Kevin Engler

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 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:

I'm concerned some lawmakers and leaders in the Capitol may have spent too much time debating nonbinding resolutions about federal policies, and forgotten that the General Assembly has actual responsibilities regarding appropriating money in Missouri.

Consider, for example, the following passage from Sen. Kevin Engler's most recent constituent newsletter (h/t The Turner Report):

Also this week, we continued to hear about some of the troubling news of budget withholdings and shortfalls that will affect people’s lives and safety. On top of over a $42 million dollar shortfall of this year’s budget for public education, the governor announced a $24 million withhold of the state’s investment in rural broadband and another $29 million that was supposed to go for interoperability of public safety communications systems. While I understand times are tough for the state. Much of these painful, unexpected cuts could have been avoided if a balanced budget were presented by the governor to the general assembly over the past two years.  (emphasis mine).

What, exactly, is Kevin Engler talking about?

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. [...]

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 Star's Jason Noble reports:

Majority Leader Kevin Engler, a Farmington Republican, said he believed the plan had a “very small chance” of passage in the Senate, and even suggested a filibuster against it might be possible.

The state would be better served saving stimulus money for next year’s budget or directing it to capital projects that will generate economic activity, he said.

“There are some people who think this is an imprudent way to go about budgeting,” Engler said.

Senate Leader Charlie Shields, a St. Joseph Republican, said time was running too short to pass such a new and novel proposal.

“At this point in session, it’s a lot easier to kill something than to pass something,” Shields said. “I think people are open to listen and discuss and everything, I just think it’ll be a bit difficult to get done.”

Rather than fight for Missouri's families, GOP state legislators insist on fighting amongst themselves. In a must-read piece for The Beacon, Jason Rosenbaum touches on many of the big fights at the Capitol slowing down legislation: Senate Republicans v. House Republicans, Jason Crowell v. Kurt Schaefer, Jeff Roe v. Rod Jetton, John Griesheimer v. "outside forces", John Griesheimer v. Rod Jetton, Kurt Schaefer v. Rod Jetton, Jason Crowell v. Jeff Roe and David Barklage, Jason Crowell's ego v. Ron Richard's ego, Allen Icet v. Gary Nodler, Kevin Engler v. perpetrators of physical violence... 

[W]ith roughly a month to go before lawmakers adjourn for the year, Republicans seem to be turning their aim away from the Democratic governor and instead targeting each other.

Some Senate Republicans are lobbing stinging attacks, questioning the ethics and motivations of their colleagues. Various factions seem miles apart on two of the biggest bills: 1) an economic development package and 2) a proposal to allow utility companies to recover financing costs for the construction of nuclear power plants....

The animosity among Republican lawmakers has been noticeable, going beyond simple differences of opinion.

Speaker Ron Richard doesn't like the Senate's intransigence on job creation legislation, so he's decided to show everyone that he can not pass legislation with the best of 'em: 

[T]he Joplin Republican told a reporter in his office that he will block conference committee negotiations between House and Senate budget writers until the upper chamber passes the House's economic development bill, which Gov. Jay Nixon has been pushing for since taking office.

"They're not going on the calendar until I decide," Richard said of the 13 budget bills. "I'm pretty upset."

Richard indicated his standoff with the Senate could last as short as a day or until the end of the session.

As Speaker of the House, Richard can control the flow of the legislation by advancing and killing bills at certain points in the process.

I guess we can take comfort in the fact that aren't any actual people caught in the middle of all this chest thumping.

Sen. Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) "feels good about the fact there have been no physical confrontations over this year's controversial issues."

What a terrific achievement!

Does the Senator from Farmington also feel good about the fact that only two bills have made it to the Governor's desk, with everything bottled up in his chamber?

We're glad that Engler gave his Senators an "easy day" yesterday. With clear minds, bellies full of steak and freshly-pressed suits, maybe they can get around to passing a jobs bill for the 261,000 Missourians without work.

This morning, about 200 people descended on the Capitol to yell and wave signs of anger about deficit spending in Washington at the Jefferson City Tea Party.  It was a far cry from the "thousands" predicted last week, but was a decent crowd for a cold morning at the Capitol.

I was really curious to see how the event would be set up to look like a "grassroots" movement, but was pleasantly surprised to see that lobbyist Carl Bearden didn't even bother with creating that illusion. Bearden orchestrated the whole event on behalf of Americans for Prosperity, and emceed the hour-long program -- it was his Tea Party, start to finish. 

Missourinet's Steve Walsh described the roster of speakers as "primarily Republicans" -- by which he means "entirely Republican" -- none of whom could credibly be called regular dudes.