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Missouri Senate Passes Tornado Relief, Stadium and Infrastructure Bills
Following a call by Governor Mike Kehoe to return to Jefferson City for a special session, the Missouri Senate this week passed a tornado relief package in the amount of $100 million for emergency aid to tornado victims, along with a $135 million tax credit package to reimburse homeowners for insurance deductibles up to $5,000 per taxpayer, redeemable over 30 years. The Senate also passed the “Show Me Sports Investment Act”, providing the Chiefs and Royals with state bond-financed funding to help rebuild/refurbish their stadiums in Missouri. The package is expected to cost taxpayers as much as $1.5 billion over thirty years. The annual outlay by the state would not exceed the amount of tax revenue generated by the teams in any one year, and would be subject to appropriation by the legislature. This offer is an effort to help keep the teams from moving to Kansas, which has offered similar financial incentives to lure the teams across the border. The Senate also appropriated money for numerous capital investment projects across the state after failing to pass the package during the regular session. The Missouri House will take up the bills next week.
U.S. Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Catholic Charities of Wisconsin
In a 9-0 opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court this week reversed a decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court which had ruled that the charitable work of Wisconsin Catholic Charities was not religious enough to qualify the charity for an exemption from paying into the state unemployment fund. In an opinion authored by Justice Sonya Sotomayor, the Supreme Court ruled that the Wisconsin high court erred in ruling that CC Wisconsin’s charitable work was “secular in nature, not religious.” Because Catholic Church teaching forbids proselytizing and serving only Catholics, denying a religious exemption on the basis that the charity doesn’t seek to make disciples in its work was akin to discriminating against the Catholic group based upon religious belief, in violation of the 1st Amendment, the opinion of the majority declares.
U.S. Senate Continues work on Budget Reconciliation Bill
The U.S. Senate is currently working on the budget reconciliation bill passed by the U.S. House several weeks ago. Senators are publicly raising concerns about the cost of the package and are now debating additional cuts to include in the bill to offset the extension of the tax cuts passed in 2017 during President Trump’s first term. The current version of the bill would add work requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients, which is expected to result in over 100,000 Missourians losing their health coverage due to the reporting requirements, along with increasing the amount of money Missouri must contribute to cover the cost of SNAP, the food-assistance program that benefits low-income families and children.
To contact your Missouri Senators to ask them not to make cuts to these important programs, please click the button below.
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