Steve Tilley

KMBC's Michael Mahoney:

Jefferson City lobbyist Travis Brown testified for about [40] minutes today before a federal grand jury investigating how the Missouri Legislature does business, according to Brown’s attorney Steve Hill.

Hill says Brown talked to grand jury for “about 40 minutes”. Brown made no comment to reporters after his testimony and left [the] Federal Courthouse quickly, escorted by his lawyer.

Brown is believed to have been the lobbyists for a group of adult business in 2006.

Brown has a number of high-profile lobbying clients in Jefferson City, including conservative financier Rex Sinquefield.  Brown is also a business partner with House Majority Leader Steve Tilley (R-Perryville). The pair own in Mid Missouri Aviation LLC, a "Columbia-based company that owns a six-seat turboprop plane." 

Randy Turner has Rep. John Burnett's (D-Kansas City) latest constituent report. In it, Burnett has praise for Rep. Kevin Wilson (R-Neosho), chairman of the House's special ethics committee, but is critical of Majority Floor Leader Steve Tilley's (R-Perry) involvement in the process.

This week we had a committee meeting and had been discussing the limit issue for over an hour when Steve Tilley, the Majority Floor Leader, and one of the dozen who filed bills just popped into the meeting and joined the discussion. Now he has that right as a member of the leadership but this is the first time in 7 years I have seen such a thing happen. He makes no pretense he will do all he can to stop limits.

Oh. It is his job to raise big bucks for the Republican House candidates and he is doing a very good job at it and limits would make his job more difficult. I understand. I just do not agree. 74% of the Missouri citizens voted for campaign limits in Proposition A a few years ago. Beyond me how they can keep a straight face in this argument.

Majority Leader Steve Tilley talks with the Associated Press about the ethics proposal expected to emerge from committee that will include new limits on campaign contributions:

House Majority Leader Steven Tilley, R-Perryville, also a backer of eliminating campaign finance limits, said he would vote against bringing back the caps but called it a "50-50 issue" in which the House could reverse itself.

"The majority rules in the House," said Tilley.

As outlined in the deal struck late last year by Majority Leader Steve Tilley with the unelected but generous Tom Burcham, the Missouri House has passed legislation to allow local communities to keep their voter-approved general and capital improvement sales taxes. 

The legislation passed with an overwhelming bipartisan majority, as it would have last year.  However, Tilley blocked the legislation from being heard by the full House, a move that benefited Burcham, a major donor.  As reported in the Columbia Tribune, Burcham was exploiting an ambiguity in state law to sue local communities.  The legislation passed yesterday will shut down Burcham's suits, and help local communities move forward without fear of a predatory suit by Tilley's friend and donor.

Speaker Ron Richard (R-Joplin) and Birther Rep. Tim Jones (R-Eureka) got really grumpy this morning on the House floor this morning when Rep. Mike Talboy (D-Kansas City) asked why the FBI was asking questions about why Jones' "stacked taxes" bill didn't pass last year.  Listen:

Jones' outrage is ironic, considering the fact that he was the one who publicly stated the FBI was asking questions about his bill. According to Jones own account, he told the FBI to talk to Speaker Richard and Majority Leader Steven Tilley (R-Perryville).

KC Star editorial page columnist Barb Shelly:

[Rod] Jetton's thumbprints will never be removed from House business as long as his team remains in charge. Steve Tilley of Perryville, the majority floor leader; and Bryan Pratt, the speaker pro tem, were Jetton's lieutenants. Pratt is running for the Missouri Senate, but Tilley is in line to become House Speaker.

It's difficult to see how the House can repair the damage that Jetton inflicted on its image and good government unless the membership votes in new leadership.

New campaign finance filings show that House Floor Leader Steve Tilley has enlisted the help of David Barklage's Strategic Communications Group.

Barklage is the the top political consultant and former chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder.

The word on High Street is that the two reached an agreement to work together around Christmas. Tilley's previous strategic consultant and mentor, Rod Jetton, shut down his consulting business in December after being charged with assault.

Like Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, House Republican leaders are going out of their way to ignore the facts and overstate the projected costs of expanded Medicaid edibility as outlined in the House- and Senate-passed health care reform bills.  Today, eight GOP leaders, including Speaker Ron Richard, Floor Leader Steven Tilley and Speaker Pro Tem Bryan Pratt wrote Gov. Jay Nixon and Attorney General Chris Koster to express their disdain for the federal proposals. 

Republicans opposing health care reform en masse isn't news -- but the refusal by Missouri GOP leaders to talk about the proposed legislation should be.  From a story posted today on the Star's Prime Buzz blog:

Republicans contend that could cost the state an additional $450 million a year, based on estimates released by the state Department of Social Services several months ago. Figures reflecting new iterations of the bills haven't been released, they said.

This is false, and you don't have to take my word for it.  As printed in the News-Leader last week:

Kinder's claim that the Medicaid expansion could cost Missouri taxpayers "as high as $450 million per year" is much higher than what Nixon's Department of Social Services claims the House or Senate bills would cost Missouri.

DSS officials estimate the House version of Medicaid expansion would cost the state of Missouri $188 million more each year, while the Senate bill would cost state taxpayers an extra $91 million 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.

Here's an interesting nugget at the very end of a new AP story on the ethics legislation proposed for the upcoming session.

[Steve] Tilley, R-Perryville, said the legal problems and Democratic resignations from 2009 prompted House Republicans to ask a former U.S. attorney to speak during a December caucus meeting to remind them of what can and cannot be done.

"It's made all of us evaluate how you do business," Tilley said.

In today's Star:

Beware of bills that claim to be ethics reform but which paper over the main problem — unlimited campaign cash.

One of those is the bill filed by Republican Steve Tilley, of Perryville, Mo., who is in line to become House speaker next year.

Among other things, his bill would prohibit lawmakers from accepting meals and gifts from lobbyists.

But Tilley, who until recently was a close associate of [disgraced former Speaker Rod] Jetton’s, is opposed to capping campaign contributions.

It’s true that many lawmakers have been shameless about accepting meals, gifts and trips from lobbyists. Some restrictions would be good. But one wonders why a legislative leader would be bothered by a $15 lunch tab and not a $100,000 contribution.

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.

Implicit in the debate about whether legislators should end their practice of accepting meals and gifts from lobbyists are the assumptions that (1) it gives lobbyists unfair access to legislators (2) lawmakers could be tempted to return the favor with an official action of some kind.

I think these are fair concerns, and would vote to limit lobbyist gifts and meals if I could. At the same time, I don't understand the logic behind limiting such relatively small bits of support while ignoring enormous shows of support that come in the form of campaign checks.

Majority Leader Steve Tilley – who's pushing a lobbyist gift ban at no real cost to himself, and hoping this whole discussion distracts attention from his own questionable actions – says he was inspired to stop taking free meals after talking with his dad and deciding that taking lobbyist meals "sure looks bad." 

If enjoying a lobbyist-purchased hamburger "sure looks bad" – then what does a $100,000 check from Rex Sinquefield or $100,000 check from a Tom Burcham-controlled PAC look like?  Or what does it look like when a legislator co-owns an airplane and business with Rex Sinquefield's lobbyist, with undisclosed profit- and resource-sharing agreements? 

The Turner Report has the scoop on Majority Leader Steve Tilley's ethics reform legislation to be officially announced today. As outlined by Turner, Tilley says he wants to stop:

• Lobbyist gifts and meals for legislatures
• Political consulting while serving in the legislature
• Becoming a lobbyist within 180 days of leaving office
• Prohibition on accepting political contributions for any compensated appointment made by the governor, speaker of the House, or speaker pro tempore of the Senate that requires Senate approval for a period before and after the appointment
• The appointment of legislators to executive department positions within 180 days of leaving office
• Any political donations being made to the governor by any entity that has a pending decision before an executive department or decision making body

And wants "full disclosure" of:

• All members, spouses, and staff of any political employment
• Any financial interest of any general assembly, executive, or statewide offices, including staff and contract agents (though it's not really clear what that means yet)

Tilley is the subject of scrutiny for the way he raises money and runs the House, his very close ties to Rod Jetton, his huge special interest campaign contributions, his ownership of an airplane and business with Rex Sinquefield lobbyist Travis Brown, and questionable actions that benefited friend and financier Tom Burcham.

The Star's Steve Kraske reports that embattled House Majority Leader Steve Tilley will propose a "sweeping ethics package" this year. 

Tilley proposed a sweeping ethics package that would ban all gifts to lawmakers. The law would also ban lawmakers from immediately becoming lobbyists and prohibit the practice, first employed by [former Speaker Rod] Jetton, of political consulting while in office.

It seems to me that a truly "sweeping" ethics reform package would include a ban on House Majority Leaders co-owning airplanes with lobbyists.