Representative Yolanda Young's Newsletter

Dear Neighbors,

Over the last two weeks, I have been working with our House legislative attorneys to draft my bills for the upcoming legislative session. In recent sessions, I have focused on voting access across our state. While that will continue to be a priority for me, for the upcoming session I am expanding my efforts to increase food security and support local farms. It was brought to my attention that school districts across our state are struggling with their food supply for students. To help solve this problem, I will be proposing several pieces of legislation that aim to help close the food gap our school districts and students face, as well as encourage the establishment of farms in both rural and urban food desserts. Although none of my bills can be filed until December 1st, these are what I am currently working on with my team: 

If you have any additional ideas for bills, please email me your suggestions or call my office. 

Remember, we are always here to help you with anything you may need. For assistance, call my office at (573) 751-3129 or email me at yolanda.young@house.mo.gov. 

Yours in Service,

Yolanda Young

In order to prepare for expanded services, holidays, winter weather, and program schedule changes, HappyBottoms Kansas City has opened up many volunteer shifts this Fall for both groups and individuals to wrap diapers for families in need.

Several of my collegues and I have volunteered for HappyBottoms, and I can tell you how eyeopening the experience is! Please review their Volunteer Calendar and sign-up directly or contact volunteer@happybottoms.org to reserve a group shift. 

Most volunteer opportunities will take place at their warehouse, located at at 303 W 79th Street, Kansas City, MO.
 

• Evening and weekend options are available
• Volunteer with your group conveniently at your own location. Contact Eddie@happybottoms.org to learn more about mobile events
• Group shifts listed as available for reservation may have time flexibility
• Open to volunteers who are 12 or older
• Last day to volunteer in 2021 is December 7th

Thank you for being generous with your hearts and time!

With no explanation, Governor Parson instituted a major overhaul of his administration on October 12, announcing temporary replacements for five state department directors. In a terse news release, Governor Parson merely said the moves “will better position our cabinet to provide the best possible service to Missourians in the coming years.”
 
The five affected agencies – the social services, mental health, revenue and economic development departments, plus the Office of Administration – represent nearly a third of Missouri’s 16 state departments.
 
The removal of Jennifer Tidball, who served as acting Department of Social Services director for nearly two-and-a-half years, long had been anticipated since she was a frequent target of bipartisan criticism from lawmakers. That criticism related to her agency’s handling of child abuse and neglect investigations and a recent federal report citing lax procedures for locating children who go missing from foster care, among other concerns. Despite those issues, Tidball will remain with the department as chief operating officer.
 
Robert Knodell, the governor’s deputy chief of staff, will serve as acting social services director until a permanent leader is chosen. Knodell recently spent several months as acting director of the Department of Health and Senior Services following the sudden and unexplained resignation of its previous director last spring.
 
One unexpected change with Governor Parson’s latest moves was the immediate resignation of Office of Administration Commissioner Sarah Steelman, who had held the post for nearly five years. Steelman, who was elected state treasurer in 2004 but passed on a second term to make an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for governor in 2008, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch she was asked to resign by the governor’s chief of staff but was given no reason why.
 
Department of Revenue Director Ken Zellers will take over as acting OA commissioner. In turn, Joseph Plaggenburg will become acting director of the revenue department. Plaggenburg previously had been the department’s general counsel. OA oversees contracting, procurement and payroll for state government.
 
Parson also said Maggie Kost will take over as acting director of the Department of Economic Development when the agency’s current leader, Rob Dixon, leaves office today, October 22. Dixon had previously announced he will resign to take a job with utility company Ameren Missouri. Kost currently is deputy director of the department.
 
In addition, Governor Parson said Department of Mental Health Deputy Director Valarie Huhn will become acting director of the agency upon current Director Mark Stringer’s retirement at the end of October.

 

The Missouri Appellate Judicial Commission on October 13 announced three finalists to fill a vacancy on the state Court of Appeals in both the Eastern and Western Districts created by the July retirement of Judge Thomas Newton (Western District) and the elevation of Judge Robin Ransom to the state Supreme Court (Eastern District). Governor Parson has until December 13 to appoint one of the finalists to each district or forfeit the selection to the commission.
 
The finalists for the Eastern District include two private practice attorneys plus an assistant state attorney general. Kathleen Hamilton, of St. Charles, is a partner at HeplerBroom LLC in St. Louis and a 2002 graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law. Jeffery McPherson, of Webster Groves, is a partner at Armstrong Teasdale LLP in St. Louis and a 1994 graduate of Saint Louis University School of Law. Cristian Stevens, of Kirkwood, is first assistant attorney general and a 1998 graduate of the MU law school.
 
The finalists for the Western District are Shaun Mackelprang, a deputy attorney general and 1997 graduate of the Brigham Young University School of Law; Jackson County Circuit Judge Jalililah Otto, a 2002 graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law; and Clay County Circuit Judge Janet Sutton, a 1990 graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.
 
Under the Missouri Constitution, the seven-member commission is charged with selecting three finalists for judicial vacancies from among the applicants. The process is intended minimize the influence of partisan politics in judicial appointments by denying the governor the power to appoint whomever he wants on the bench.

A federal judge has ruled unconstitutional a requirement that companies engaged in the medical marijuana business in Missouri must be majority owned by Missouri residents, the Kansas City Star reported on October 12. The decision allows for greater out-of-state investment and participation in the state’s medical marijuana industry.
 
Missouri’s residency requirement is part of the state constitutional amendment authorizing marijuana for medical use and establishing regulations governing the industry that voters ratified in 2018. U.S District Judge Nanette Laughrey ruled the requirement violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which precludes states from restricting access to their markets.
 
A Pennsylvania resident who is a minority owner of a company that operates three marijuana dispensaries in Missouri filed the lawsuit challenging the residency requirement. The state Department of Health and Senior Services, which is regulatory authority for the industry, could appeal Laughrey’s ruling to the 8^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Net state general revenue collections for the first quarter of the 2022 fiscal year were down 10.6 percent compared to the same period in FY 2021, going from $3.09 billion last year to $2.76 billion this year. Year-to-date collections for the first two months of FY 2022 had been down 22.5 percent compared to FY 2021.
                                         
However, because the income tax deadline in 2020 was pushed from April to July due to the COVID-19 pandemic, state revenue collections during early months of FY 2021 were drastically inflated. As a result, comparisons with last year’s collections are artificially skewed.
 
Net general revenue collections for September 2021 increased 16.3 percent compared to those for September 2020, going from $944.5 million last year to $1.1 billion this year.

The Missouri Supreme Court on October 20 heard arguments on whether the Missouri Conservation Commission has the authority to spend revenue from a constitutionally dedicated conservation sales tax without a budget appropriation approved by General Assembly.
 
The four-member commission oversees the Department of Conservation, which is funded by a dedicated 1/8-cent statewide sales tax. Under the Missouri Constitution, only the commission can expend conservation sales tax revenue. However, other constitutional provisions prohibit expenditures without an appropriation by the legislature that “distinctly specifies the amount and purpose” of the authorized spending. Also, Supreme Court precedent has established that “appropriations” and “expenditures” are separate actions under the constitution.
 
Although for more than 40 years the commission expended conservation funds pursuant to annual legislative appropriations, it sued the state in 2020, claiming it has the constitutional authority to spend the conservation sales tax revenue without appropriation. While several constitutional provisions say certain revenue stands appropriated, most notably money in the state road fund, the conservation sales tax provisions include no such language.
 
Cole County Circuit Judge Cotton Walker ruled in the commission’s favor in April. However, Walker’s analysis focused more on the perceived intent of voters in passing the 1976 amendment that created the conservation sales tax than on the language of the relevant constitutional provisions and how they interact.
 
On appeal, the state Attorney General’s Office argued that since “stands appropriated” language existed in other constitutional provisions at the time voters ratified the conservation sales tax amendment, its proponents could have included such language if that was their intent. Since the amendment issues no such specific directive, the state said it can’t be interpreted as shifting the legislature’s exclusive power to appropriate funding to an executive branch agency. As the state put it in its brief to the court: “Removing the legislature’s historical role in the appropriations process would be met with trumpets, not silence.”
 
The court will issue a ruling at a later date. The case is Conservation Commission v. Eric Schmitt.

On October 14 Governor Parson generated national news– and was widely ridiculed – after threatening to prosecute a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter who discovered a flaw on a state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) website that potentially exposed the Social Security numbers of more than 100,000 Missouri educators.

After discovering the flaw, which was publicly accessible on the DESE website to anyone who cared to look, the paper immediately informed the department of the problem and delayed publication of its story until the affected web pages could be taken down. The paper published the story in its October 14 edition. That morning Governor Parson held a news conference at which he accused the reporter of hacking and vowed to prosecute and pursue civil sanctions against all involved with the story. Governor Parson then left without taking questions from reporters.
 
Governor Parson’s characterization was widely derided by cybersecurity and legal experts in subsequent reports by local and national news organizations, including The Washington Post and The New York Times. No other officials have backed Parson’s position and a few publicly disputed it, including state Rep. Tony Lovasco (R-O’Fallon) who on Twitter said the governor’s office “has a fundamental misunderstanding of both web technology and industry standard procedures for reporting security vulnerabilities.”
 
During his news conference, Governor Parson also claimed the incident will cost taxpayers $50 million but didn’t explain how. His office has since refused to provide an accounting of how the governor arrived at that amount and what the money would be used for. However, in response to an inquiry from legislative budget analysts initiated by House Democrats, the state Office of Budget and Planning said the $50 million was a rough and preliminary estimate of the cost to pay for credit monitoring for the 100,000 educators affected and setup a call center. If the supposed costs are indeed limited to those efforts, the governor’s figure appears to be grossly inflated.
 
In a separate and unrelated data incident first reported by the Post-Dispatch on October 19, the Public School and Education Employee Retirement Systems of Missouri notified members of the pension program that it experienced a “data security incident” in September when an employee’s email was accessed without authorization. The pension system said the incident didn’t result in anyone gaining access to its operating system.

I am saddened to hear of the passing of my colleague, Representative Tom Hannegan (R-St. Charles) on October 20 of a sudden stroke. The two of us were members of the Special Committee on Criminal Justice. Representative Hannegan was serving his third term in the Missouri House of Representatives.
 
Hannegan was first elected in 2016 and represented the 65^th District in eastern St. Charles County. He served as chairman of the House Local Government Committee. As one of the few openly gay lawmakers in the Missouri legislature, Hannegan pushed for legislation seeking to extend the state law prohibiting discrimination in housing and employment to protect LGBTQ+ Missourians. Representative Hannegan’s passing will be felt by the entire state, as we have lost a champion for LGBTQ+ rights and equality.
 
In lieu of flowers, Rep. Hannegan’s family is asking donations be made to the Boys & Girls Club of St. Charles in his name.

Healthcare coverage under Medicaid Expansion began October 1, 2021. If you qualify, complete an application for coverage here. 

For more information on whether you qualify, Truman Medical Centers is offering free financial counseling. 

Truman Medical Center is offering walk-in vaccinations at their two hospital campuses (2211 Charlotte and 7900 Lee’s Summit Road) 7am to 2pm Monday through Friday.  In addition, you can schedule a vaccine at www.trumed.org or by calling 816-404-CARE. 

ALL Missourians are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. If you have not been vaccinated, I encourage you to visit the COVID-19 map to find a vaccination site near you. The following places are currently offering vaccines in Kansas City: 

Anyone in need of a COVID-19 vaccine can receive one for FREE from KC CARE Health Center at the following Kansas City Public Library locations:

Tuesdays, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Plaza Branch, 4801 Main St.

Wednesdays, 2 p.m. - 6 p.m.
Waldo Branch, 201 E. 75^th St.

Thursdays, Noon - 6 p.m.
North-East Branch, 6000 Wilson Ave.

Anyone hoping to get a vaccine can walk in to one of the Library clinic sessions as long as supplies last. No registration is required. Available for ages 12 and older. There is no cost to get the vaccine -- it is completely free.

The full schedule of vaccine clinics at Library locations can be found on the Library’s online calendar.