Democrats call on Parson to include school safety, Medicaid in special session
Some Missouri democrats responded to Gov. Mike Parson’s special session announcement by saying it ignores more pressing issues.
Parson’s office announced Wednesday that the general assembly will convene for an extraordinary session in September to amend a state statute on motor vehicle sales tax allowances. The special session will be held concurrently with the annual veto session.
On Tuesday, State Auditor Nicole Galloway called on Parson to hold a special session in order to improve school safety.
Last month the governor’s School Safety Task Force finished its report with recommendations on how to improve security and safety for Missouri students and educators. In a letter to Parson, Galloway requested that he call a special session to implement those recommendations.
In particular, Galloway said lawmakers should put state funds towards staffing every Missouri school with a trained School Resource Officer (SRO).
“Teachers should educate our students, law enforcement should protect our children, and lawmakers should act instead of sitting idly by while our kids are put in danger,” Galloway wrote to Parson.
Kelli Jones, a spokeswoman for Gov. Parson’s office, said the vehicle tax allowance is currently the only item on the agenda for the special session, which starts September 9, and that the office had no comment on Gallway’s letter.
“We have yet to see Auditor Galloway’s formal request,” Jones told ABC 17 News in an email Wednesday.
Galloway is running in 2020 as a democrat for the Missouri Governor’s seat.
Rep. Sara Walsh (R, Ashland), applauded Parson’s move. “Saving taxpayer dollars is always something that’s popular,” she said.
The school safety issue concerns a lot of different groups, Walsh said. She added that more hearings and discussion can be held during the regular session.
“I believe that’s an issue better suited for regular session,” Walsh said.
Columbia democratic state Rep. Kip Kendrick said he’s behind Galloway, and that school safety is a more pressing issue than the motor vehicle tax allowances.
“There’s no reason why we can’t take (the School Safety Task Force’s recommendations) now at the beginning of the school year, get them implemented quickly and ensure safety of children across the state,” Kendrick said.
Republican state representatives Travis Fitzwater of Holts Summit and Nick Schroer of O’Fallon both praised Parson’s announcement with posts on Twitter.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/travisfitzwater/status/1164251474211115009″,”author_name”:” “,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/travisfitzwater”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Agree w/my &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/moleg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#moleg&#lt;/a&#gt; friend here. A special session on this issue shouldn’t take any time, & it will save taxpayers across Missouri money by fixing our high court’s statute interpretation. We had a similarly short special last year that took very little time but was right for MO. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/tvpV6Shj6j”&#gt;https://t.co/tvpV6Shj6j&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– (@travisfitzwater) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/travisfitzwater/status/1164251474211115009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;August 21, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
State Rep. and Minority Floor Leader Crystal Quade (D, Springfield) promptly responded to the announcement by calling the session, “unnecessary.”
“There are several issues that demand immediate legislative attention and would justify the cost of a special session. Creating another unnecessary tax break for a handful of people isn’t one of them,” Quade said in a statement.
Claire McCaskill, a democrat and f​​​​​​ormer U.S. Senator, criticized Parson’s focus for the session in a tweet. McCaskill said the sudden enrollment drop in the state’s Medicaid program is a more pressing issue.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/clairecmc/status/1164272646219030528″,”author_name”:”Claire McCaskill”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/clairecmc”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Is this a joke? 100,000 children have been thrown off their health care coverage in Missouri and this is the Governor’s priority? A special session just for this? &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/SLNu7xuYvG”&#gt;https://t.co/SLNu7xuYvG&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/clairecmc/status/1164272646219030528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;August 21, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
The special session is set to run concurrently with the constitutionally-mandated veto session, which allows lawmakers to challenge the vetoes Parson made after the most recent session. It is scheduled to run from September 9 to 13.
