Unfortunately, our invited speaker, John Bowman, the president of the St. Louis County NAACP was unable to make it to the meeting due to an automobile mishap. However, most of the people in the room are well-aware of the immoral purging of DEI initiatives throughout the country, denying equal protection under the law and the systematic injustice for people of color. We suggest you learn more at the NAACP website and get involved.
There was plenty to talk about, though, in his absence. Glenn’s legislative report served as a centerpiece for a lively discussion about the outrageous actions of our State and Federal legislators, and of course our newly elected president. Irreparable harm is being done to our country and to people we care about. We cannot sit idly and watch it happen.
Karen Cloyd made a strong suggestion that every one of us do just one thing (or two, or three) per day. Call a congressman, write a letter to the press, join an advocacy group, walk in a protest, talk to your friends and neighbors about what’s important to you. It is your voices raised together that will cut through the flood of misinformation coming from corporate media.
Where to start? We hope to publish shortly a list of pro-democracy groups, advocacy organizations and information resources for you to pick from and adopt. In the meantime, it seems that many, if not most of the smartest and strongest voices for a restoration of our democracy have moved to BlueSky Social. It looks and functions like Twitter but is currently free to use and advertisement free. There is no corporate algorithm tracking your activity, manipulating what it thinks you should see, and so far, no right-wing propaganda. Leading pro-democracy advocates have assembled ‘Starter-Packs’ of contributing personalities to follow. Find one you like and get involved.
Legislative Report – February 10, 2025 Glenn Koenen
Federal Items:
The absurd melodrama keeps getting more outlandish.
The way the Republican Party ignores Donald Trump’s inappropriate and illegal actions would have been unimaginable a decade ago. Now so many norms and laws get shattered everyday that the media plays Whack A Mole while the vast majority of Americans seem unwilling to keep up with the consequences of horrible political appointments, threatened landgrabs, a deliberate shift of government policy to subsidize billionaires, and, giving the President more powers than a North Korean dictator.
Still, Washington has several things it must get done in coming weeks…
1. By all appearances the federal government is past the end of its credit line. The government must raise the debt ceiling very, very soon. If the staunchest Republicans keep their word – and vote as they have on previous debt extensions – Speaker Mike Johnson will have to make accommodations with the Democrats to get the debt ceiling raised.
2. The five-year Agriculture bill is due. Everything from crop subsidies to food stamps have been shoved on the table. And, ironically, special payments to farmers may be needed to offset the USAID’s annual purchase of billions in grains and basic foods.
3. Republican leadership hopes to use the very limited reconciliation process to ram through a budget – if the Freedom Caucus types and fiscal conservatives can be convinced to toe the line.
4. While several incredibly bad top people have been appointed to federal jobs, layers more of bureaucrats, ambassadors and such await their day before the Senate. That list includes convicted federal felons, rogue ideologues and self-proclaimed anti-government types.
Of course, true Congressional leadership on immigration, job creation and a host of other critical issues could be done. Alas, they will only be considered of Trump explicitly calls for them to get enacted.
Will House and Senate Republicans buck Trump to insure the survival of EPA, FEMA, the Department of Education and other federal agencies? Will Congress let the president use the military as a ‘third rate federal police force’? Will elected officials object to the author of Project 2025’s moves as director of the Office of Management and Budget to dismantle government from the inside out?
Don’t bet lunch money.
State Items:
A south St. Louis County Democrat Committeewoman called Governor Mike Kehoe’s office with a question about school support right before the State of the State address. The governor’s aide explained that Kehoe doesn’t respond to constituents.
Let’s look at three complicated yet essential items before the state…
The FY 2026 State Budget Remember, Gov. Kehoe wants to eliminate the state income tax – the largest source of income for education, Mediaid and other basic state functions. Unfortunately, Missouri has a money crisis. The weekly report from some GOP House members noted “The Missouri State Budget Director reported an 11.5% decline in net general revenue collections for January 2025 compared to January 2024.” Overall, for the fiscal year which started on 7/1/24 general revenue is down almost 5%. Add in inflation and expected growth and that’s a hard drop of more like 9%.
As a result, the governor’s FY2026 budget (a couple of billion higher than this year’s budget) expects to spent billions of the state’s reserves.
Even with that piggy bank robbery, Kehoe wants to trim the already lean Foundation Formula to K – 12 Education by $300 million below what it ought to be. However, the governor wants to use $50 million in GR to help fund ‘scholarships’ to private and parochial schools next year. And the targeted funds to allow low-income districts to pay $40,000 a year to new teachers? That support may evaporate.
If Kehoe does get the income tax killed, sales taxes will have to be increased and expanded to include haircuts, real estate commissions and such as well as trimming up to $3 billion a year from General Revenue expenditures.
Utilities The husband of the current head of the Public Service Commission, Kayla Hahn, is a lobbyist for several companies – including Missouri based utilities. As reported in various media, last week for the first time in decades the PSC chair testified in favor of pro-utility legislation. The proposal is to overturn two voter initiatives and let utilities charge customers for future projects prior to their introduction into service. In other words, rate payers get to pay for big things which may never get built. This could add substantial amounts to several of every one’s monthly utility bills.
It gets worse…The PSC staff has had their wings clipped, limiting their input. And proposed legislation would only allow the Public Counsel to enter a rate case if the PSC asked them to participate.
LGBTQ Kids When Trump had his TV show signing of anti-trans athletes orders, a representative from the NCAA said that about 500,000 students participate in college sports. “Less than 10” are trans. (Even that number may be high.)
The Missouri legislature is considering a myriad of new laws – and will probably pass several – restricting kids sports participation, restroom use, birth certificate status and such. Never has so much unwanted attention been dropped on a small number of children.
Unfortunately, kicking trans kids is good Republican politics.
As we expected, efforts to overturn the minimum wage increase and sick leave plan are being fast tracked. The latest proposals would eliminate the inflation clause and disallow the wage increase for all but the state’s very largest employers. One bill would even allow paying kids under 21 years old just the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
It appears that an anti-abortion amendment is destined to be on the 2026 ballot. One proposal would only allow an abortion after rape or incest after a police report has been filed and the woman agrees to cooperate with all prosecution.
For now, GOP legislators are trying to enact a string of procedural hoops for abortion providers – even those who just dispense the bill regimen – to make it virtually impossible to get a legal abortion in the state.