Charlie Shields

Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields removed Sen. Chuck Purgason as chairman of the body's government accountability committee, where Purgason had held up the special session's tax incentive legislation.

"What I'd like to do is go back from the best ethics bill in the universe and get it down to the best ethics bill in the galaxy -- and maybe beyond -- but not universe."

Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields on SB844, the "ethics" legislation passed last Thursday in the House

The whole exchange between Sens. Shields and Victor Callahan about the House legislation was pretty interesting. 

Listen:

Politico's Dave Catanese posted a series of interesting tweets on Saturday about Tom Schweich's campaign for State Auditor.  In chronological order:

• 8:38 PM - Bad buzz about Schweich from even those who support him. He's steamed he has a primary when he cut a deal. Ala [Florida Governor Charlie] Crist, welcome to the NFL.
   
• 9:14 PM - GOPer says Schweich needs to learn from @RoyBlunt in approach. Roy takes his licks, but smiles, brushes off like Jay-Z. Schweich gets mad.
   
• 9:32 PM - Schweich should devote a speech to his $500 contrib. to @clairecmc. Say if the GOP wants to b party that excludes indys, it won't prevail.
   
• 9:41 PM - No, @allenicet [primary opponent Allen Icet] doesn't inspire. But Schweich is turning people off. RT @davesmith3: @davecatanese is @alanicet really crushing it THAT much?

Missourinet and the AP report that Senate President Charlie Shields (R-St. Joseph) and Speaker Ron Richard (R-Joplin) are both cool to the replace the state income tax with much higher sales taxes.  Missourinet's Bob Priddy:

Senate leader Charlie Shields does not think the bill will pass but he expects a robust debate. In the event it does clear the Senate, the proposal goes to the House, which passed the bill last year. But this year, Speaker Ron Richard sees problems. “I just want to make sure there’s not any uncertainty about where we’re moving, about schools formula, about libraries, about fire districts...And I can see the amendments on the floors now, everybody getting exempted out to kill the bill...I don’t think St. Louis can take 11 or 12 or 13 percent sales tax on their retail. I don’t think that would work and I don’t think that’s proper,” he says.

The Senate began its floor debate of ethics legislation proposed by Sen. Charlie Shields (R-St. Joseph).  As outlined in the Post-Dispatch, his bill

would add more heft to the Missouri Ethics Commission, require more disclosure of campaign donations made during the legislative session, ban most committee-to-committee transfers and broaden the definition of lobbyist. The bill would also make it illegal for lawmakers to work as political consultants for other lawmakers.

The debate lasted a little more than two hours, and was put on hold when it became clear that Sen. Jason Crowell (R-Cape Girardeau), a close friend and client of disgraced Rod Jetton, announced that he had a series of amendments.  Listen to the whole debate:

The Star and Post-Dispatch have the story of a rather incredible letter from lobbyist and Better Courts for Missouri leader James Harris. In the letter sent Monday, Harris asks sitting Republican senators to “speak with members of the [Missouri Supreme] Court” about about a pending case.

Harris' outrageous suggestion that politicians should be lobbying members of the judiciary about pending cases was quickly shot down by the chief of staff to Sen. Charlie Shields (R-St. Joseph).

Please know that any ex parte communication from you with the judges about this case or any issue before the court may involve serious legal ramifications and should be avoided at all costs.

Emphasis in the original.

Yet another story about the exaggerated and manufactured estimates from Missouri Republicans about federal health care reform legislation. The AP:

[Lt. Gov. Peter] Kinder released “an open letter” to Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon last week asserting that Missouri’s cost could be as high as $450 million a year. Kinder chief of staff Rich AuBuchon said later that Kinder got the figure from House Budget Committee Chairman Allen Icet, who got it last fall from the Department of Social Services.

But the agency no longer uses the $450 million estimate. That’s because it was based on a previous version of the federal legislation and assumed states would have to shoulder a greater proportion of the expansion costs than is currently proposed. [...]

The Star editorial board notes a rather glaring omission in the "Common Sense Solutions for Missouri" platform outlined Wednesday by Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, Senate President Charlie Shields and Speaker Ron Richard.

From the Missouri rotunda you can see…the Potomac?

Well, no. The river out there is the Missouri. But you wouldn’t know it from the odd “agenda” that Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and Republican legislative leaders announced Wednesday.

Some “priorities” for the session: Oppose big government. Oppose the federal takeover of the health care system. Oppose federal cap-and-trade legislation. Oppose federal card check legislation.

You get the idea. Anything in there about bringing jobs to Missouri? Not a word.

Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, Senate President Charlie Shields and Speaker Ron Richard held a joint press conference at noon today to unveil an amazing new plan for Missouri's families.  Specifically, they don't like reproductive rights, they like guns and they don't like taxes.  Shocking stuff, I know.

But interestingly, the leaders' bold promise to not raise taxes seemed a little squishy when reporters asked the Speaker a few questions.  They may or may not junk the state's income tax and replace it with a sales tax, which would increase the tax burden on middle-class families.  And they might create brand new sales taxes for internet purchases. 

Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, Senate President Charlie Shields and Speaker Ron Richard held a joint press conference at noon today to unveil an amazing new plan for Missouri's families.  Specifically, they don't like reproductive rights, they like guns and they don't like taxes.  Shocking stuff, I know.

But interestingly, the leaders' bold promise to not raise taxes seemed a little squishy when reporters asked the Speaker a few questions.  They may or may not junk the state's income tax and replace it with a sales tax, which would increase the tax burden on middle-class families.  And they might create brand new sales taxes for internet purchases. 

Don't bother doing any research or talking about how the federal health care proposals will effect the states -- just make up numbers that sounds scary.

Of greatest concern, [Charlie] Shields and [Kevin] Engler said, is the potential cost to the state for an expansion of Medicaid under the health-care bill.

That cost could be $250 million, $450 million or maybe even $1 billion, they said.

"It's the biggest unfunded mandate that's ever been sent onto the states," Engler, of Farmington, said.

It could be a billion dollars!   Or it could be one hundred billion dollars! 

Or...the compromise bill that comes out of House and Senate negotiations could produce a bill that's somewhere in between the two bills that have already been passed and evaluated -- and cost the state somewhere between $91-$188 million more each year. 

House Floor Leader Steve Tilley and
Senate Majority Leader Kevin Engler

Because members of the House and Senate apparently don't have any other pressing matters to address, Republican leaders in both chambers have decided to focus their first few weeks "debating" federal health care and clean energy legislation.  From the News Leader:

State lawmakers say reforming their own ethics, creating jobs and balancing the state's cash-strapped budget are top priorities this year.

But they won't likely focus on those issues in the first weeks of the session, which began Wednesday.

Republican leaders in both chambers intend to bring up "several" non-binding resolutions reacting to federal climate change and health care legislation being debated in Congress, said Senate Majority Leader Kevin Engler, R-Farmington.

This is not good news:

Senate Majority Leader Kevin Engler [R-Farmington] also is bracing for trouble. Eight of the 10 senators term-limited in 2010 are Republicans. Of the 10 additional senators term-limited in 2012, seven of them also are Republicans.

"Over half my majority is term-limited, and most of them aren't running for higher office, so they have no responsibility to the voters," said Engler, R-Farmington. "Some things that would be tempered before will not be tempered now, because their objective is, 'So what? You sure don't care what the public thinks. I can kill everything if I want, because I'm not up for election."

The idea of Republican Senators being even less "tempered" in their obstructionism and extremism gives me the heebie-jeebies.

The Post-Dispatch has a long editorial about ethics reform legislation and recent transgressions by state legislators of both parties.  The whole thing is worth the read, but these final two paragraphs need to be highlighted.

All of these [minor 2010 ethics reform proposals] would be nice, but they clearly don’t address the fundamental problem: Campaign money from special interests drives the public’s business. It employs a bunch of oxpeckers whose interests lie in perpetuating the system, not reforming it.

Unless and until Missouri restores limits on campaign contributions, the abuses will continue. Anything else simply is masquerading as ethics reform and is bogus.

OK, not exactly.

But with a base that hates even the whiff of a tax increase, it is somewhat interesting that the Missouri Republican Party's new political director is fresh off a campaign to pass a tax levy for St. Joseph schools.  Chris Roepe was the manager for the successful pro-levy "Our Children. Our Future. Our Decision." campaign, which bested Jeff Roe's "Citizens Against Forever Tax" effort two weeks ago.

Roepe is also the former chief of staff for Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields of St. Joseph, who strongly supported campaign and loaned it money.

Today:

Speaker Richard, however, is concerned; he's now talking about legislation to "reinforce the seriousness" of ethics laws.

That would be fine if Missouri had serious laws. Here's a clue: If the House speaker can be a political consultant, your laws aren't serious. If lobbyists pay for your Christmas parties and your working dinners, your laws aren't serious.

The state needs tough new laws, including strict campaign contribution limits; a ban on using party committees to launder contributions and a state ethics commission with some real clout.

It's time to clean up Illinois politics, and not just in Illinois.

It's hard to take issue with this editorial in today's Star:

Too many lawmakers are firmly convinced of their right to party — on the dime of groups that wish to influence their votes. And they keep coming up with ways to hide the gifts from public view.

In a response to the audit, the Senate described its “administrator’s fund” as “part of an on-going effort by the Senate to lower costs to the state.”

So, we should be grateful that lawmakers are charging entertainment expenses to lobbyists instead of taxpayers?

Thanks, but no thanks. For all their preaching about self-sufficiency during legislative debates, lawmakers don’t seem to feel obliged to practice it.

Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields spoke with reporters yesterday about the audits of House and Senate operations, and didn't seem very keen on doing anything to address the potential conflicts outlined in Auditor Montee's reports. 

As you'll recall, the Senate has an unregulated "party" account into which lobbyists dump money, which is then used to pay for legislators' meals and drinks, Christmas parties, gift cards and country club receptions. Jason Rosenbaum has posted part of an interview with Shields.

 "We’re probably going to have to go back and revisit the issue" of extending unemployment benefits, Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields said last week after the US Department of Labor's decided that this spring's legislation to draw down federal funds did not meet their requirements.

"It may be one of the issues that raises to the level of a special session," he added.

Today, The News-Press editorial board expressed its support of Shields efforts:

We support the effort to find a way around the harsh Labor ruling. Perhaps Sen. Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph and the Senate president pro-tem, is on to something in seeking a new compromise — give the feds what they want, but win agreement from the governor that he won’t stand in the way of repeal of the new standards after the federal money runs out.

Speaking with his hometown paper, Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields (R-St. Joseph) is publicly raising the idea of a special legislative session to extend and expand unemployment benefits for struggling families.  Unfortunately, the US Department of Labor this week declined to accept the compromise proposal put forward by the state to draw down $133 million for the extended benefits. 

In response to the feds' decision, Shields says the legislature may need a special session. 

"We’re probably going to have to go back and revisit the issue," said Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph. "It may be one of the issues that raises to the level of a special session."