Senate Budget

The Missouri Senate has passed all 13 bills that make up next year's state budget.  A roundup of coverage from across the state:

Sen. Gary Nodler (R-Joplin) announced yesterday that he'll step down from his Chairmanship of the Senate Budget Committee before the 2010 legislation session to "avoid any appearance of conflicts of interest" while he raises money for his bid for Congress.

I am leaving the committee before the work for the next session begins so there can not be even the appearance of political considerations compromising the integrity of our budget process.

Read Nodler's full statement at The Turner Report.

Meanwhile, Allen Icet has refused to step down as Chair of the House Budget Committee, seemingly comfortable with the situation Nodler says should be avoided.

Good: The Senate has started to undo the damage wrought by the House GOP.

• Senate Budget Chair Gary Nodler plans to use about $915 million in federal "budget stabilization" money, several hundred million more than was included in the House version.
• The Senate has given preliminary approval to a plan that would cover about 35k poor Missourians, along the lines of a proposal put forward by Gov. Nixon.
• Our fingers are crossed for more good news from the Upper Chamber.

Bad: The FBI is investigating legislators at the Capitol.

• You may have heard this already, but the FBI is looking into pay-to-play at the Capitol.
• Some lawmakers have been talking to investigators for months. At least one lawmaker said he had recorded private conversations.
• This was news to Speaker Richard, Floor Leader Tilley and Speaker Pro Tem Pratt.
• "We're not aware that a crime has occurred" may be my new favorite carefully crafted denial. Which may not actually be a denial of anything short of the bulletproof "awareness of a crime" that comes with a jury's conviction.

Ugly and Uglier: Crazy Eddie said that his lawsuit against the SOS, AG and Auditor is intended to be a "nuisance." And Crazy Eddie said that Robin Carnahan is under the spell of Satan.

• Ed Martin admitted to a crowd of supporters that he's abusing the court system to be a "nuisance" to Carnahan and the SOS office.
• It remains to be seen how things will shake out vis a vis Martin and some pretty clear ethical guidelines about frivolous lawsuits.
• It also remains to be seen how the anti-tax warriors are Eddie's team feel about Martin's wasting of taxpayer dollars.  All of those judges, lawyers and clerks who have to deal with his nonsense aren't free, you know.
• Robin Carnahan is "the devil," an agent of the devil or under the power of the devil.  Who knew?
• Crazy Eddie is also very excited about that whole Bernie Madoff fraud thing too.
• Classy guy, that Eddie.