Tilley Now Has A Deal To End Burcham's Lawsuits -- How 'Bout That?

In what must surely be just happenstance, House Floor Leader Steve Tilley and former Rep. Tom Burcham announced a legislative deal to end Burcham's predatory lawsuit racket exactly one day after Rep. Tim Jones informed the Associated Press that the FBI was interested in legislation Tilley blocked to benefit Burcham last spring.

Chad Livengood has the story in today's Springfield News-Leader:

A Farmington attorney has dropped lawsuits against several Missouri cities after cutting a deal with two Republican legislative leaders who have promised to close a legal loophole that allows cities to seek extra sales taxes.

Tom Burcham said he dropped the lawsuits after House Floor Leader Steven Tilley and Senate Floor Leader Kevin Engler promised to help pass legislation barring cities from asking voters to approve sales taxes for operations and capital improvements above the current limits.

Tilley blocked legislation sponsored by Jones last year that would have stopped a series of predatory lawsuits filed by Burcham which focused on some ambiguity in state law about stacked sales taxes. (An explanation of that dispute and Burcham's mixed results in winning suits against municipalities is here.) Jones' legislative fix was supported by Speaker Ron Richard. However, Richard said, "The majority leader wouldn’t let me put it on the calendar." 

As reported by the CDT's Terry Ganey in June:

During the legislative session, the Municipal League tried to end the suits by pushing a law that said cities could stack the taxes but cap the taxes at a maximum of 2 percent for the general fund and 1 percent for capital improvements. Richard, the speaker whose district includes Joplin, said he asked Rep. Tim Jones, R-Eureka, to handle the bill to correct the problem.

“This fellow doing the lawsuits [Tom Burcham] 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 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.

“I opposed it,” Tilley said. “When the majority leader opposes something, that probably has a little more influence on whether a bill makes it or not.”

At all times, Tilley has maintained that $110,000 in campaign contributions cashed in January from campaign committee controlled Tom Burcham had nothing to do with his decision to block the bill.

As part of the new deal between Tilley, Burcham and Senate Floor Leader Kevin Engler (one might ask why top legislative leaders have to negotiate with former legislators), the cities who currently have stacked taxes would be grandfathered in, but the practice would be prohibited in the future. More from today's SNL story:

The cities have sought the additional taxes based on a 1999 Department of Revenue interpretation of the law.

Burcham sued cities in the state that have stacked taxes exceeding the legal limits. But after calling the taxes "illegal," Burcham says he's willing to compromise.

"If a city relied on that in passing these laws, maybe they've got a point that they did it in good faith," Burcham said Tuesday...

Tilley, R-Perryville, said he has done nothing wrong and was opposed to the legislation because it would have retroactively blessed the previous practice.

Tilley and Engler said Tuesday they plan to get legislation introduced in the upcoming session that would grandfather in current cities with stacked taxes -- but prohibit the practice from continuing.

"I think this makes much more sense than what they were trying to do last spring by settling lawsuits by legislation," said Engler, R-Farmington.

What's interesting about this most recent explanation from Burcham and Tilley is that stacking sales taxes is entirely acceptable in one class of Missouri cities -- specifically, towns for which Tom Burcham served as City Attorney from 2003 to 2008.  As printed in the News-Leader on June 25 (no longer online):

The lawyer suing cities across southern Missouri for levying what he calls "illegal" taxes was city attorney of Farmington in 2007 when that town adopted the same type of "stacked" tax he is targeting.

"When (Tom Burcham) was the city attorney in Farmington, he gave a legal opinion that they'd be able to stack their taxes and they did," said Gary Markenson, lobbyist for the Missouri Municipal League.

Farmington voters approved an additional half-cent sales tax in 2007 to generate $9 million to construct a new sewer treatment plant and make upgrades to the city's water system, said Greg Beavers, city manager of the southeast Missouri town of 13,900 residents.

"From all indications, it was legal at the time," Beavers said...

Burcham said he doesn't intend to sue his former employer for a practice he is condemning across the state.

"I am not convinced, based on what I know, that they are in the same position as some of the other cities I've sued," he said.

Burcham declined to elaborate, but later added: "The information that a city makes a decision on comes from a variety of sources, sometimes including their lawyer."

But now, Burcham says he's dropped lawsuits against Branson West, Granby, Herculaneum, Joplin, Mount Vernon, Purdy and Sikeston, because he and Tilley now have a deal.  How nice. I imagine taxpayers in those towns are pleased they won't have to pay for any more lawsuits to line Burcham's pockets.