Maggie Menefee, the Executive Director of ALIVE for the St. Louis Metro Area spoke to the West County Democrats about the rise of intimate partner violence. This abuse may be physical, sexual, psychological or financial and there are very limited resources to provide timely assistance to victims.
ALIVE provides a crisis hotline and nights of safety in undisclosed hotels for intimate partner abuse victims, along with counseling, transportation, court advocacy and special treatment for children.
If you know someone needing a plan to exit an abusive situation, or you want to learn more about ALIVE (or to volunteer to help this under served community,) you can find more details at https://alivestl.org/
At the break in the WCD meeting we held a silent auction of holiday goodies to benefit Circle of Concern. As you know, this is a tough time for food pantries and they need our support. Thank you to all who contributed items for the auction and bid on these items.
Legislative Report
December 9, 2019
Federal Items:
Which Republican President was better? Trump 53%, Lincoln 47% The Economist poll 11/19
After hinting that NATO ought not come to the aid of an endangered member not committing 2% of their GDP to defense, President Donald Trump came back to America to continue to ignore impeachment proceedings. His crew still seeks to destroy the government. Among the recently discovered actions:
- Dramatically reducing physical, occupational and speech therapy for nursing home residents receiving Medicare;
- Proposing a new, quasi-autonomous agency to handle a trillion dollars in student loans; and,
- Hiring McKinsey & Company to make ICE better able to reduce illegal immigration, in part by cutting food and medical care for detainees and housing them in low-cost rural county jails.
While a government shut-down was avoided with a ‘last week’ deal before Thanksgiving, the government may run out of money again before Christmas. And, deficits of more than a trillion dollars a year are expected well into the next decade.
[$1,000,000,000,000.00]
“There are many bad nominations, but it’s hard to think of one that’s as bad as hers.”Sen. Charles Schumer regarding St. Louis County’s Sarah Pitlyk–voted to a lifetime appointment on the federal bench in St. Louis despite opposition from the American Bar Association and pro-choice advocates (among others). At the current rate of approvals (most all on party-line votes) it is possible that Trump will appoint 250 judges before Election Day 2020.
The House of Representatives has passed scores of substantive bills which could make life better for millions of Americans and correct problems with government oversight. Of course, they are all sitting in the Senate ‘graveyard’ awaiting action.
Among the many, a bill guaranteeing broad protections for LGBTQ Americans: “In fact, this bill legalizes discrimination —government imposed top-down discrimination against those with time-honored views of marriage and gender,” Rep. Vicky Hartzler said on the House floor before the vote.
The Census occurs next spring –even if the federal government isn’t ready. The Commerce Department (headed by billionaire Wilbur Ross) is behind in planning and preparing for the required event. To save money, Americans will be strongly encouraged to complete their census questionnaires on-line –which could result in a serious under count of seniors and low-income families who are less likely to have home internet access.
Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee is still in court trying to compel Ross and Attorney General Barr to turn over documents related to the now-banned citizenship question scheme and other administrative matters.
Social Security payments will increase by 1.6% in 2020. So far the administration has not been able to implement the Chained CPI scheme to “control” payments. (Using the Chained CPI would have reduced the 2020 increase by 2/10ths of 1%.) In early December AARP published a review of the Chained CPI which concluded that seniors would lose $127 billion in benefits in a decade if it is implemented.
State Items:
Several hundred proposed bills have already been pre-filed for the 2020 session. As expected,Sen. Andrew Koenig has again proposed a major taxation bill, Senate Bill648. The proposal lowers the maximum individual income, caps total sales taxes (3¢ on the dollar lower than some current allowed levies), gives Amazon type companies some protection from sales tax audits (but requires them to remit sales tax), and, makes a number of technical changes to tax law. It is broad based enough that it also become a vehicle for virtually any other tax legislation.
Among the more bizarre proposals (so far) is HB 1307 from Rep. Jeff Neely (R –Cameron). It eliminates the power of state courts to suspend state-issued personal and occupation licenses to those owing child support. (They could still be ordered to do community service.)
Again this year, the majority party is proposing several changes to the initiative petition process –all the changes would make it harder for citizens to place measures on the ballot. The Republicans are also talking about ‘Cleaner Missouri,’ a proposal to kill many parts of last year’s CLEAN amendment.
Early in the session legislators will have to deal with the annual request for supplemental appropriations to cover unexpected and higher than expected program costs. Some will not be surprised if new legislation to combat the opioid crisis (especially in rural Missouri) is slipped in to the supplemental.
The Fiscal Year 2021 budget will be a major challenge.Through November (five months into the Fiscal Year) state revenue is up a bit more than anticipated. Individual Income Tax collections are running almost $200 million (8%) ahead of last year while Corporate tax collections are up almost $30 million. This level of increase will fund the enacted state budget and help replenish the state’s very modest reserves. The extra money will not, alas, be enough to revisit cuts to education or other basic services.
Looking ahead to next year the state has to be aware that many economists predict a strong chance of an economic downturn. Missouri’s revenue –based on wages, sales taxes and corporate profits –has proved to be very reactive to recessions. Unfortunately, many Republicans want to take credit for further tax cuts in an election year. That could result in Missouri, once again, being vulnerable to service cuts and reduced money for education.
No one is seriously talking about increasing the state’s extremely low taxes on tobacco and alcohol.And, the “guns everywhere” proposal will probably resurface.
Glenn Koenen