Iowa, Texas and Georgia to make it a crime to be in those states if a person is in the U.S. illegally.

During Monday’s hearing, immigrants — with legal status and without — said the bills filed this year represent an escalation of oppression.

“It is inhumane to say people should be hunted like a sport,” said Aura Velasquez, who has been a citizen for five years. “It would turn neighbors against neighbors and friends against each other.”

Immigration advocates argued that a community already fearful about having documentation to remain in the U.S. revoked would become more fearful.

“This bill fosters a climate of fear, where people feel unsafe engaging in even the most basic activities beyond going to work or school,” said Gabriella Cepeda, representing the Hispanic Law Students Association at St. Louis University. “They are terrified of being profiled or targeted life in prison for simply existing in the state without documentation. It is not just extreme, it’s cruel and unusual punishment.”

The handful of supporters, representing law enforcement and a conservative Jewish group, said the state must protect itself from human trafficking and drug trafficking associated with lax border security.

“This legislation would simply give law enforcement another tool in the tool box to assist our federal partners,” Lewis County Sheriff David Parish said.

Last summer, a Missouri House interim committee studied the issue of crime associated with illegal immigration. The report, published Jan. 7, drew no conclusions and reported that many of the witnesses said they feared problems associated with border communities reaching Missouri.

The report did not estimate the number of undocumented immigrants in Missouri but said studies show a substantial economic impact.

Undocumented immigrants paid approximately $113 million in state taxes in 2022 but cannot use the public benefits those taxes support like Medicaid. Their economic activity supports 160,000 jobs and $19 billion in total economic activity, providing “real economic stability that benefits all Missourians,” the committee report stated.

Washington peppered Gregory and Carter with questions about whether the state should trade that economic support for a state free of undocumented immigrants.

“We have 77,000 illegal immigrants that we have here in Missouri,” Gregory said.

“So they should all be subject to this, because you’re saying that we should arrest them just because they’re here?” Washington asked.

“Yes,” Gregory replied.

Missouri Republicans took their first legislative steps toward a promised tax cut on Tuesday, with a Senate committee debating a $300 million exemption for profits from the sale of a farm, business or assets like cryptocurrency.

The proposal to exempt long-term capital gains from Missouri income tax would help bring investment and jobs to the state, said state Sen. Curtis Trent.

“The capital gains tax is a tax that punishes investment,” said Trent, a Republican from Springfield. “It makes it more difficult to attract dollars, and with the jobs and business growth into the state of Missouri, it disincentivizes savings and investment by individuals.”

Trent presented the bill to the Senate General Laws Committee, which he chairs. No vote was held.

The bill is the first of many ideas for cutting taxes expected to get traction this session. Gov. Mike Kehoe campaigned for office on a promise to reduce, and eventually eliminate the state income tax.

Flat tax proposals aim to put Missouri on path to eliminate income tax

Kehoe has not discussed the details of his plan publicly, but is expected to include his ideas when he presents his budget and policy message on Jan. 28 to the General Assembly.

On Wednesday, the Missouri House will hold its first hearing on tax proposals, with bills to eliminate all tax brackets to create a flat tax, to repeal the corporate income tax and to create a fund to finance future tax cuts before the Special Committee on Tax Reform.

Missouri has healthy fund balances in the treasury — $4.1 billion in just the general revenue fund as of Dec. 31 — but tax receipts are expected to fall slightly or remain flat for at least the coming 18 months.

The capital gains tax cut would reduce general revenue — about $13.4 billion in the year that ended June 30 — by about $300 million annually, the fiscal note for Trent’s bill states.

Repealing the corporate income tax would reduce revenue by about $900 million annually.

No fiscal note has been prepared for the proposal to eliminate tax brackets and charge all taxpayers the current top rate, 4.7%, for all taxable income. The major impact of that change would be to increase, by about $70, the tax each individual pays on portions of taxable income below $9,000.

Trent’s bill heard Tuesday would eliminate the state income tax on capital gains by allowing taxpayers to deduct the portion of their income reported as long-term capital gains on their federal returns. For someone with about $50,000 in capital gains income, the savings would be more than $1,500, which is what someone who only had wage income of that amount would pay in state income tax.

Income from long-term capital gains is easily identifiable from federal returns because it is treated differently than income from wages. Under federal tax law, profits on assets held for more than a year are taxed at lower rates than wages or the gains from assets sold after a short period.

“It unfairly taxes inflation, and we have been in a high inflation environment for the last several years,” Trent said. “The increase in the value of an asset is not necessarily because of true gains in that asset’s value, but just in the devaluation of the currency.”

Only eight states, including Tennessee, exempt all capital gains from income taxes. Two states that border on Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, have special treatment for some capital gains. For example, Oklahoma exempts capital gains on the sale of Oklahoma property owned for at least five consecutive years, or the sale of stock in an Oklahoma company or partnership held for at least two consecutive years.

Business and farm groups testified that eliminating the tax on capital gains would promote the transfer of agricultural land from retiring farmers to new owners, encourage small business owners to expand and preserve family fortunes.

“This would be very helpful for small businesses that have had a rough few years,” said Brad Jones, lobbyist for the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

The main opposition to major tax cuts this year is likely to come from groups concerned about possible future spending cuts.

Brian Colby, a lobbyist for the liberal Missouri Budget Project, testified in opposition, citing the “large fiscal note and no offset on revenue losses.”

After years of no-limit spending on Missouri politics, voters had enough in 2016.

That year, as candidates raked in $65.5 million in donations larger than $100,000, Missourians overwhelmingly adopted a constitutional amendment capping donations to candidates, outlawing direct contributions from corporations and labor unions and banning efforts to conceal where money is coming from.

The motivation, which the amendment embedded in the constitution, was that “excessive campaign contributions to political candidates create the potential for corruption and the appearance of corruption.”

Passage spurred a lawsuit and a rush to grab big donations before the limits took effect. But it didn’t take long for crafty consultants to find ways around contribution limits, forging a trail to unlimited giving by having candidates set up affiliated committees alongside their campaign committees.

The arrangement can make it difficult — or impossible — for voters to figure out where the money is really coming from.

Throughout the 2024 campaign, The Independent has monitored campaign reports and how donation limits and other campaign finance laws are enforced.

Some of the findings:

In the 2019-20 election cycle, there were 70 donations of $100,000 or more to PACs dedicated to a single candidate, according to Missouri Ethics Commission records. The total was $32 million.For this year’s elections, there were 106 donations of $100,000 or more since the start of 2023 to PACs backing single candidates. The total is $36.3 million.Some lobbying groups have multiple PACs, allowing a single donor to avoid the limits by obscuring the original source of the funds to the campaign.

The winners of every statewide race this year had an affiliated PAC, as did the winners in every hotly contested state Senate race. Candidates can help these committees raise money, but have no say in how the money is used. It is illegal to coordinate campaign efforts.

The biggest spender was American Dream PAC, which spent $15.5 million over the past two years to help Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe’s campaign for governor. Kehoe’s candidate committee spent $5.4 million in the same period.

The largest donor of any type to a candidate PAC was the Concord Fund, which donated $6 million in the failed effort to nominate Will Scharf as the Republican candidate for attorney general.

The largest individual contributor was Rex Sinquefield, who donated $3.7 million in amounts of $100,000 or more to American Dream PAC and Liberty and Justice PAC, the committee affiliated with Andrew Bailey’s campaign for attorney general.

“The current system is objectively a little goofy,” said Sean Nicholson, who managed a 2018 campaign called Clean Missouri that included a provision lowering donation limits for legislative candidates.

Candidates agree.

State Rep. Brad Hudson of Cape Fair, who won the Republican primary in the 33rd Senate District and was unopposed Nov. 5, said the lack of control over how money is used can be embarrassing.

“Oftentimes, the candidate is judged by the message that the PAC puts forth,” Hudson said, “and the candidate may or may not be OK with that message.”

A six-PAC, or more

The 2016 initiative and subsequent changes are Missouri’s second attempt to limit campaign donations. There were also caps from 1995 to 2008, and then, as now, paths were found around the caps.

For this year’s elections, the maximum contribution to a statewide candidate was $2,825. State Senate candidate committees could accept $2,400 and Missouri House candidates could accept up to $2,000.

The primary and the general election are separate elections. No donation can be accepted for the general election until after the primary and any donor who gave the maximum for the primary can give that amount again for the general election.

One method around the limits is to have multiple PACs funded by a single or limited group of donors.

Each PAC is allowed to donate the maximum, even if it has only a single donor.

In 2017, the Missouri Health Care Association — the lobbying arm of the nursing home industry — stopped putting money into the Missouri Health Care Association PAC and instead began giving to two new entities, DSV PAC and RQC PAC.

Since Jan. 1, 2023, the association has donated more than $410,000 to the two PACs, and they, in turn, have made $360,000 in donations to candidates and other PACs.

“Those were formed in 2017 and no one seems to remember what those letters stood for when they created them, but we contribute to them,” said Meghan Henderson, executive director of the association.

The committees have the same treasurer and on four occasions, wrote checks at or near the maximum on both accounts to the same candidate. The campaigns reported the checks as originating with RQC or DSV PAC, with no mention of the Health Care Association as the original source of the money.

Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, an Affton Democrat, is one of the candidates who received donations from both PACs, two checks for $2,400 on Sept. 20.

“They must be operating within the rules,” Beck said, “because I don’t know that they’ve stopped and said, ‘hey, you’ve got too many checks. You need to refund the money or whatever.’”

The association’s attorney has checked the legality of two PACs, Henderson said.

“My understanding is that we do comply with all of Missouri’s campaign finance laws,” Henderson said.

Strategic Capitol Consulting, the lobbying firm founded by former Missouri House Speaker Steve Tilley, maintains six PACs. Each received identical donations from five of Tilley’s clients at various points in the year.

The two biggest donors are Torch Electronics, owner of “gray market” games found in convenience stores and other locations that offer cash prizes to players, and Warrenton Oil, a convenience store company that joined Torch in a lawsuit seeking to stop law enforcement from seizing the games as illegal gambling devices.

Torch donated $330,000 to the six PACs in June and Warrenton Oil gave $240,000 in July.

Together, the six PACs have donated a total of $1.5 million since the start of 2023.

An analysis by The Independent found that when three or more of the Tilley lobbying PACs give to the same candidate at the same time, the amount traceable to each donor would exceed the amount that donor could give directly.

For example, Hudson received maximum donations of $2,400 each from the six Tilley lobbying PACs on Aug. 12. The $14,400 is vastly more than Tilley’s firm or any donor could have contributed individually.

He also received more than the maximum amount from three of the five donors.

Hudson, who won his seat in the House in 2018, did not violate any campaign finance law by accepting the donations. His campaign reported them as required. He said efforts to limit donations don’t make it easier for the public to follow campaign finances.

“It seems like we’ve got a situation where we’ve got just as much, if not more, money in politics,” Hudson said. “It’s just harder to trace.”

Brittany Robins, spokeswoman for Strategic Capitol Consulting, didn’t clarify why the firm needs six political action committees, saying only that no laws were broken.

“Our firm ensures that all activities related to the PACs we advise are conducted ethically and in full compliance with Missouri’s campaign finance laws,” Robbins said. “This includes ensuring the treasurers and governing boards reporting and financial activities are compliant.”

Other lobbying groups also have multiple PACs.

The Missouri Bankers Association since 2000 has operated with a statewide PAC and seven PACs tagged with names like MBA Pony Express Region or MBA Mark Twain Region. In 2012, the association created a PAC for young bankers. None have a single dominant donor, instead receiving modest contributions from bankers and banks in the defined region.

Together, the PACs made almost $320,000 in campaign contributions since the start of 2023. Twelve candidate committees received donations from more than one PAC that would have exceeded the limits for their race if the MBA ran all its contributions through a single PAC.

The regional PACs allow full representation for the association’s diverse membership, spokeswoman Lori Bruce said.

“Each MBA PAC is governed by a separate committee made up of MBA members selected to represent their region, and each PAC complies with state laws and the guidelines set forth by the Missouri Ethics Commission,” Bruce said. “Maintaining regional PACs allows our members to retain local control over their political contributions to support the candidates of their choosing. Each committee member has an equal vote on which candidates receive contributions from their PAC.”

Another company that gives to multiple PACs is J&J Ventures, an Illinois firm that operates regulated video lottery games. J&J Ventures contributed to PACs maintained by the three lobbying firms it employs, which in turn donated to candidates and their affiliated PACs.

J&J gave $347,000 to Another Viceroy PAC, operated by Viceroy Government Relations, which made $315,319 in contributions.J&J gave $471,000 to Paladin PAC, operated by Arnold and Associates, which made $465,125 in campaign contributions. Paladin received $20,000 from other donors.J&J gave $126,900 to Rowdy PAC, operated by the Rowden Group lobbying firm, which made $98,300 in contributions. Rowdy PAC received $12,200 from other donors.

The PACs contributed to 80 candidate committees. Eight candidates received amounts that would have exceeded the limits if all J&J donations flowed through a single PAC.

J&J gives to candidates and elected officials who support the company’s position that all gambling should be regulated by statute, said Matt Hortenstine, the company’s general counsel. That puts it in opposition to Torch Electronics.

The money is distributed to its contract lobbyists to make donations based on their evaluations of which legislators and candidates agree with its positions, Hortenstine said.

“We’re not doing anything illegal, and we’re not doing anything out of custom or practice in Missouri politics,” Hortenstine said.

Debate over limits

Missouri’s current contribution limits are part of the state Constitution and only be changed — or repealed — by a statewide vote.

But that doesn’t quiet the debate over whether limits help or hurt the public. The only messages under the control of candidates are those paid for by campaign funds.

“This is a classic example of something that sounds like a good idea — put limits on, make them strict — but the application of the good idea has been really bad for Missouri voters,” said John Hancock, a Republican consultant.

With unlimited funds, and no responsibility to the candidate for the message, the PACs drown out the voice of the campaign committees, Hancock said.

“The system we now have in place is anything but transparent, and it’s not beneficial to the candidate,” he said. “It’s not beneficial to a campaign trying to deliver a message.”

Nicholson, who led the campaign that lowered caps for legislative candidates, said massive donations directly to candidates doesn’t necessarily promote transparency.

“There was nothing about the old regime that was particularly delightful, which is why voters were very fed up and willing to try something new in 2016,” Nicholson said.

But instead of throwing out contribution limits, Nicholson said the law should make sure it is clear where money is coming from.

“The goal of campaign finance laws is for voters to know who’s trying to influence the election and to make sure that corporate special interests don’t have outsized influence over the people who are making a decision about their district and who represents them,” Nicholson said. “I think limits and transparency are both important.”

Hudson, who will begin his first term in the Senate in January, said unlimited donations would promote transparency.

“If an individual could donate to a candidate committee the amount of money that they wanted to and then the candidate had to report that, then the candidate would have control over how that money was spent,” Hudson said.

If he could design a campaign finance system, Beck said, it wouldn’t look like it does now.

“I’m playing within the rules in the system the way they are,” Beck said. “And if they change the rules of the system, I’ll play by those rules. That’s where I’m at. I don’t know what else to do.”

Enforcement

For three months this year, the six-member Missouri Ethics Commission couldn’t meet because only three seats were filled. A fourth was appointed by Gov. Mike Parson in June, but a quorum couldn’t be convened immediately due to illness of one member.

During the time the commission was unable to meet, 24 complaints were closed with no action due to the lack of a quorum.

At a public meeting of the commission on Oct. 16, Chair Robin Wheeler Sanders declined to discuss the commission’s enforcement actions or whether she feels it has enough authority to do its job effectively.

Almost all actions of the commission must be initiated with a complaint. It has no independent authority to investigate actions that may violate the laws it polices for campaign finance activities and lobbying.

Enforcement is only as good as the laws regulators are given to work with, Nicholson said.

“I would not describe it as particularly robust,” he said.

The issue isn’t enforcement power but creating a system that doesn’t encourage anything but direct contributions to candidates with full openness, Hancock said.

“The thing about ethics reforms is they generally force otherwise ethical people to jump through ridiculous hoops” Hancock said. “If we just had a system that was transparent, they wouldn’t have to deal with it. Ethics come from the inside out.”

A federal judge on Monday dismissed defamation lawsuits against three Missouri state senators who made social media posts incorrectly identifying a Kansas man as an undocumented immigrant and the shooter at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory celebration.

Denton Loudermill, the plaintiff in the case, had not shown that the Kansas federal court where he filed the lawsuit is the right one, U.S. District Judge John Broomes ruled. In the eight-page decision, almost identical for each case except for changing names, Broomes ruled that Republican state Sens. Rick Brattin of Harrisonville, Denny Hoskins, of Warrensburg, and Nick Schroer, of Defiance, had shown they had not intended to target Kansas with their posts and therefore should not be sued in a Kansas court.

The decision came just about a month after Broomes dismissed Loudermill’s lawsuit against U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee for defamatory social media posts. Broomes gave the same reasons for dismissing the case against the three senators that he did in dismissing the lawsuit against Burchett.

The shooting at the end of the victory celebration left one person dead and at least 24 people injured.

Just because a post on the internet can be read in a particular location does not mean that location can claim jurisdiction over the person who made the post, Broomes wrote, quoting appeals court precedent.

“Plaintiff has failed to put forth any evidence from which this court could find that defendant ‘purposefully directed [its] activities at residents of the forum, and the litigation results from alleged injuries that arise out of or relate to those activities,’” Broomes wrote, again quoting another case.

Broomes declined to transfer the case to the Western District of Missouri, which includes the location of the victory celebration and the Missouri Capitol Building in Jefferson City.

The cases are not dead, Arthur Benson, attorney for Loudermill, said in an email to The Independent.

“They will be re-filed soon in Missouri,” he said, declining to give any more information.

In the defense provided to the three senators by Attorney General Andrew Bailey, they claimed they wrote the social media posts “while … engaged in … regular duties as a Missouri State Senator in Cole County, Missouri,” Broomes noted.

Broomes did not rule on the claims Brattin, Hoskins and Schroer made that they were immune from being sued for their statements because of their official positions.

Bailey’s office, in a statement, called the decision a victory for the state maintaining jurisdiction over cases involving Missourians.

“Questions of Missouri law belong in Missouri courts, not in remote courts in other states,” spokeswoman Madeline Sieren wrote in an email. “We have said that from Day One. Missourians should rest assured that Attorney General Bailey will always follow the law, even when it’s not easy.”

Bailey’s participation in the case generated its own dispute. In a May letter to the commissioner of the Office of Administration, the state agency that certifies payments from Missouri’s legal expense fund, Gov. Mike Parson wrote that no payments related to the lawsuits should be certified “without my approval or a court order.”

“I cannot justify money spent in this way,” Parson wrote.

Bailey was protecting a legitimate state interest, Sieren said Monday.

“The state has an interest in ensuring remote courts in other states cannot answer questions of Missouri law,” she said.

The lawsuits grew out of social media posts made soon after shooting erupted after the Feb. 14 Super Bowl victory parade and rally at Union Station in Kansas City. Loudermill, who was born in Kansas and lives there now, was detained briefly because he was too slow to leave the area of the shooting, he told The Independent earlier this year.

A photo of him, seated, with his hands restrained behind his back, was posted on X, formally known as Twitter, by an account with the name Deep Truth Intel. That post incorrectly identified him with a name associated with misinformation posted after other shootings and said he was an undocumented immigrant.

Soon after that initial social media post, the Missouri Freedom Caucus, Hoskins, Brattin, Schroer and Burchett posted their own versions, some with the photo, some without.

“These are 3 people arrested at the parade…at least one of those arrested is an illegal immigrant. CLOSE OUR BORDERS!” the Missouri Freedom Caucus posted.

The post was deleted and the Missouri Freedom Caucus also sought to retract its mistake, linking to a KMBC post about Loudermill’s effort to clear his name.

“Denton is an Olathe native, a father of three & a proud @Chiefs fan,” the post states. “He’s not a mass shooter. Images of him being detained for being intoxicated & not moving away from the crime scene at the Chiefs rally have spread online. He just wants to clear his name.”

Hoskins’ version shared a screenshot of the initial anonymous post and blamed President Joe Biden and political leaders of Kansas City for making the shooting possible.

Brattin’s first post linking Loudermill to the shooting, since deleted, demanded “#POTUS CLOSE THE BORDER” and incorporated the deleted anonymous post that kicked everything off.

Schroer was the least certain post about the immigration and arrest status of Loudermill among the three.

Schroer’s post included a link to one from Burchett stating, over Loudermill’s photo, that “One of the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade shooters has been identified as an illegal Alien.”

“Can we get any confirmation or denial of this from local officials or law enforcement?” Schroer wrote. “I’ve been sent videos or stills showing at least 6 different people arrested from yesterday but officially told only 3 still in custody. The people deserve answers.”

Brattin did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the decision.

Hoskins, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, said he was pleased by the decision and now wants to see the people charged with the shootings brought to trial.

“I will continue to pray for the innocent victims of the Kansas City parade shooting,” Hoskins said.

Schroer said he sees the decision as vindication and that he is considering legal action for defamation against media outlets.

“I am glad that the rule of law has been maintained and these frivolous lawsuits targeting conservative Senators were dismissed,” Schroer said. “Lawmakers absolutely should have the ability to question the validity of claims regarding whether or not criminals murdering our constituents are legal citizens.”

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and X.

The family business that owns the Kansas City Chiefs is one of the biggest funders of a political action committee opposing a proposed amendment to overturn Missouri’s abortion ban.

Unity Hunt, the business that controls the assets of the late Lamar Hunt, including the Chiefs, in late September donated $300,000 to the Leadership for America PAC. It is currently running ads on several conservative radio stations across the state opposing the abortion-rights amendment, which will appear on the November ballot as Amendment 3.

Leadership for America is an independent spending PAC created in January. Prior to receiving the donation from Unity Hunt, the PAC had $31,159 on hand.

Along with paying directly for radio ads, Leadership for America has donated $100,000 to Vote “No” on 3, the main opposition group in the Amendment 3 campaign. And on Oct. 3, the PAC donated $100,000 to a PAC called Missouri Leadership Fund, which gave $100,000 to Vote “No” on 3 six days later.

Neither Unity Hunt nor the Kansas City Chiefs responded to requests for comment.

No one from Leadership for America could be reached for comment. The telephone number given to the Missouri Ethics Commission for treasurer John Royal has been disconnected.

The ads, which began airing across the state on Monday, call Amendment 3 “cleverly-worded to convince you that it only allows abortions until fetal viability.”

“But it has loopholes that allow for abortions through all nine months of pregnancy,” the ad continues. “Abortion proponents used to say ‘safe, legal and rare.’ But now they want abortion as common as the morning after pill.”

Supporters of the amendment say claims of abortions in the third trimester are misleading, since the legal freedoms around abortion would only apply until fetal viability, which is generally considered to be around 24 weeks, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The amendment text would allow the Missouri legislature to regulate abortion after fetal viability with exceptions only to “protect the life, or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”

Abortion is illegal from the moment of conception in Missouri, with limited exceptions for medical emergencies. There are no exceptions for victims of rape or incest.

Failed GOP attempt to keep abortion off Missouri ballot could foreshadow fight to come

Leadership for America has spent a little more than $32,000 on the radio ads, which are set to run through Nov. 4. There are no other broadcast ads opposing the amendment.

Organized efforts against Amendment 3 have been hugely outspent by Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the committee backing the amendment. The campaign reported spending $7.3 million through June 30 and has purchased more than $8.7 million in television ads since the start of September.

Vote “No” on 3 has not filed a full disclosure report but has amassed $870,000 in donations greater than $5,000 since Aug. 30.

While the content of the Leadership for America ad aligns with most other opposition talking points, the original source of the money behind the ad drew some attention.

“It is incredibly disappointing to see Unity Hunt spend resources on this campaign to spread lies and continue the fear-mongering surrounding Amendment 3,” said state Rep. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Democrat from Kansas City.

Nurrenbern, who is running for the 17th Senate District in Clay County, said she was particularly alarmed by the size of the donation from a family she said “has done so much good for Kansas City and the Kansas City area.”

State Rep. Ashley Aune, also a Democrat from Kansas City, said she wasn’t surprised to see the Hunt family backing an effort to stop abortion.

“But also, it’s disappointing because when you have such a big platform,” Aune said. “Using that platform to sow misinformation is a really irresponsible way to use it.”

In 2020, Lamar Hunt Jr. served as the master of ceremonies at the Kansans for Life annual Valentine’s Day banquet.

Hunt, an owner of the Chiefs, told the crowd: “I do not think it is a cliché to say we are in a life and death battle for the truth and authentic dignity of the human person.”

Hunt six years earlier published a blog post to his website contemplating what he observed as cultural shifts away from the “pro-choice” movement, comparing the momentum in the “pro-life” community to the San Francisco 49ers comeback and near-win in the final seconds of the 2013 Super Bowl.

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and X.