The Benefits of Membership in Team Tilley

In today's Daily Tribune, we see just how much it pays to be part of Team Tilley.

Terry Ganey's excellent piece on GOP Floor Leader Steve Tilley's favors for his top money man, former State Rep. Tom Burcham, is a stomach-churning read.  It shows what happens when donors' interests trump taxpayers' interests, and highlights Tilley's ability to overrule Speaker Ron Richard when it matters to Tilley's donors.

Sometimes the real power isn't one's ability to pass new laws -- it's in blocking new laws:

During the session that ended last month, Majority Leader Steve Tilley blocked House consideration of legislation that could have crimped the law practice of one of Tilley’s largest campaign contributors. 

The Missouri Municipal League sought passage of a bill to resolve a sales tax issue that had generated lawsuits against small cities around the state. Tom Burcham, the lawyer filing the suits, manages a political fund that contributed $110,000 in January to the “Friends of Tilley” campaign.

As majority leader, Tilley decides which bills come up in the House. Speaker Ron Richard, R-Joplin, supported the Municipal League’s bill, but Richard said Tilley would not bring it up.

“The majority leader wouldn’t let me put it on the calendar,” Richard said. “He said he wasn’t ready to talk about it just yet. I told the Municipal League, ‘We need some help to convince the majority leader there are a lot of cities that are in jeopardy.’"

Burcham's racket is to look for towns with what he believes are improper local sales taxes, set up one of his employees or friends as a plaintiff by making some sort of purchase, and then sue. In fact, one of the pawns Burcham uses to set up the suits is Tonya Sheets, the treasurer for The 106th House District Committee, another cog in the Tilley/Burcham money machine.

[For more on the Tilley/Burcham network of campaign finance committees, check out the Fired Up! analysis posted last week.]

Clearly, Burcham's lawsuits are about making money for Burcham (at local taxpayer expense) and not about protecting taxpayers.  But you don't have to take my word for it -- just ask Speaker Richard:

“This fellow doing the lawsuits is trying to line his pockets, and I’m just trying to put in the statues what we thought was a letter given to the cities that said they can do that,” Richard said. “I was in a mind to fix it, but I just couldn’t get it to the floor.”

A House committee gave [Rep. Tim] Jones’ bill a “do pass” recommendation on Feb. 3, leaving plenty of time to get it approved in the session, but Tilley did not bring it up.

Got that? Speaker Ron Richard -- who believes himself to be the Most Powerful Man in Missouri -- sees an abuse of taxpayers perpetrated by Steve Tilley's money man. It would have been a simple law, (a) supported by Speaker Richard, (b) sponsored by Rep. Tim Jones (another House GOP top leader) and (c) supported by the Missouri Municipal League would fix the issue, and protect local taxpayers from predators like Burcham. But somehow, the Speaker of the House feels powerless to do anything about it. What's wrong with this picture?

 

ALSO: Randy Turner notes that Burcham is making plans to sue Joplin (Richard's home town) next.

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Submitted by .Sean on June 21, 2009 - 10:58am
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