Missouri
Legislature Is Best
Government Money Can Buy
Part I: How Many Backdoors Does The State Capitol Need?
He spoke in hushed tones so no one around him could hear. To protect his identity, let’s just call him John. John works in Jefferson City and has observed Missouri politics for many years. “Everything is for sale now. If you have the money any rule, regulation or law can be changed just like that,” and he snapped his fingers for emphasis.
I promised to keep John’s job title and political affiliation secret to make it harder for those who might expose his identity. Those who know me, are aware I routinely stay in contact with a wide range of elected and appointed officials in the State Capitol of both political parties. The source of the quote above is in a position to know what’s going on and I believe him.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think our State Officials are personally pocketing huge sums of cash. There are still men and women of conscience in both political parties to be found. But there are many others, too many, who are abusing their power and selling out our interests.
Let us suppose there was a certain State Senator who wanted to take money from a variety of special interest groups and not have to worry about those pesky “limits” on how much those interests can donate to his political campaign. “Oooh, call on me, I know, I know!” I have to learn to control my enthusiasm for investigative journalism.
What this State Senator does is tell them to donate to his “leadership” fund. These are the special committees that State Representatives and Senators set up to fund their campaigns for positions of leadership within their respective bodies. These are not formal campaign committees so the campaign laws of the State don’t apply.
They use these funds to give donations to other State Representatives and State Senators, or to the House or Senate Republican and Democratic Campaign Committees, to gain the allegiance of other members. They can also justify entertainment expenses and flying around the State for events.
It use to be that only a few of these committees existed. Then someone figured out it is a great way to take huge sums of money from special interest groups and individuals who had already given the maximum allowed by State Law or didn’t want their names to show up on public campaign spending reports.
Yes that violates the spirit of the law, but it is the “backdoor” by which those with money buy influence in Jefferson City. Unlike the house you or I live in, there are many “backdoors” in Missouri’s State Capitol. The problem for average taxpayers is they’re all marked “Private: Millionaires Only”.
The State Senator who is the subject of the first part of this column has such a fund. I’m told he has amassed over $100,000 in his leadership fund, though I wouldn’t say he is a likely candidate among his peers to be elected to it. You can’t go on-line and look up who donated to him like you can his campaign spending reports. Try calling the Campaign Finance people and they refer you to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State’s Office refers you to the House Clerk. The House Clerk is out.
These funds are self-regulated and kept out of the public eye. But you can tell a lot about who donates to them by the peculiar actions and great lengths some of our friends in the Missouri General Assembly will go to protect and advance the cause of certain special interests.
Recently a telecommunications bill was passed by the House and Senate that dismisses those “pesky” law suits municipalities had filed to try to get back taxes owed to those local communities from the telecommunications giants. It also forgave these multi-billion dollar industries for any back taxes they may have owed. They can’t seem to lower property taxes for most Seniors. They can’t fund medicaid for the working poor. They can’t fully fund the School foundation formula for our kids. But they can forgive millions of back taxes owed to cities by giant telecommunications giants.
One local State Representative was recently featured in a glossy two page full-color spread in a county magazine. It is the kind of publicity most politicians only dream of. It was a total fluff piece that read like the kind of newsletters people send to their relatives at Christmas to tell them everything the family has been up to for the last year. It is probably framed by now and hanging on the wall of the State Representative in question.
What the casual reader may not have noticed was a full-page ad that appeared earlier in the magazine. It was from Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC) one of the biggest backers of the special interest legislation to benefit the telecommunications companies in Missouri.
The ad congratulated this State Representative and probably cost a couple of thousand dollars. If SBC wanted to give a campaign donation to the State Representative in question, State Law would have limited them to donating just $300 per election. In this one ad, SBC was able to exceed the limit by several times.
Further, there is the value of the two-page feature the State Representative received from this magazine. It is hard to imagine that SBC placed this ad on their own, without knowing the State Representative would be featured. If they were told by the State Representative or encouraged to do so by the magazine, then their ability to pay for the ad may have “leveraged” the good coverage and have been worth even more.
In Part II of this expanded column we will look at two specific special interest laws our legislators passed as I take you through more of the backdoors of Missouri’s State Capitol. Be sure to bring your signed permission slips and try to dress like millionaires.
