The future of Missouri lies with its 900,000+ children under the age of 21. If you are growing up within an unaccredited (or soon to be unaccredited) district, your family is faced with very few good choices. The scope of our Missouri constitution should apply statewide, regardless of zip code assignments to a zone school.

Perhaps the lowest, most fundamental threshold for the State Board of Education to determine is accreditation. This does not measure college readiness, job readiness, applied life skills, or anyone’s overall position toward their economic future.  Accreditation attempts to measure the minimal standards by which our state “maintains free public schools.”

The cultural tragedies that emerge from the accumulated failures to meet accreditation spread a slow but ever expanding wake.Trying to improve a statewide crisis-response plan for the education funding formula without providing immediate relief to those within these storms is akin to suggesting that victims of natural disaster do not require assistance from all corners of our state.

Missouri communities are better when ideology is laid aside in favor of practical, local solutions. Innovations can and do occur faster once all options for choice and competition are immediately available to serve the defense less. Research continues to demonstrate that improvements can be made with choice schools assisting those regions that require the most help, including improvements even for those kids who cannot or will not be able to choose a choice school.

Our needy communities are just like our legislative efforts: No one should have to go it alone in times of crisis. That is why we are proud to support the outreach to all parents and children, including those operating within independent choice schools, that have the means, ability, and interest to help. Please call your state legislator, and urge them to help all children with immediate choice options, such as passport scholarships found within HB1740.

Email your legislator today:

Attention to detail often becomes more central to success when dealing with an issue or idea, rather than a tangible product or service.  Historic American Author Louis L’Amour said “There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. Yet that will be the beginning.” This can be applied to politics in the sense that many corporations, small businesses, and associations may believe the work stops within the legislature or with campaigns. While keeping a pulse on legislative action can play a major role in all market sectors, many battles can be lost in the administrative rules process as well.  There are 187 state agencies in Missouri that write rules and regulations to implement the laws in Missouri Revised Statutes (RSMo) passed by the General Assembly or through initiative petition.

Twice a month, Missouri’s Secretary of State publishes the Missouri Register. This contains proposed rulemakings by departments and agencies that are then subject to public comment and a hearing.  With 24 editions and over 1200 pages of proposed rules and regulations over the course of one year, it is easy to see why attention to detail is so important. A major component of the rulemaking process is the role of the Small Business Regulatory Fairness Board (SBRFB), which is charged with ensuring state agency rules and regulations do not create an unfair burden for small businesses.

A recent example of this can be seen in a rule published in November of 2008 by the Department of Social Services (DSS) that required all MO HealthNet providers to contract with a Patient Safety Organization (PSO) at the request of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).  On January 3, 2012, the Department of Social Services proposed to rescind this rule after the Missouri Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (MASCA) filed suit for not properly engaging the SBRFB to analyze the impact this would have on small businesses.  Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) add considerable value to Missouri’s economy, with a 2009 statewide economic impact of $841.5 million, including more than $42 million in tax payments and employment of 1,800 full time workers. Additionally, for every dollar spent in the ASC sector of the state economy, $2.35 worth of economic value is created in the state.¹

Patient safety and convenience is the centerpiece of the ASC business model, as surgery centers strive to provide high quality medical care at lower costs with lower infection rates.  A recent national study found that seven-day mortality rates were 25 per 100,000 outpatient procedures at ASCs, compared to 50 per 100,000 in hospital outpatient departments. ¹ Therefore, a regulatory mandate by the Department of Social Services for ASCs to contract with PSO’s could be a cost burden with little to no added value to the quality of care. Most importantly, the Department of Social Services skipped a vital step when they bypassed the SBRFB and neglected the impact this mandate might have on ASCs in Missouri.

This recent victory by the Missouri Ambulatory Surgery Center Association gives new meaning to free enterprise and quality health care in our state.  With a strong lobbying voice and regulatory oversight, all corporations, small businesses, and associations can prevent state and federal government from implementing costly requirements that could be passed on to consumers.  It is MASCA’s mission to continue advocating for free enterprise and competition in the legislative and regulatory environment that will lead to lower costs and high quality care for Missouri patients.

Link to January 3, 2012 edition of Missouri Register:

http://www.sos.mo.gov/adrules/moreg/current/v37n1/v37n1.asp

Source: [1] Oxford Outcomes (2010). ASC Impact Analysis.

Any voter or concerned citizen that wonders how state income taxes impacts their local business climate needs not look any farther than this legislative year in Illinois state politics.  High income taxes have exported more working taxpayer wealth than our entire Missouri State Budget ($23 billion) from 1995 to 2008.  That didn’t stop state politicians from raising it further, prompting concerns and/or likely moves from Caterpillar, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, and Sears.

I traveled with Philanthropist Rex Sinquefield, a University of Chicago MBA Alumni, when he spoke on WGN’s Mike McConnell show last week.  As a retired entrepreneur whose investment business moved out of California, Rex Sinquefield understands how state tax policy directly impacts how businesses move and create jobs.  While Missouri is fortunate not to have politicians advocating for tax hikes today, Missouri is not well-poised to recover from this recession thanks to chronically-slow growth.  In fact, the Show Me State is one of only two states in the nation to never have a single decade of double digit growth in the last century.

MP3 of Rex Sinquefield on WGN’s Mike McConnell radio show.

There’s only one big reason to offer a constitutional amendment to permanently-end the tax on individual income:  to make Missouri competitive within our global job economy.  With the right tax policy, Missouri can apply its well-centered American position by giving you more of what everyone needs most – more in your wallet with every paycheck.  I hope that you will learn more from www.letvotersdecide.com or by following us by texting “MOREJOBS” at 41411.

Below is a press release from Let Voters Decide, our campaign to create real job growth for Missouri.  The process towards the Missouri ballot is long and hard, but there’s never been a more important time for voters to consider a better way for economic growth.   Since the Show-Me State is currently 48^th in the nation, the plan that we are on simply isn’t working.  When our state isn’t growing, it hurts everything that our state wants and needs to serve.

Contact:
Travis H. Brown, President, Let Voters Decide
(314) 540-5515

LET VOTERS DECIDE GATHERING SIGNATURES, GAINING MOMENTUM

October 5, 2011 (Jefferson City, Mo.) – The Let Voters Decide coalition recently announced significant momentum surrounding the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act. The Secretary of State approved the measure, a critical step in its journey toward the November 2012 ballot. The Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act will soon be circulated for voter signatures.

“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to circulate this petition,” said Travis H. Brown, president of Let Voters Decide. “The Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act finally gives working Missourians a say about our state’s unfair double taxation. By collecting 120,000 signatures, we can show that voters statewide care about a new way forward for Missouri’s economy.”

The goal of the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act is to phase out the individual income tax and replace it with a broad-based, consumer-driven sales tax. This means that Missourians would be taxed on those items that they choose to buy, not on the fruits of their labor.

“When you consider Missouri’s educated workforce and our ability to innovate, you would think our state would be thriving,” Brown said. “Yet the reality is that we have the third-worst GDP growth in the entire nation. This measure would make Missouri a better place for businesses and working families, which is why we believe people will be eager to sign our petition.”

Under the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act, the state sales tax would increase by less than 3 percentage points. The expanded sales-tax base would provide our state with greater economic stability, making Missouri more likely to retain and attract businesses. Importantly, the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act protects low-income families by exempting necessities (such as health care, child care and rent) from a sales tax.

“This is a common-sense approach that will provide all working Missourians with an immediate 6 percent pay raise,” added Brown. “We have a jobs plan worth doing, and through the initiative process, Missouri voters can move it forward. If passed, this measure will drive economic development and bring real, lasting growth to Missouri.”

For more information about the Let Voters Decide coalition and the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act, visit www.LetVotersDecide.com.

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Among the eleven items specific to Governor Nixon’s legislative call was this one:

“To enact legislation authorizing an orderly transition in the governance of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department from a board of police commissioners to the City of St. Louis through a process that provides for equitable employment treatment for commissioned and civilian personnel.”

This past regular legislative session, an unprecedented coalition of grassroots constituencies emerged thanks in part to A Safer Missouri giving all citizens a strong voice. Such groups rallied to work out what became “an equitable treatment for commissioned and civilian personnel” impacted by restoring local control to the voters of St. Louis City. During the final days of session, consensus became clear that both the leadership and the rank-and-file within our public safety programs were eager to put Civil War history behind us.

Unique to Governor Nixon’s call is that while the Revised Statutes of Missouri within Chapter 84 deal with both Kansas City and St. Louis City, his request deals only with the chapters relevant to St. Louis City. This means local government interests in Kansas City that may have a different time table would be allowed to advance on their own terms if only the St. Louis legislation were enacted.

If you’re like the Kansas City Star, rooting for local police control within the City of Fountains, then perhaps special session is not for you. However, if you’re Kansas City Mayor Sly James, you should be booking your Jefferson City hotel stays after Labor Day.

Here’s why:

If the Missouri General Assembly fails to restore local control despite repeat consensus among all interested parties this year, it is likely that one of four initiative petitions will advance to the statewide ballot. Those petitions would restore local control not only for St. Louis City, but for Kansas City as well. Moreover, the language found within these petitions filed prior to the General Assembly compromise would not apply as it would have under a state legislative remedy.

The language, if advanced to the people’s ballot, is quite short and direct:

“Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:

Require that all municipal police forces or departments be controlled by the municipal governing body where the police force or department is located; and
Require the governing body of any city whose municipal police force or department was under state control, currently St. Louis and Kansas City, to maintain the terms of any existing pension plan for current or retired officers or employees of such police force or department who were hired prior to November 6, 2012?

Local governmental entities estimated savings from this proposal of at least $7.8 million, but the total potential savings is unknown. It is estimated the proposal would have no cost or savings to state governmental entities.”

Special session has to be special for Mayor Sly James of Kansas City – that is, if his office desires some freedom to operate within its windows of time with City Council. If Mayor James doesn’t advocate for this practical short-run solution for St. Louis in Jefferson City, he will be inviting many others to intervene in his Kansas City budget and safety priorities for the rest of his term.

Here’s hoping that our Kansas City leadership comes back to the State Capitol, and brings with them some Gates barbecue – so that the only “burnt ends” there aren’t political.

Travis H. Brown is a registered Missouri State Lobbyist for “A Safer Missouri” and “Rex & Jeanne Sinquefield.”

In what might initially sound like a leisure water sport, dragon boat racing will undoubtedly leave paddlers breathless and drained of energy after three intense races across Creve Coeur Lake.  In what is symbolic of most team activities, whether it’s in the athletic arena or corporate and government workforce, synchronized team effort and coordinated action define success at the finish line.  Despite the physical exertion, the competitive nature and philanthropic spirit of the event sends teams rushing back each year to take part in the festival and benefit the Signature Health Foundation.  Aside from the races, the festival included live music, barbeque, and fun activities for the 25 teams, friends, and families.

All proceeds of this event benefit Operation Family Help, a new Signature Healthcare Foundation initiative to assist families of patients with financial challenges by providing services such as therapy, equipment or transportation.  Signature Healthcare Foundation was founded in 2002 with a vision to “be a recognized leader in the local and national health care dialogue and spearhead physician leadership in improvements and efficiencies in the healthcare delivery system.” Signature Medical Group, its founding organization, has been a longtime lobbying client of Pelopidas in the Missouri Legislature and our organizations have actively worked together outside of government affairs over the years to benefit a variety of philanthropic causes in the St. Louis community.

Our Pelopidas team would like to thank John Marshall and the rest of Signature Healthcare Foundation for putting on a great event to benefit the community.  After a few weeks of rest and muscle relaxers, the Pelopidas Pow-Oar-House will begin training for next year’s competition!

While the City of Saint Louis will soon be 250 years old, the international sport of Chess dates back to at least 1500 years. That got several of our lobbyists and media experts wondering: is the professional idea of chess older than the idea of taxing one’s personal income?

The early forms of the game that became chess come from India before or around the 6th century AD. Some may claim that early civilizations that tithed by offering up their first fruits could count as a concept of taxing personal production. However, Wikipedia takes us to ancient China in the year 10 CE. Emperor Wang Mang slapped his Xin Dynasty with ten percent tax on all profits for professional and skilled labor. Without the benefit of facebook, twitter, or email, it took his citizens only 13 years to overthrow him and repeal such policies.

As chess spread into Persia, and later into Europe, so did the concept of taxing one’s income. If chess can be thought of as a professional sport that simulates the Art of War, then it’s financier with past governments in real war was often the income tax. At least that has often been the excuse, as Britain chose to do in preparation for the Napoleonic Wars in 1798.

Eighteen years later, the war income tax did get repealed, but, true to some halls of government, its memory was not forgotten. Meanwhile, by 1851, London gave the world our first modern chess tournament than was won by a German. Dueling tournaments across European countries helped shape chess as a sport for all kingdoms, cultures, and ages.

Ten years later, America imposed its first personal income tax for, well, you guessed, war again.

The Revenue Act of 1861 charged 3% off all incomes over the near equivalent of $20,000 or more in today’s terms. The fledgling State of Missouri also imposes its first temporary income tax which was quickly-repealed after the Civil War.

As civil war moved to reparation and reconstruction in America, here came the World Chess Championship of 1886 where four matches were played in Saint Louis. This international event featured the civic rise of our great city at a time without any city earnings tax, or tax on a professional athlete’s income.

With prosperity in American from the 1880’s to the 1910’s came a surge in chess as a sport again.

A curious political series of turns then concluded by 1913 with the 16th Amendment that gave Americans their first peacetime income tax. At the State level, Missouri’s income tax table was later applied from the Great Depression time when no one ever expected to have income, in 1931.

As the rules on taxing income shifted when the “wars on prohibition” demanded more government revenues, so did the popularity and focus of the game of chess within the Show Me State.

So, the origin of chess and income taxes may be hard to compare, but their justifications and use between war and peacetimes has certainly been cyclical over the generations. Saint Louis City and Missouri itself may prove pivotal to the next chapter of both subjects, as the City opens a new Hall of Fame while the State tries to end its personal income tax .

In one of our next blogs, we will compare tax tables to chess moves in the context of contemporary history to explore this subject further.