Kinder Continues Fight Against “ObamaCare”, For “Right to Work”

Lt. Governor Explains Opposition to Expansion of Medicaid Roles in Missouri

By Mike Ferguson

(St. Charles, MO) – He’s the second-highest ranking elected official in Missouri and he was recently sworn in for an unusual third term in Jefferson City.

Peter Kinder is also in the running to become the next Congressman from the Eighth District. Due to the impending resignation of Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson, the Eighth District Congressional Committees of the ballot-qualified parties are now in the process of selecting candidates for a special election to fill the seat in the Republican-heavy district.

In a new “Missouri Viewpoints” interview, Kinder isn’t backing down in his opposition to Governor Nixon and President Obama’s policies.

Kinder led a private legal challenge to the national health care commonly called “ObamaCare” before the election. After the President’s reelection, Kinder says that fight isn’t over despite critics’ assertions that Americans settled the debate with their vote to retain Barak Obama in office.

“He [the President] did not seek a mandate on ObamaCare. He didn’t even talk about it in the campaign. There can’t be a mandate if you didn’t lay a program before the people and say ‘I want to be reelected on the basis of this program.’”

There is a mandate, though, in Missouri, Kinder asserts. That’s based on the 2010 Proposition “C” vote where 71% of voters rejected the individual mandate portion of the federal law. That leaves an unresolved conflict between state and federal law. The Lt. Governor says Missouri’s government should adhere to what’s on Missouri’s books.

To him, that means holding the line against the federal requirement to establish a government-run health insurance exchange.

“For Missouri to now implement an exchange which would allow the individual mandate to buy health insurance is actually contrary to our state law, and would violate state law as expressed by that 71% super majority vote of the people.”

The federal deadline to establish an exchange has passed. Missouri, along with a majority of the states, have not complied.

“I am ready to call the federal government’s bluff on this.” Kinder continues.

“I don’t believe they are in a position to come in and do a federal exchange in Missouri or in these other states that aren’t going along.”

Kinder’s opposition isn’t only to Washington. He’s also taking on Governor Jay Nixon’s support for expanding the Medicaid roles in Missouri. The federal government is promising to cover that cost for three years.

Republicans, including Kinder, says that’s a bait and switch with a big bill to reel in.

“The Medicaid expansion is unaffordable. It is unworkable. It will break the state’s bank, fiscally, and we are not going to do it.”

Critics say that could make health coverage harder to get for at least 300,000 Missourians.

The Lt. Governor hopes Missourians will look at the debate from another perspective, though. One that keeps in mind a view of the entire state budget and the impact increased spending anywhere has on other areas of government.

“It [increased Medicaid spending] is the reason that we’re seeing the crowding out of funding for education, K through 12 schools as well as higher education.

“If middle class families across our great state want to know one of the main reasons why tuition at our state universities and community colleges has skyrocketed over the past dozen years, the fact that Medicaid spending is crowding out other functions of state government spending is one of the biggest reasons.”

Advocates for Medicaid expansion claim turning down the federal money and not expanding the Medicaid roles could put some medical clinics, especially smaller rural hospitals, at risk of closure because of a lack of revenue.

Kinder addressed other economic issues during the interview, asserting his support for so-called “Right to Work” legislation and his call for lowering the state’s income tax to better compete with surrounding states, especially Kansas.

“Right to Work” laws make it illegal to require union membership as a condition of employment.

In a previous “Missouri Viewpoints”, state Speaker of the House Tim Jones said he has enough support among Republicans to pass a “Right to Work” bill but not enough support to override a likely veto from Governor Nixon.

Kinder thinks the idea should move forward, anyway.

“The question is ‘Do you want to tee up the issue and have the debate?’ And I think it’s time to do that even if you’re not able to put it on the statute book.”

Kinder suggested that voters would support the idea through a referendum in 2014 if the Legislature does not address it.

On the web: http://ltgov.mo.gov/

Budgets, Teachers, Taxes and Reform: Finding The Right Future for Missouri’s Public Schools

Influential advocates say money is only part of the challenge

By Mike Ferguson

(St. Charles, MO) – It’s always a touchy topic at the State Capitol but, this year, it’s expected to be a lightning rod of debate: how to fund and how to run Missouri’s public schools in another lean budget year.

In a recent “Missouri Viewpoints”, Amy Blouin from the liberal Missouri Budget Project and James Shuls from the libertarian Show Me Institute offered different takes on the challenge.

The facts of the situation are, like the possible reforms, up for debate.

“Over the last decade” Blouin says, “the state’s budget and revenue has actually decreased by over 12%, particularly if you adjust for inflation…So, we looking at decreased revenue. The students haven’t declined but our funding that’s available for local school districts has.”

Shuls is a former classroom teacher and takes issue with that assessment.

“In real dollars, we’ve actually increased funding this year from last year.

“The truth of the matter is we’re doing a pretty good job of funding schools. It isn’t that we need to increase funding, It’s that we need to rethink how we’re running and operating our schools. From 1992 to 2008, in inflation-adjusted dollars,” Shuls continued, “we increased education funding by 40% and our attainment levels and our achievement have remained flat.”

If the basis of the debate can’t be agreed upon, how can any fixes gain consensus?

State lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have told Missouri News Horizon that education funding and policy will be front and center at some point in this year’s legislative session.

That won’t be limited to funding. Labor policy, including teacher tenure and academic freedom of schools to experiment with teaching techniques are likely to be debated.

Shuls, and most conservatives, welcome that discussion.

“We really need to start changing the dynamic and rethinking public education because we can’t just keep increasing spending, not at the rate schools want us to at least.”

That dynamic, Shuls says, involves changes at both the local and the state levels.

“The state needs to give school districts more ability to be innovative, to have the authority to make the changes they need to make as they see them ‘on the ground’. I think that, too often, the state hamstrings schools from making those important staffing decisions.”

In the interview, Shuls says school districts need the freedom to implement more technology-based teaching and new methods, even if those aren’t standard in the state.

To Blouin, the root of the struggle continues to be funding and a lack of money, she says, is what’s hamstringing local schools from implementing improvements and developing teachers’ skills..

The Missouri Budget Project was among the backers of 2012’s Proposition B. But voters snuffed out that third attempt to raise taxes on some tobacco products in order to raise money for education. Blouin supported the measure but wasn’t surprised when it failed. That’s because past promises to fund education with taxes on vices haven’t always been kept in Missouri.

“What we were hearing from voters in the community was that they really want to be assured that the funding is going where the proposal says it is going to.”

Referring to controversies surrounding revenues from casinos in Missouri, Blouin continues “I think because of past, with the casinos, funding I think that Missouri voters are gun shy a little bit.”

Does that mean tax increases should be shelved for the time being? Not according to Blouin.

“It doesn’t mean to me that they’re not willing to consider a different tax proposal. I think that there are a lot of opportunities.”

Among the tax ideas she and the Missouri Budget Project hope lawmakers will consider this year is a sales tax on internet sales to Missourians.

Blouin and Shuls agree that, whatever the answers are, it impacts Missouri’s ability to not just educate children but also to develop a workforce that keeps and attracts jobs in the state for future generations.

On the web:

Missouri Budget Project: http://www.mobudget.org

Show Me Institute: http://www.showmeinstitute.org/

Missouri’s Wine Industry Grows Despite Drought

Tax Incentives Credited As Part of Wine Makers’ Success

By Mike Ferguson

(Augusta, MO) – You may not drink it, but you at least indirectly pay for it.

Missouri’s Wine and Grape Tax Credit is praised by wine makers as one of the reasons that industry is growing in the Show Me State. The industry has an impact of over a billion dollars a year on the state and directly or indirectly impacts over 14,000 jobs, according to Mt. Pleasant winery owner Chuck Dressel. Dressel is also on Missouri’s Wine and Grape Board.

There are over 90 wineries and 400 vineyards in Missouri.

“The industry itself has many, many facets to it, to where it spreads virally into all sorts of sectors”, Dressel explains in an interview on “Missouri Viewpoints”, “…from agriculture to service to food supply to distribution to retailing, so it has hooks in many, many different industries in the state.”

A 2010 study by Stonebridge Research found about $386 million dollars in wages paid as part of the wine and grape industry in the state per year and over $176 million paid in taxes from commerce related to the industry. Of that, almost $82 million were paid to state and local governments.

The study found tourism related to the wine industry to have a $92 million annual impact on the state alone.

Lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle in Jefferson City say the state is looking at yet another tight budget year with spending cuts high on the priority list. The push to reevaluate many of the state’s tax credit programs is gaining momentum as state coffers deal with less revenue.

Dressel hopes the call to cut back on tax credits will not impact the Wine and Grape Tax Credit program, which provides incentives equal to up to 25% of the purchase of new equipment and materials needed to start or expand business in the wine and grape industry.

In other words, taxpayers are subsidizing the purchase of farm equipment to grow the grapes, barrels to age the wine and bottling equipment to get the beverages from the winery to the table.

“Since the end product, literally, goes throughout the state and also provides so many jobs and so much opportunity for revenue inside of the state…” Dressel says “It’s important to think not just of the winery selling wine here at the winery but think about it being placed on a store shelf at a Schnucks or WalMart, and what impact that has as opposed to a California wine.

“All this money stays in the state and it allows individuals who don’t drink wine to benefit from it.”

That’s probably not going to stop state officials from putting the Wine and Grape Tax Credit on the list of programs to reconsider, along with most or all other tax incentives. Dressel wants decision makers to preserve this program as is, because of the industry’s relationship with other business in the Show Me State.

“The big thing is not to just look at what the individual winery is purchasing but see where they are purchasing these grapes, or these barrels, or where that tax credit money is actually going to. It’s going to other Missouri industries for the most part.”

Unlike other Missouri agriculture industries, Dressel says wine and grape makers actually benefitted from the harsh 2012 drought.

“We say this with all respect to our neighbors who have suffered terribly to grow corn and row crops; this has been a great year to grow grapes.

“ The quality is unbelievable. The sweetness levels, the flavor levels, everything is just perfect to make a great bottle of wine. And, although I certainly don’t want to have a drought harm our neighbors again, we would love to have conditions like this again year in and year out.”

The tax credits, though, aren’t the sole reason for the growth of the industry in Missouri. Dressel says there’s an agricultural basis for that and it’s why he feels Missouri wines can compete with America’s better-known California wines.

“Our climate is suitable…our days of sunshine are suitable and, also, our customer base is suitable to drink our products…”

“Napa Valley (CA) and Augusta (MO) are almost on the same latitude so, therefore, we have the same amount of sunshine.”

An estimated 4,400 tons of grapes are produced in Missouri every year, with almost all of that being used for wines.