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Column: Missourians deserve better

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Rep. Caleb Rowden

by Rep. Caleb Rowden

While not always being willing to admit it in every day conversation, I am a politician. I serve in government, working for the people of 44th District. For some, that may be a cool thing. For others, that makes me part of the problem. Ultimately, citizens expect their representatives to represent them. They want the government to work by working together. Unfortunately, Missouri’s Chief Executive either doesn’t know of this reality or, even worse, doesn’t care.

This past week, Governor Nixon announced withholds and vetoes in the budget totaling close to $1 billion. He claims that a “spending spree of special interest tax exemptions given out on the last day of session completely wrecked our state budget.” Unfortunately for Missourians, Governor Nixon is lying to them about the actual impact and context of these bills.

Take for instance a portion of SB612 that the Governor vetoed. One particular piece clarified some sales tax uncertainty caused by the Governor’s own Department of Revenue which introduced rules that impacted small business all over the state without bothering to tell the aforementioned small businesses of these rule changes. The legislature passed a law that simply stated DOR needed to inform these businesses if they were going to implement a rule that impacted them. By all accounts of any person not grossly motivated by political rhetoric, this is a simple administrative change to provide much needed clarity to Missouri small businesses. In the fiscal note given to the Missouri legislature with input from Nixon’s own Dep’t of Revenue, the fiscal impact would be negligible; basically the cost of postage to send these notifications out. When the Governor emerged from his 2nd floor fortress weeks after he should have, he claimed this portion of SB612 could potentially cost more than $100 million/year. That’s a lot of postage folks. Best case scenario, the Governor and his staff are a little confused as to the nature of this legislation. The worst case scenario is something far worse.

There are various other examples of untruths being told to good folks in local governments all across the state, many of whom have yet to realize they are nothing more than a political pawn in Jay Nixon’s eyes. And yet the most unnecessary and blatantly political of all of the Governor’s recent missteps is the financial abuse and abandonment of Missouri’s students and educators. Jay Nixon erased all of the progress the legislature made in this year’s budget to fully fund our K-12 formula for one simple reason…he wants to grasp at relevance in his last two years in office, without ever really being involved in the process, in some meager attempt to hopefully get Hillary Clinton’s attention when 2016 rolls around. Unfortunately for all of us, he’s selling the fine citizens of his home state out in the process.

Think about this for a moment. In response to last year’s sharing of Missouri’s CCW list with the Feds, Senator Kurt Schaefer gave a division of the Dep’t of Revenue two-thirds of its total budget. He planned to release the remainder of the funds after it was clear DOR was no longer trampling on the privacy rights of Missourians. Fast forward a few months; the Governor proposes his FY15 budget without even asking to restore the funds taken from DOR. Let me reiterate this point. A large division of one of Governor Nixon’s departments gets one-third of its budget cut, doesn’t even bother to ask for the money back in the next year, and the Governor feels it most appropriate to pillage education coffers to prove a political point. Best case scenario, the Governor doesn’t have a good grasp on the realities of his own budget. The worst case scenario is something far worse.

I believe Governor Nixon to be a good man who cares deeply for this state, and I appreciate his many years of public service. But his current mode of politically motivated decision making and a complete unwillingness to step foot outside his office until legislators are all back home is, frankly, disturbing and incredibly harmful to our current process in Jefferson City. This is not leadership, and people on both sides of the political spectrum should be outraged.

If Governor Nixon actually believes there are issues that need to be fixed from the last day of session, then meet with the leadership from the House and Senate, introduce a plan to rectify the situation and call a special session. That would be leadership and something I could get behind. But if there’s one thing this Governor hasn’t had during his time in office, it’s a plan. I am hoping for that to change in his final two years in office, but given his current actions, I am not overly optimistic. Best case scenario, the Governor remembers why the people elected him in the first place and he finally starts to lead. The worst case scenario…I think we’re living that out presently.