Missouri Legislature Is Best
Government Money Can Buy
PART II: The Millionaire Bill Of Rights
Okay group, stay in line. I don’t want any of you wondering away from the tour again. Last week we looked at several of the backdoors millionaires and special interests use to gain special access to our State Representatives and Senators. Today we’re going through one of those doors, deep inside the hidden corridors of power. This part of Missouri’s State Capitol is normally off-limits to average citizens and taxpayers like you or I. So if anyone asks (voice drops to a whisper)…you own a polluting industry and your other car is a Rolls Royce.
Door creaks open slowly.
You will notice right away how the State Representatives and Senators are fawning over us. We’ve been elevated to a higher plain of existence. We are now seen as “patrons” of the political elite. You probably thought the Roman system of wealthy patrons and their groveling clients had died out in 4th Century. It takes more than a couple of millennia to change human nature.
Suppose you are a millionaire homebuilder and you make the mistake of using a private sewer company that doesn’t have a contract with a City to dispose of the sewage. Now the beauty of the Millionaire’s Bill Of Rights, is you don’t even have to call for help. That’s because a friendly State Representative is willing to say, with a straight face I might add, that even though they talked with this homebuilder, they never discussed passing special interest legislation to bail him out.
No, they simply tacked an amendment on to a bill at the last minute, without telling anyone, to materially benefit private interests at the expense of the public interest. Why? Just out of the goodness of their heart. They just couldn’t stand by and see a millionaire suffer. Poor people they can kick out of hospitals, but how they weep at the inhumanity suffered upon their wealthy benefactors.
So what is so wrong about this amendment you might ask. To start with it mandates the City provide service to customers of a private sewer company outside of our City limits. It is like telling us we have to pick up the garbage for people living in Bridgeton or Hazelwood. If we want to stop serving them, we have to give them two years notice…even if they don’t pay their sewer bills for two years!
Did I mention that these private sewer lines are in terrible shape? If they collapse, under this State mandate, the taxpayers of the City of St. Charles would have to pay to repair private sewer lines in unincorporated St. Charles County! One could understand if this amendment were offered by the State Representative who represents the people in the county, but this was put on by a representative who is suppose to be watching out for the interests of City taxpayers.
I wish I could tell you this was the worst example of what goes on here, but consider what befell our poor neighbor to the west. St. Peters made the mistake of putting a tax on hotels that a millionaire hotel developer didn’t like. The legislature stripped them this session of the power to levy this particular tax. Not everyone in the State mind you…just St. Peters. It cost their community $400,000 a year.
The same thing is happening all over the State. Long time observers have never seen it this bad. Gary Markenson is the Executive Director of the Missouri Municipal League. He is one of the easiest going, non-partisan people you would ever want to meet. Here is what he recently wrote (in part) about current attitudes in the Missouri General Assembly:
“Many (State Legislators) campaigned on a platform of less state government and more local control, but after Election Day, they forget the campaign slogan when it becomes inconvenient… Money has always talked in Jefferson City. The special interests, who make endorsements and finance these campaigns, are often supporters of bills to mandate costs in cities or restrict local authority to tax or regulate. On the other hand, municipal officials tend to be non-partisan and neutral in legislative campaigns.”
Well we have time for just one more question from the tour group? Yes, you in the back. You say you wonder why people back home don’t get mad about what goes on up here. Mostly I would say it’s the distance. St. Louis media outlets find it easier to cover controversial school board meetings when a principal gets fired than to have to drive to Jefferson City and spend days here doing real investigative reporting. For the most part legislators know that what goes on in Jefferson City…stays in Jefferson City.
