Some days in the Missouri Legislature feel like Groundhog Day - in the Bill Murray sense. For me, that's the case with most Opening Day speeches and the State of the State address.
This week, on Wednesday night, Gov. Nixon took the dais for his eighth and final address. I felt waves of deja vu. Gov. Nixon apparently felt this way too - as he recalled his very first SOTS address. No surprise, he said a few things with which I agree, more with which I don't and a few that seemed misplaced.
The good
Gov. Nixon's proposed budget includes a 2 percent pay increase for state employees. And, unlike one previous example, it's an increase for the entire year. Though I sound like a broken record - I'll repeat - the key to getting out of the basement of national rankings is to have modest but steady raises.
Nixon also proposed to "expand family-friendly policies like parental leave for state employees." In the words of Kris Kristofferson, the governor must be reading my mail. Just last week I filed House Bill 2228, which would allow state employees 10 days of paid maternity or paternity leave. The House Committee on Government Oversight will hear the bill Monday afternoon.
The bad
Nixon's budget is built on a bed of straw. It includes hundreds of millions of dollars from proposed Medicaid expansion that is dead on arrival. He has also asked for $388 million in supplemental funding for Medicaid, which means we were nearly half a billion dollars short in last year's budget estimates for Medicaid spending and Nixon is asking the Legislature to make up the difference from last year before we even consider next year's bill.
Nixon claimed that, when he took office, "a lot of talented entrepreneurs couldn't get access to the capital they needed." As governor, Nixon takes credit for changing all that. And this year, he's proposed $10 million for the Missouri Technology Corporation to "help more entrepreneurs innovate and grow right here in the Show Me State."
State government is not an investment bank - and shouldn't operate like one either. Deciding which companies and entrepreneurs to favor with capital is something that private investors should do with their own money - or with money that people have entrusted to them. It's not something that should be done with taxpayer dollars.
MTC has great intentions. It's just not the proper role of government in a free society. We don't and shouldn't ever have Chinese-style "capitalism - with state-sponsored and favored enterprises. Even where there are the best intentions, the fact is that you're taking taxpayer money, giving it to a group of unelected people, and requiring them literally to pick winners-and-losers. The right place to secure capital for a new business is a bank - not government.
The strange
Nixon surprised everyone when he encouraged everyone to "work together to protect kids and consumers by reining in the billion-dollar daily fantasy sports industry." Nixon says daily fantasy sports are unregulated gambling. If Missouri's going to legalize it, Nixon says we need to regulate it.
I happen to agree with his legal analysis. Daily fantasy sports are far more a game of chance than poker - and poker is considered gambling. The strange thing is - if Nixon's legal conclusion is right, then the General Assembly doesn't have the authority to legalize it because our state's prohibition on gambling is in our state Constitution, not our state statutes. If fantasy sports websites want certainty in Missouri, a question for the ballot is the only way they're going to get it.
The week ahead
On Monday, the House Committee on Government Oversight and Accountability will hear my bill on parental leave for state employees. The Committee on Conservation and Natural Resources will hear House Bill 1782, a bill that would require the Department of Natural Resources to sell land in Oregon County that it illegally diverted from counties in the lead belt that suffered environmental harm from the now bankrupt ASARCO. On Wednesday, the Committee on Health and Mental Health Policy will hear House Bill 1923, a bill nearly identical to one I sponsored last year but came up just short of passing as a result of the end-of-the-year filibuster.
In floor action, I anticipate the House will take up and pass three more ethics bills - a ban on lobbyist gifts, a prohibition against candidates using their campaign funds for exotic investments, and a bill to ensure that state laws against self-dealing also apply to members of executive task forces charged with recommending policies that involve spending your money.
State Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, represents Missouri's 60th District.