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Capitol Report                        May 8, 2020
KCMO Reopening Frequently Asked Questions
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Dear Neighbor,

It has been an interesting week in Jefferson City.  We resumed the legislative session to complete the Fiscal Year 2021 budget, but we wound up working on legalizing brass knuckles, allowing concealed weapons in elementary schools and approving night vision scopes on rifles to kill feral hogs.  Our priorities should be focused on passing a relief package to help out of work families and small businesses affected by the stay-at-home orders and to make it easier for citizens to vote without the fear of going to the polls and getting infected.

Our focus, in my opinion, should be on how to guide our state in the aftermath of the impact of the actions taken to combat COVID-19.  Because of the mandated stay-at-home orders, we don't have an accurate projection of what our tax revenues will be for the next two years or how this will impact our state's spending.

Just because we're reopening the state does not mean the pandemic is over. There is still much work to be done in this area.

Yours in Service,

Rich
Our state and country have been devastated by the Corona Virus but the Majority party is still trying to reverse Clean Missouri redistricting reforms.

The voter-approved redistricting plan, known as Clean Missouri, calls for state House and Senate seats to be drawn by a non-partisan state demographer using constitutional criteria designed to maximize the number of competitive districts and ensure partisan fairness. Senate Joint Resolution 38 would reinstate a modified version of Missouri’s old redistricting process that was controlled by the Republican and Democratic parties.
 
If the Republican-controlled House also approves SJR 38, it automatically would go on the November 2020 statewide ballot. The Clean Missouri plan is slated for use in the 2021 redistricting cycle but would be pre-empted if voters ratify SJR 38. The new statehouse districts that will be drawn next year will be used from the 2022 through 2030 legislative elections.

Still waiting on your IRS coronavirus check?
A couple things could be delaying it.

Click here to read more.

CLICK HERE TO TRACK YOUR STIMULUS CHECK
GR DOWN 6.1 PERCENT FOR YEAR AFTER DISASTROUS APRIL
 
Year-to-date net state general revenue collections were down 6.1 percent through the first 10 months of the 2020 fiscal year compared to the same period in FY 2019, going from $8.02 billion last year to $7.53 billion this year. Year-to-date collections had been up 5.8 percent through the first nine months of FY 2020.
 
A double-whammy of factors stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic caused net general revenue collections to plummet 54.3 percent in April 2020 compared to April 2019, going from $1.59 billion last year to $725.24 million this year.
 
First, the statewide shutdown caused all revenue sources to slow to a trickle. Second, after Gov. Mike Parson delayed the April 15 deadline for filing taxes owed for the 2019 calendar year until July 15, many Missourians chose to postpone paying income taxes that otherwise would have been paid last month. As a result, money that should have come in for FY 2020, won’t be paid until FY 2021, which begins July 1.
In the 200 year history of the Missouri Legislature, I believe I am the only person to address the legislature on the House floor while wearing a mask and a shower cap.
LAWMAKERS PASS STATE BUDGET
JUST AHEAD OF DEADLINE
 
With little time to spare before the constitutional deadline, the Republican-controlled General Assembly on May 8 granted final approval to an unbalanced state operating budget for the 2021 fiscal year that simultaneously makes deep cuts to general revenue spending while also being overinflated with spending authority for federal dollars that might never materialize.
 
On paper, the $35.29 billion FY 2021 budget appears to be a massive increase over the $29.66 billion in appropriations lawmakers approved for FY 2020, which ends June 30. However, an appropriation is merely the legal authority to spend money and doesn’t guarantee actual dollars will be available to cover the authorized spending.
 
As a result, the seemingly robust overall total in FY 2021 spending authority masks the deep chasm between money budget officials are reasonably certain will come into the state treasury and the spending promises made in the appropriations  bills.
 
For example, the House version made permanent late-year spending cuts for FY 2020 Republican Gov. Mike Parson recently made to higher education but also imposed an additional 10 percent general revenue cut. The final higher education budget replaces the 10 percent general revenue cut avoids the additional 10 percent reduction but does so by filling the hole with federal dollars of uncertain existence.
 
Although the Missouri Constitution doesn’t require the legislature to pass a balanced budget, it does require the governor to maintain one and empowers him to do so by making unilateral cuts. By over-appropriating federal funding, the legislature gives Parson tremendous discretion on how the money the state does receive is spent. Sometime before the start of FY 2021 on July 1, Parson likely will announce the cuts he will need to make since lawmakers didn’t.
 
After the General Assembly largely went on an extended break due to COVID-19 in mid-March, the budget process was weeks behind schedule when lawmakers returned to the Capitol on April 27 in hopes of enacting a final budget by the May 8 constitutional deadline. As a result, about six weeks of work was crammed into just two weeks.

 
Practice Social Distancing
MEDICAID EXPANSION GROUP FILES INITIATIVE PETITION
 
In an effort to bypass intransigent Republican lawmakers who for years have refused to expand Medicaid eligibility in Missouri under the federal Affordable Care Act, a coalition of health care advocates on May 1 filed an initiative petition for a proposed constitutional amendment that would take the decision out of their hands.
The group Healthcare for Missouri delivered submitted signatures from more than 346,000 Missouri voters to the Secretary of State’s Office, more than double the roughly 172,000 signatures required to qualify the Medicaid expansion proposal for the November ballot. Elections officials must now verify that enough of those signatures are valid to hit the minimum number, a process that should be completed by early August.
 
Missouri is one of just 14 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid eligibility under the ACA, under which the federal government pays for 90 percent of the cost. The law allows states to cover Missourians earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which translates to an income of roughly $17,600 for an individual or $30,000 for a family of three.
 
Medicaid expansion would provide health care coverage to an estimated 230,000 Missourians who don’t currently have it, including many workers at low-wage jobs that don’t offer health benefits.  The proposed amendment would constitutionally compel the state to expand coverage Medicaid up to the ACA eligibility threshold and prohibit the state from imposing new requirements or restrictions on eligibility.

We won't know the impact of states reopening for weeks.
Here are several reasons why


Updated 1:58 PM ET, Tue May 5, 2020By Holly Yan, CNN
 

(CNN) It's a gamble playing out across the country, and the stakes are unknown.
More than half of the states have started reopening, including many that have not met White House guidelines on when to do so. The big question now is whether the numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths will surge.
But don't be fooled: The numbers of new cases and deaths shortly after a state's reopening aren't reflective of those loosened restrictions. In fact, it takes several weeks for the effects of reopenings to emerge.
This virus' incubation period -- the time from when someone gets infected to when he or she starts showing symptoms -- ranges from two to 14 days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus can also be spread in public by people with no symptoms at all.


PANEL SEEKS RECORDS OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA ROLLOUT
 
A House investigative committee on May 7 requested a wide swath of documents relating to the state health department’s flawed and controversial implementation of medical marijuana regulations and licensing, including communications with top staffers in Republican Gov. Mike Parson’s office.
 
Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana for medical use in 2018 and putting the state Department of Health and Senior Services in charge of regulating the developing industry. The department has faced significant criticism for how it awarded a limited number of licenses for cultivating, manufacturing and dispensing medical marijuana, including allegations that the process was rigged in favor of politically connected applicants.
 
The Special Committee on Government Oversight conducted a series of public hearings earlier this year seeking answers concerning the department’s handling of the situation, but the panel’s work had been on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. A letter signed by every committee member from both political parties requesting documents from the department said agency officials called to testify were less than forthcoming, leaving too many unanswered questions.
 
“Instead of calling more witnesses who could not or would not answer questions or who would provide questionable answers because of their obvious conflicts of interest, the committee agreed that a request for documents were (sic) required to ask the right questions for future hearings,” the letter said.
 
The committee’s investigation is expected to continue into the summer and fall. A lawsuit has been filed seeking to stop the department from moving forward with allowing medical marijuana facilities to open until the hundreds of administrative appeals from rejected applicants have had time to clear the process.
Although the state of Missouri has begun the process of reopening, the pandemic is not over.  I cotinue to practice all precautions against COVID-19 including wearing a mask and social distancing.  I am observing the proceedings from the side galleries as many of my colleagues are not following those guidelines as you can see from this photo inside the House Chamber.

Your federal stimulus check would be exempt from Missouri income tax under House plan

JEFFERSON CITY — Missourians’ federal stimulus checks wouldn’t be taxed as income under a measure approved by the House on Thursday.
Rep. Phil Christofanelli, R-St. Peters, is sponsoring the plan. He said it would “protect everyone’s stimulus payments from Missouri income tax.”

“That’s $50 to every constituent in your district that that received a stimulus payment,” he told another representative during the discussion on the House floor.
Under current law, the federal checks would be subject to the state income tax, Christofanelli said.

“I believe that is the opinion of the Department of Revenue,” he said. “They’re the folks that are going to come looking for it.”
The U.S. government isn’t treating stimulus checks as income, which means they aren’t subject to federal income taxes.

Christofanelli’s proposal would bring Missouri’s tax law in line with this policy. Under his plan, any amount received via stimulus check from the the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act won’t be included in a Missouri taxpayer’s adjusted gross income. The legislation, which includes multiple provisions related to taxation, was approved by a 147-4 vote.

The legislation originated in the Senate as a measure dealing with property tax assessments, but it was amended to include the stimulus check provisions, among others. It will now return to the Senate for consideration.
The legislation is Senate Bill 676.

Please Note:

Normally I mail a Mid-Term and an End of Session report for my district.  This year due to the House Publication staff being placed on Administrative Leave and their unavailability due to COVID-19, there will not be a published report. 
I will send out an end of session update via my
Capitol Report at a future date.
As of the time I have sent this mailing, there have been
78 homicides in the Kansas City metro area in 2020.

In Kansas City, Missouri, 55 people have been killed.

Click here for the Homicide Tracker.

COMMUNITY NEWS AND HAPPENINGS

Dan Hocoy, Ph.D., has been named president of Metropolitan Community College’s Longview campus in Lee’s Summit and the College’s Vice Chancellor of strategic initiatives. He is joining MCC from State University of New York’s Erie Community College, where he serves as president.  Dr. Hocoy will start his new position July 1st.

The reward has been raised to
$30,000 for Dominic

GREATER KANSAS CITY CRIME STOPPERS
816-474-TIPS HOTLINE
 
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
FROM:           Det. Kevin Boehm, Crime Stoppers Coordinator
 
SUBJECT:    Reward Increase – 9 Year Old Dominic Young Homicide
 
KANSAS CITY, MO ---  The Kansas City, Missouri Police Department and the Greater KC Crime Stoppers TIPS Hotline continue to seek information in the January 20, 2018 homicide of 9 year old Dominic Young Jr. at 71 Highway and Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd.
 
  Dominic Young Jr. was apparently hit by a stray gunshot while occupying a vehicle driven by his father and died as a result of his injuries.  Dominic, his father and brother were en route to Grandview at the time.  The vehicle driven by Dominic’s father was hit by gunshots from other vehicles apparently engaged in a gunfight according to statements.
 
  KCPD found a possible crime scene near the intersection where the father said the shooting happened.  When the father arrived home in Grandview, Dominic was not responsive.  Grandview police initially responded to the father’s home and found the boy in critical condition. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

 A number of community leaders and organizations including State Representative Richard Brown, Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McManus, former City Councilmen Scott Taylor, Scott Wagner, John Sharp; the City of KCMO and Concord Fortress of Hope Church (Pastor Ron Lindsay) have come forward to increase the existing reward in the case up to $30,000.00.  Those leaders are available for comment in regard to the case.
 
  Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers Greater Kansas City TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477), TIPS may also be submitted electronically at www.KCcrimestoppers.com, or by downloading our NEW mobile app, P3TIPS, on Google Play or the Apple iOS stores for FREE.  Information leading to an arrest and/or filing of charges could be eligible for up to $30,000.00 in reward money.  ALL INFORMATION IS ANONYMOUS. 
* A program of the KC Metropolitan Crime Commission
My office in Jefferson City is available to assist you with questions you may have about state government or legislative issues. Please call, email or write anytime. If you are unable to reach me, my assistant, Donna Gentzsch is ready to help you. If you are in Jefferson City, come by my Capitol office in room 109-G, and introduce yourself. The door is always open and I encourage you to visit.
Please forward this email to your friends and family who want to know how what is happening in Jefferson City will impact them here at home.



Rep. Richard Brown
MO House of Representatives
201 West Capitol Avenue
Room 109G
Jefferson City, MO  65101
Phone
573-751-7639
Email:
richard.brown@house.mo.gov
Please don't hesitate to contact me with any feedback, questions or ideas!​
 
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Missouri House of Representatives · 201 W. Capitol Ave. · Jefferson City, MO 65101 · USA

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