Some things in government are very very hard. Like how to get the State of Missouri growing again after a generation of stagnation.

Others ain’t. Like keeping the door to the Capitol open when the Missouri Senate is in session.

Early Thursday morning the House passed an HJR to place on the ballot a constitutional provision to eliminate the income tax, and later Thursday morning sent the bill to the Senate. Perhaps one of the biggest votes taken in the last 10-20 years in the Missouri Senate.

By now you may have heard that even later Thursday morning the Senate asked the House to give the HJR back.

Well, I think I can tell you why.

The Senate was doing several smaller pieces of legislation throughout the day as they negotiated the HJR. I was not there as you also may have heard I’ve been a little busy this year with some new endeavors.

The Senate went into recess around 10:30 pm. Around 11:30 p.m., I was told they were coming back to present the HJR so I headed over. I would like to tell you I was still working in the office, or out volunteering for starving children, but I was at Bones. By the way Eric Woods does a mean job on a karaoke mic.

So I made the 5 minute walk to the Capitol, and as I approached the east gate the door was locked and no one was there to let me in. There was a piece of paper taped to the window that stated “IF YOU NEED ASSISTANCE PLEASE SEE THE OFFICER IN THE CAPITOL EAST GATE”. This is what I would normally call the guard shack.

I walked over and the capitol policeman came out. I told him I was there to watch the senate and he told me that “he was not allowed to open the door after hours”.

Now I want to be clear this officer was completely professional and courteous. I was actually afraid I was coming off rude, but really I was more flabbergasted than anything else.

I asked how it could possibly be “after hours” at the Missouri State Capitol when the Missouri Senate was still in session, and he really didn’t know, but reiterated that he was’t allowed to open the door.

I asked him who told him that he was not allowed to open the door, and he very politely explained that it was the policy and that policy was given to him by his supervisor. I didn’t really want to hassle the guy as it was midnight and raining and I could tell this wasn’t his idea.

Luckily, Wiley Price came by and let me in.

Speaking of ridiculousness coming from the Capitol, you will read Wiley’s name in the news this week. The takeaway from that story will be don’t hire Uber drivers to do serious jobs, hire Uber drivers to take you home from the bar or pick you up from the airport, not to be Speaker of the House.

Hopefully Attorney General Catherine Hanaway will be the adult in the room and not appeal the legislature’s humiliating loss at the hands of one of the state’s most conservative judges, just pay Wiley what he is owed, and put the entire matter behind everyone.

But back to the story you came here for.

After Wiley let me in I informed a couple folks on the senate staff of the problem that the public was locked out while they were in session taking one of the biggest votes of any of their careers and no one seemed to mind. So I texted a few senators and they seemed a little frustrated, but no one really gave a damn.

So at this point I took it as a personal challenge, picked up my twitter account, and what do you know, suddenly folks started to care.

There are several things super messed up about this.

The fact that I own some newspapers really has nothing to do with anything. Any Missourian should be able to come sit and watch their senate whether they are in the press or not.

First of all, I realize that few real Missourians come to the Capitol, and as Senator Nicola pointed out holding the biggest vote of session after midnight doesn’t make it easy for real people to observe their senators make their laws, but hell even if they did want to come the door was locked anyhow.

Besides, typically when the biggest votes of the senate are taken late at night when none of the press is actually there besides of course The Missouri Times. I often take a smart ass picture of the press gallery empty for Twitter, but on this night there was an NPR reporter there as well.

The next morning I spoke to a gentleman with DPS who told me that I arrived at a shift change so no one was available. He also told me they were down 7 officers and were having trouble finding people to take the positions.

Now, in 2026 security at any place like the Capitol is a very serious job. Like most folks I get a little frustrated at the metal detectors, but in reality in an age where mass shootings are almost normal in America I get it and they have done a great job speeding the line up so they are no longer wanding 4th graders.

However, if the legislature wants this heightened security plan then they should fund it. I bet if they raised the salaries of the capitol police they could fill those jobs, but again its like a lot of Republican plans they want lots of gubment, but don’t want to fund lots of gubment so their plans end up in failure.

Which brings up probably the most screwed up part of the Capitol security plan. Republicans have passed laws so you can take a machine gun pretty well anywhere.

Anywhere except the Capitol where they work.

To bring a gun inside the Missouri Capitol, you need a gubment issued permit. Now how ridiculous is that? Gun laws for thee but not for me.

I’ve always felt the politicians should live under the exact same laws as everyone else. To be fair the people of this state elect aggressively pro-gun legislators every two years so it’s hard to fault them for passing aggressively pro-gun laws.

But its rank hypocrisy for those not to apply to their workplace. In West Butler County we would call it bullshit.

Now, I don’t think there was any conspiracy to any of this. There is nothing wrong or even controversial with republicans enacting a plan that Governor Kehoe campaigned all across the state on and won a landslide victory giving him and his party a mandate to pursue.

I honestly don’t think any elected official even knew their capitol was locked. However, thats not an excuse. It is on them to know the policies that led to the Capitol being locked while the Senate was in session and to provide adequate funding for whatever policy is in place.

Im certainly not a law enforcement expert, except for being arrested by them, but here is a suggestion from a simple hillbilly:

If you don’t want to pay the capitol police enough to be fully staffed then leave the damn door unlocked.

Problem solved.

Your welcome.