Latest entries in Politics Watch
Political updates from Columbia, Jeff City and Washington by The Maneater's political reporters.
Feb. 15, 2010
Access Missouri changes not supported by Coordinating Board of Higher Education
The Coordinating Board for Higher Education met last week and voted not support two bills in the Missouri Legislature that would require students attending private schools to only receive as much financial aid as those who attend public schools.
Under current law, students attending independent schools can get $4,600 of financial aid, while students going to public schools can get $2,150. Bills SB 784 and HB 1812 seek to equal this discrepancy. The proposed legislation would make the maximum amount $2,850 for both kinds of institutions.
The proposed changes met with mixed reactions from the board. Chairman Lowell Kruse was the sole vote for the legislation. He said conditions have changed since the award amounts were established as part of the Access Missouri program.
Board member Doris Carter said she supports the equalization, but not at the cost of passing the changes without involving all sectors.
Mary Beth Luna Wolf, a board member who helped create Access Missouri, said the legislation can only move forward with everyone on board.
“All sectors – public and private – agreed on these award amounts,” Wolf said. “If we’re going to move forward to improve higher education, we need to do so collectively.”
Board member Greg Upchurch said the public and the private sectors should get together now and make decisions about future award amounts. The Access Missouri program expires in 2013. Upchurch wants to organize something that will take over after it ends, instead of changing things now.
“I know we’re all in favor of higher education, no matter where it takes place," Krause said. "The question is how to proceed deliberately and fairly.”
Feb. 14, 2010
Clean energy day of action planned for Columbia
A clean energy day of action is in the works for Columbia. On Monday, according to an email from MU College Democrats President Amanda Shelton, volunteers at Speakers Circle will try to encourage students to call Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. to thank her for past work and ask for her support of a "strong" clean energy plan.
Throughout the day, speakers will focus on encouraging a green economy, reducing dependence on traditional energy and increasing national security using energy policy.
Feb. 12, 2010
Mayoral candidates discuss improving efficency at council meetings
During Thursday's mayoral forum, moderator Don Laird asked the mayoral candidates how they plan to make city council meetings more efficient.
“We get trapped into doing things the way they have always been done,” candidate Jerry Wade said.
Since April 2009, meetings have averaged around 3 hours, with the longest being 7 hours and 22 minutes on July 20.
Mayoral candidate Paul Love said if the council met more times a month to spread out the workload, the meetings would be more efficient. Candidate Sid Sullivan said the city council needs more control over the agenda in order to maximize the time at meetings.
Efficiency in the city council meetings rests on the mayor, candidate Bob McDavid said.
“The power of the gavel is to keep people on point,” McDavid said.
With Columbia’s population totaling more than 100,000, Sean O'Day said the workload is too much for an unpaid official.
“It’s going to be inevitable to provide the city council with some kind of stipend,” the candidate said.
The Columbia mayoral, Third and Fourth Ward city council elections will be held on April 6.
Community discusses Obama's first year in office
Wynna Elbert, Columbia resident and civic activist, participates in a discussion regarding President Barack Obama's first year in office Wednesday night at the Armory Sports and Community Center. The discussion covered topics, including job production, health care reform and the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' military policy.
Columbia citizens met at the Armory Sports and Community Center Wednesday night to discuss President Barack Obama’s first year in office. This time last year, citizens met to discuss President Obama's inauguration.
The discussion shifted at times from Obama’s first year in office to policy issues and larger social circumstances affecting the black community.
Tyree Byndom, who helped organize the event, said he didn’t mind the change in topics and the event was a conversation among friends who aren’t afraid to speak their mind.
“It was just real, a lot times you don’t see that, you have to tailor things,” he said.
One of the main points of the discussion revolved around health care reform.
Former First Ward Councilwoman Almeta Crayton said she wanted to see reform pass.
Although he doesn’t support the federal government forcing people to buy health care, MU Alumnus Addae Ahmad said he does support the idea of universal health care because it leads to a healthy country.
“If you got a healthy country and healthy people it helps the community stay vibrant,” he said. Crayton said issues with health care legislation are understandable, but the end product of reform is most important.
“I don’t give a damn what they type up in that paper,” she said. “If my 3-year-old is choking and I can’t get coverage, that’s what I care about.“
Social issues were also discussed, such as the importance of higher education.
Addae said a secondary education was necessary to compete in a job market where high-paying factory jobs aren’t as common as they once were.
“A lot of African American youth think these jobs will be there when they graduate high school and enter the work force, but that’s naïve,” he said.
The discussion ended with a few brief words about Obama’s attempt to end the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Wynna Elbert said sexual orientation was a personal issue.
“We got so many other issues we have to deal with before we get to gays in the military,” she said. “I don’t have time to deal with that.”
Byndom said this discussion needs to happen more often, but would have liked to see more people attend the event, which was much larger after Obama won last year.
Six people participated in the discussion while 18 journalists attended.
Feb. 11, 2010
Mayoral candidate Paul Love to participate in Polar Bear Plunge
Columbia mayoral candidate Paul Love is stepping away from his campaign and jumping into the icy waters of Stephens Lake on Feb. 13. In an effort to raise money for the Special Olympics Missouri, Love will participate in the organization’s Polar Bear Plunge.
“A friend of mine recently had a special needs child, that brought the issue floating to the top of my mind,” Love said in an email. “Then a few weeks ago, I was talking with some friends and one mentioned she was going to do the plunge.”
Love said he was a first time fundraiser for the Special Olympics, but had donated in the past. He said he has raised $125 already and will hopefully raise more by the time of the plunge.
“The Polar Bear Plunge always sounded interesting to me, sort of like sky diving,” Love said.
All proceeds raised at the Plunge will be donated to the year-round Special Olympic athletic training and competition in Missouri.
Feb. 10, 2010
Veterans honor Chris Kelly
The Missouri Association of Veteran Organizations awarded House Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, for his "outstanding" service to veterans, stated a news release from Kelly's office.
Each year, one senator and representative in the state are picked to receive recognition as people who are most supportive of veteran's legislative priorities.
“I am pleased to receive this award on behalf of the nearly 600,000 veterans in Missouri,” Kelly said in the news release. “I hope that we are able to sustain funding for and meet MAVO’s legislative priorities to the extent possible in this difficult budgetary year.”
MAVO is a coalition of 22 statewide groups and represents more than 140,000 members and almost 590,000 veterans throughout the state.
Feb. 9, 2010
MSA approves resolution in favor of shuttle to Jefferson City.
The Missouri Department of Transportation has recently received $31 million in grants to create a second rail bridge over the Osage River, create a crossover in Kirkwood and improve a series of crossing projects by putting more gates and lights where the motor roads cross the rail lines.
The investments are predicted to create more passenger friendly railroad services and increase its use.
Missouri Students Association passed a resolution in favor of creating a student friendly transit system from Columbia to Jefferson City in order to make the high-speed rails available to students.
MODOT Railroad Administrator Rod Massman, said they had shown interest in tapping into Columbia’s student base market but funding limits their options.
“Amtrak runs on existing tracks, and there have been no passenger rails running through Columbia in a long time,” Massman said. “There is no money in the budget to create them.”
Some private businesses view the project as unprofitable and are unwilling to undertake it .
“We hardly get any demand for Amtrak,” MO-X owner Norm Ruebling said. “Plus we would have to get licensing to provide that sort of transport.”
Ruebling said any student who wants to use Amtrak can be driven to either the Kansas City airport or St. Louis airport and then take the MetroLink from there.
Feb. 8, 2010
Missouri's Republican voters ambivilent about Fair Tax, study finds
Republican voters aren’t throwing their weight behind a proposal to eliminate personal and corporate income taxes in Missouri — but they aren’t united against it either.
More than half of Republican voters had no opinion on the Fair Tax, according to a survey conducted by Missouri State University researchers in late January.
“The surprising finding regards the majority of state Republicans lacking an opinion on the proposal,” MSU political science professor Brian Calfano said in a statement. “Hence, there may be greater potential for the plan’s proponents and opponents to sway state Republicans on the 'Fair Tax' than conventional wisdom would assume.”
The Fair Tax would eliminate state income taxes on individuals and corporations, but would expand the state sales tax to apply to nearly all goods and services sold in the state.
Democrats were split evenly between supporting it, opposing it and having no opinion. The telephone survey interviewed 880 residents statewide.
The researchers said the survey did not ask about the actual constitutional amendment that has been proposed to enact the Fair Tax, but did ask whether respondents favored replacing the income taxes with sales tax.
HJR 71, the bill to amend the state’s constitution to enact the Fair Tax, was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
A similar bill, HJR 36, went to the Senate but never came up for a vote last year. Testimony from the bill's hearing in the Senate Ways and Means committee can be found on the Youtube channel for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Feb. 6, 2010
Building Operators Certification program teaches energy efficency
In an effort to save money through energy efficiency, the Building Operators Certification program taught participants of the program how to cut the costs of their building’s lighting during a workshop on Friday.
The BOC program provides monthly classes from November to May. Other topics covered in the program are indoor air quality, preventative maintenance and operational practices for sustainable buildings.
Connie Kacprowicz is a utility services specialist at Columbia Water & Light, a supporter of the BOC program. She said college students could save money by watching their energy consumption as well.
“It can make a big difference,” Kacprowicz said. “Especially if you’re renting an older house that isn’t energy efficient.”
When a customer saves money, Kacprowicz said Columbia Water & Light also saves money.
“Any kilowatt that we don’t have to produce is saving money and the environment,” Kacprowicz said.
Feb. 5, 2010
Mayoral forum to be held on Feb. 11
Another forum for Columbia's mayoral candidates will be held on Feb. 11 from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, Executive Vice President Kristi Ray said.
All of Columbia's candidates have been invited, but Ray said they won't be able to confirm who is attending until next week.
Ray said the chamber hosts many forums for various city elections and holds one for mayor every year.
"We host forums every chance we get to keep our members informed," she said.
This forum comes after a few have already taken place. One of these was Wednesday night at Paquin Tower.
