Featured Discussion
The West County Democrats hosted Dr. Gena Gunn McClendon of Brown School, Center for Social Development at Washington University and Vicki C. Washington, JD, formerly of the University of Wisconsin today to discuss the issue of voter suppression in the St. Louis region. Both are focused on increasing voter participation throughout the St. Louis area, and today addressed various aspects of the problem in our area.
Ms. Washington spoke to the variety of voter suppression tactics used more broadly in other states like Wisconsin now getting traction in our area; including Voter ID laws, voter intimidation at the polls, gerrymandering, voter role purges, unequal resources at polling places and limitations to early or absentee voting. She made the point that only one party (Republican) has active campaigns to limit voter access to the polls. Instead of crafting legislation that addresses concerns of a broad spectrum of the population, they seem intent on keeping others from voting, justified by the notion of widespread ‘voter impersonation’ (which almost never happens in reality.) The targets of these campaigns are almost always people of color and/or lower economic standing; and in that way are very similar to the Jim Crow laws of the past.
Dr. McClendon presented the academic research that supports these apparent results of these initiatives from the St. Louis area. There does appear to be a correlation between voter turnout rates and the population racial and socioeconomic makeup. This was confirmed by poll observation and the most common consequence of these activities is confusion at the polls for workers dealing with change of address registration issues.
Both presenters recommended greater and more persistent education for the voters and voting officials in likely affected communities. Both recommend vigilance of these types of vote limiting activities and new proposals to make voter registration less complex and actual voting easier– as well as limiting the effect of dark money on elections.
Legislative Update from Glenn Keonen
Federal Items:
The Bloomberg Business Week cover for February 4th: picture of White House, with words…
BEST. SHUTDOWN. EVER.
Despite accomplishing nothing with the first shutdown, it remains possible that a second partial government shutdown – over the widely expressed wishes of both Democrat and Republican members – may begin on February 15th. Many basic programs, such as food stamps and Social Security, would again be impacted. The wild card remains the President’s acceptance of any Congressional agreement.
Unfortunately, virtually no Republican has a chance of winning a primary without the support of the core Trump voters. It is unlikely that any Republican in Congress will strongly challenge any action by Donald Trump.
With most all attention on the circus surrounding Trump, there has been little coverage of the deliberate, on-going efforts to weaken protections of Americans, including…
► Further weakening of rules overseeing financial institutions added post 2008;
► Weakening environmental protections, especially protections over farm land;
► The appointment of new federal judges light on experience but heavy on hard core right ideology; and,
► Creation of more impediments for those seeking ACA health care.
For example, the administration is not supporting the bureaucratic infrastructure necessary for those covered by Market Place plans to get and maintain their coverage.
Reports from volunteers who have tried to help with the care of children of undocumented immigrants housed in for-profit detention centers are chilling. In one Texas location visited by a number of St. Louisans, the children only had Mylar “space blankets” for warmth in a large, drafty building. Volunteers provide clothing to the children when they are released.
As expected, the Trump tax cuts have increased the federal deficit without providing long-term economic growth. Unexpected has been the impact on average taxpayers. Early reports point to working Americans getting smaller refunds, and, the gross tax rate and exemption decreases being offset by lost deductions – such as unreimbursed business expenses (mileage costs for pizza drivers, for example).
State Items:
The Republican supermajority in Jefferson City knows that they are smarter than voters.
While 62% of Missouri voters endorsed CLEAN, about 85% of Republican House members voted to exempt themselves from most of the transparency requirements in the amendment.
Governor Mike Parson has already endorsed a new amendment to ‘clarify’ CLEAN.
A number of bills to make it harder to get initiative proposals on the ballot have been filed. It is expected that future petitions will require more signatures, and, signatures from all eight Congressional districts (not the current six). It is possible that Constitutional Amendments submitted by petition may need a two-thirds plus one tally to be enacted. And, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has endorsed “content neutral” legislation to require groups submitting petitions to pay high fees – including a 40¢ per signature charge.
Legislators may still submit bills for consideration. To date House members have submitted 871 bills and Senators 368. (In addition, more than 250 various resolutions have been filed.)
Predicting what will eventually pass is hard, however, certain areas of interest seem to have a great deal of traction:
Abortion As usual, a series of restrictions are proposed, including the annual “heartbeat” bill and the declaration that no abortion can occur after fertilization of the mother’s egg. A Senate bill would require providers offering the option of transporting the remains to a funeral home for services.
Meanwhile, the CARE Act calls for standards for care of rape victims, including a mandatory offer of emergency contraception. This Democratic proposal is expected to draw intense opposition from pro-life groups.
Firearms The “guns everywhere” proposal is back.
Work Requirements Food stamp recipients under age 18 (16 in some language) would be required to report that they worked 20 hours every week. Failure to work, or report – or, have the work verified by an employer – could lead to the family forever losing food stamps. (The first remedy to that loss is for the head of household to abandon the family.) A bill requiring work for Medicaid is expected, though Missouri’s adult Medicaid income limit is so low that anyone working 10 hours per week at minimum wage becomes ineligible for state health care.
School Funding Formula The governor proposed $62 million in extra money to meet the current, lowered formula requirements. Outstate districts are lobbying hard for additional funds. Bills changing the formula distribution – mainly further reducing amounts going to some St. Louis and St. Charles counties districts – to find more money for rural schools seem to have strong support.
Doomed – again – is the Prescription Drug Monitoring proposal. While it has already passed the House, the Senate committee to hear the bill killed the Senate version of the proposal, with all five Republicans (out of seven members) expressing concerns over the loss of privacy. (The other 49 states all have state-wide PDMPs.)
The proposed transportation bond scheme faces an uncertain future. The $331 million would be used for bridge repairs. None of the slated projects are in St. Charles County and just a couple are in the metro area. The two senators from St. Charles are leading a charge to kill the proposal.
Unfortunately, the Fiscal Year 2020 budget proposed by Governor Mike Parson is extremely unrealistic.
As noted by the Missouri Budget Project, the FY20 budget requires $516 million in surplus funds from this current (FY19) budget year. Receipts through the first seven months of this fiscal year are running more than $400 million below expectations, pointing to a billion dollar gap.
Worse, the governor’s budget expects more than $300 million in core savings from MO HealthNet (Medicaid): for that to happen more than 50,000 Missouri children will have to be kicked-off the rolls.
The budget calls for a 3% raise for most all state employees. Alas, even if that raise is enacted Missouri seems destined to remain the state paying its workers the least.
One small revenue enhancement has the governor’s blessing, implementation of the mechanism to collect sales tax on many internet sales. This could yield $200 million per year.
Unfortunately, Grover Norquist, et al, have declared this an unacceptable “tax increase,” meaning most Republicans will be afraid to vote for it.