Jason Crowell

Say what?  State Sen. Jason Crowell received $30,000?!

Why in the world would a term limited state senator need $30,000?  Hmm?  Looking to run for higher office, perhaps?

Steve Tilley and Rob Mayer on the air

The Post-Dispatch's take on the struggling special session: "In America, but especially in Missouri, money talks. The man most responsible for delaying, and possibly killing, the bill you care about is named Steve Tilley, a Republican from Perryville who is speaker of the Missouri House. In recent years, Mr. Tilley has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the primary critics of your proposal: retired investor Rex Sinquefield, who also funds the think-tank Show-Me Institute, and developers who get rich from government programs intended to build low-income housing projects. Our suggestion is simple: Next time, put your money on the right horse."

The Star: "What went wrong? The simplest explanation is that Republican legislative leaders failed to do enough groundwork before asking Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon to call a special session. The barriers seen over the last three weeks involve GOP infighting in the Senate and disagreements between the Republican majorities in the Senate and House."

Missourinet's Bob Priddy: "Those of us who have been covering state government for a few decades have done something the legislature hasn’t been able to do.  We have reached a consensus. We agree that we’ve never seen a special legislative session that is such a mess as this one.  There already has been a bunch of finger pointing about who’s to blame.  There is no shortage of suspects."

Video of Speaker Steve Tilley speaking this afternoon after the House adjourned, via Jason Rosenbaum. 

"As you know, my party leaders hate my guts, and I hate their guts."

~ Sen. Jason Crowell, earlier today

The Southeast Missourian discovered an interesting bit of information. It seems that State Senator Jason Crowell has filed paperwork to run for a statewide office in 2014, and the only statewide office up for election is held by a Republican: 

Crowell, a Republican, has changed his campaign committee paperwork to Missourians for Crowell and to reflect a bid for an unspecified statewide office. The report, filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission, lists the election date as the Aug. 5, 2014 primary. The only statewide office that would have a primary that date would be for state auditor, a position currently held by Crowell's fellow Republican and lawyer Tom Schweich.

There has been no comment from Crowell on this so far, but it will be interesting to see if he is really eyeing a run against Republican State Auditor Tom Schweich (who is still fairly new to Jeff City). Stay tuned...

"With all due respect, [Jason Crowell] may run the Senate, but he doesn't run the House."

~ Speaker Steve Tilley, reacting to questions from reporters about Congressional redistricting negotiations (h/t Capitol Calling)

Here's video of Tilley's comments as captured by Jason Rosenbaum.

The Beacon's Jo Mannies has posted a breakdown (distributed at Governor Nixon's Friday press conference) outlining what each of Missouri's school districts is expected to lose in fiscal years 2011 and 2012 if the extreme GOP plan to reject already-allocated federal education money is successful.  A filibuster to block acceptance of the federal money -- money that will go to other states if Missouri rejects it -- is led by Jim Lembke (R-Lemay) and Brian Nieves (R-Freedom Bunker), and has been publicly supported by Chuck Purgason (R-Caufield) and Jason Crowell (R-Cape Girardeau)

The filibuster is also supported by US Senate candidate Ed Martin.

Full breakdown below the jump. 

The Missouri House voted today to use $189 million in federal education money for public schools today, ignoring bizarre calls from some Republican politicians to send the money to other states. The decision to use the money is hardly controversial, but the lunatic wing of the Republican Party called for Missouri to reject the alleged "bribe."  For instance:

• Ed Martin repeatedly directed followers to a St. Louis Tea Party action page asking Show-Me State legislators to "send DC's Education Bribe back where it came from."
• About the money approved today by the House, Sen. Brian Nieves wrote, "If I'm walking down the street and find a line of people taking stuff out of a damaged store front and I know that if I don't grab that 42 inch LCD TV, the guy behind me is going to anyway.... Doing something that is wrong is still wrong even if every body else is doing it! Kind of sounds like something our Mothers likely told us. The federal government has NO business in our schools anyway!"

The Globe and Southeast Missourian both have editorial today criticizing the extreme plan pushed by Senate candidate Ed Martin, Sen. Brian Nieves, Sen. Jason Crowell and Sen. Jim Lembke in which Missouri would reject $189M in federal education money to make some sort of point about federal spending  at the expense of Missouri's schoolchildren.  Lost on all of them, apparently, is the fact that their ideas would cause real harm in Missouri communities, and if the Show-Me State doesn't take the money, it just goes to other states. 

Here's what The Globe had to say:

It’s one thing to talk about excessive federal spending as a topic of election-time rhetoric. But political talking points are shaping up to become drastic cuts that will harm Missouri’s children...

One of the worst ideas involves sending it back...

We hope Missouri’s Republican lawmakers in the General Assembly remember that they were elected to represent Missourians, not the entire country. We need them to do what’s best for the Show-Me State, not try to address national political talking points.

The crazy train may have already left the station, but that didn't stop Ed Martin from endorsing the extreme plan put forward by Sens. Jim Lembke, Jason Crowell and Brian Nieves in which Missouri would send $189 million in federal education dollars allocated for Show-Me State schools to other states around the country. 

Late this morning, Martin called on supporters to "melt the phones and jam the inboxes in Jefferson City," directing them to a "St. Louis Tea Party Special Alert."  Via St. Louis Activist Hub:

The action alert declares the funding to be a "bribe" from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and asks supporters to ignore unspecified "liberal lies" about the money. 

DC is shoving $$$ for education (strings attached) down Missouri's throat. Senators Lembke and Nieves are trying to #senditback...

Don't Listen to the Liberal Lies

If Missouri takes Arne Duncan's bribe, it will simply INCREASE general spending, not education spending.  That's just the way government works. 

By returning this bribe (and its burdensome handcuffs), we'll send a message--and instill fiscal responsiblity [sic] in both Jeff City and Washington.

Perhaps Martin and his tea party tribe are unaware that Republican budget leaders are supporting the acceptance of this alleged bribe?   Senate Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) told the Associated Press this weekend that extreme conservatives could "make a statement by not taking the money, but by doing that, all you’re doing is penalizing grade-school kids."   And House Budget Chair Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City) says the same:

Silvey said he believes Missouri should use the federal money, because rejecting it only would redirect it to other states.

"Missourians are paying federal taxes regardless, so I think that Missourians - and the state - should avail itself of the federal taxes that our citizens have paid," Silvey said.

On the apparently-not-very-secure-in-some-portions-of-the-Capitol Facebook social networking site, Sen. Brian Nieves (R-Washington) warns that the 2011 legislative session "may get ugly." Specifically, "My self, Sen. Lembke & a few other Constitutional Conservatives in the Senate will be KILLING some Bad bills this year ... It may get ugly so Stand With Us!!"  [Capitalization, punctuation and spelling in the original.]

To which Sen. Jason Crowell (R-Cape Girardeau) responds, "i'm in...lets start with the budget..."

Note also former Rep. Cynthia Davis' promise to seek a state Senate seat in 2014, when Scott Rupp's (R-Wentzville) current term expires.

Jim Lembke and Brian Nieves

It's (almost) unanimous: nobody likes the plan from Sens. Jim Lembke (R-St. Louis), Jason Crowell (R-Cape Girardeau) and Brian Nieves (R-Washington) to reject $189M in federal funds for Missouri's schools:

Sen. Jim Lembke, R-St. Louis, is one of those who want Missouri to say ‘no’ to [$189 million in] federal education dollars; he contends the money is merely driving up the federal debt.

But budget leaders for the House, Senate and governor all say it makes little sense to reject the federal education money, because it would merely be redistributed to other states — not go toward paying down the federal debt.

“You can make a statement by not taking the money, but by doing that, all you’re doing is penalizing grade-school kids,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia.

H'ray bipartisanship!

House Budget Chairman Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City) has also made it clear that he has no appetitite for his colleagues' crazy.  

Sen. Brian Nieves (R-Washington) joins Sen. Jim Lembke (R-Lemay) and Sen. Jason Crowell (R-Cape Girardeau) in the insane effort to reject $189 million in federal education funds that have already been allocated by Congress -- funds that will be sent to other states if Missouri doesn't accept them.

Nieves posted a similar message on his personal Facebook page last night, where he equated using the already-allocated money to pay teachers to stealing televisions.  From his Facebook conversation :

Bottom line... The Feds simply do not have any money to give us. Every time a state holds out it's hand for Federal dollars that had to be barrowed from China, we directly contribute to our children being strapped with more debt!...

Via the Associated Press and KWMU, I see that Sens. Jim Lembke (R-Lemay) and Jason Crowell (R-Cape Girardeau) are calling on the General Assembly to reject $189 million (!) from the federal government that has already been allocated to help school districts keep or rehire teachers.  From the AP's story on the matter:

"The state of Missouri should take a stand," said Lembke, R-St. Louis. "If the federal government's not going to live within their means, then we've got to show them how to do that."

Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, said he also is opposed to using the federal education money. Crowell said Missouri has relied on too many one-time patches for its budget and accepting the federal money would only delay cuts that would have to be made when the federal money is used up.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, declined to say whether he believed Missouri should accept or reject the special allotment of federal money.

The Joplin Globe reports that legislation to clear up state law regarding local "stacked" sales taxes "is pretty much dead." The fix was sponsored by the formidable duo of Ron Richard (the Most Powerful Man in Missouri) and Birther Rep. Tim Jones, but couldn't get past Sen. Jason Crowell (and maybe Gary Nodler?).

Joplin's lobbyist, Gary Burton, pins the blame squarely on Crowell, who "killed the bill’s chances by amending it to require that the loser in a tax-stacking lawsuit pay the attorney fees of all the parties in the lawsuit."

The Globe also quotes a Municipal League associate, who wonders aloud who benefits from Crowell's moves.  Crowell isn't fighting "for the taxpayers," for sure. 

The St. Louis Business Journal, News-Leader and Post-Dispatch all have new stories about a potential compromise between Senate Republicans and Governor Nixon that would change the way the state's tax credit programs are handled to subject them to some of the scrutiny applied to spending programs. 

Mentioned nowhere in any of the articles is Sen. Jason Crowell (R-Cape Girardeau). Crowell has been pushing his own changes to state tax credit programs, hoping to give lawmakers greater control over credits, but is apparently not on board with the compromise proposal yet.

"I think everyone can agree that I am equally hated by Republicans and Democrats."

Sen. Jason Crowell (R-Cape Girardeau) on the Senate floor today

"I am very happy that the Supreme Court has protected me from tax and spend liberals like you."

Sen. Jason Crowell (R-Cape Girardeau) to Sen. Gary Nodler (R-Joplin) during last night's floor debate on collecting sales taxes for Internet purchases.

Thanks to Missourinet for the audio of the full debate. Here is the glorious finish of their exchange:

Sen. Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) does not like the proposal from Sen. Jason Crowell (R-Cape Girardeau) to create a two-year waiting period for legislators before they can cash in as lobbyists or accept appointments to state positions.

While Crowell may have his own self-serving reasons for proposing the ban and making his colleagues squirm, a revolving door ban of at least one year seems like a basic good government policy.  Among other things, such waiting periods would make it hard for legislators to negotiate the terms of their next job while still in public office. For example, fellow Sen. John Griesheimer (R-Washington) has made it public knowledge that he wants someone to hire him as a lobbyist when he's done with the Senate later this year; it would be shocking if a prospective employer hasn't broached that topic with the Senator at some point. 

Engler sees things differently.  In his mind, Crowell's proposal would restrict service in the Missouri General Assembly to the unemployed, retired and independently wealthy.  Moreover, he says "we want people in the halls" to have "experience," and says (half?) jokingly that a ban might open lobbyist gigs and state appointments to "retired, un-business-like people who don't have jobs."

The senate’s debate on Sen. Charlie Sheilds' (R-St. Joseph) ethics bill (SB577) has been bogged down in recent days with Sen. Jason Crowell's (R-Cape Girardeau) proposal to create a two-year waiting period for retiring legislators before they can become lobbyists after they leave office.

Sen. John Griesheimer (R-Washington) says Crowell is aiming for him. EMissourian.com:

This all goes back to the (former House Speaker Rod) Jetton deal. Just like last year. This was aimed at me. It's personal, no doubt about it. He knows I want to be a lobbyist. He even talked about Jetton on the floor during the debate. I had a feeling Jason was going to come after me. But somebody's going to have to show me where this has been a problem in the past before I can support the amendment.