SierraScape Spring 2020
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BY MICHAEL BERG
Sierra Club
Organizer
Due to the global COVID-19 crisis the legislature left early for spring break. As their last act, the House passed an emergency budget to fund governance during time of pandemic (House Bill 2014). Astoundingly, the Republican leadership of the Missouri House rejected every Democratic amendment to the bill to utilize reserves of federal funds to provide emergency medical equipment and citizen relief. In the largest proposal (House Amendment 8), Representative Jon Carpenter (D - Kansas City) pleaded to House members to utilize $87 million as he read a desperate plea from former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, presently trapped in Italy, to mobilize a World War II style response to the present crisis. Carpenter and Gingrich's pleas fell on deaf ears, as the House rejected the amendment, with all but two Republicans voting no and all Democrats voting yes. The following is a brief summary of issues we were dealing with and continue to monitor.
Floodplain Management: Due to climate change and constricted
rivers, flooding is a bigger and bigger problem every year in
our state. It does not make sense to make this problem worse
– we should not give tax incentives for developments in
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
designated floodplains.
We support
Senate Bill 570
and
House Bill 1612,
which would stop these incentives.
Protecting Our Parks: In the last several years there have
been several legislative attempts to sell
state parks.
We successfully stopped them all. This year no bill has been filed, but
an amendment was added to a bill on the House floor to sell the beautiful
Eleven Point State Park.
This amendment failed. We will continue
to be vigilant.
Grain Belt Express: Missouri has the opportunity to bring
clean, inexpensive wind energy from Kansas into Missouri as well
as states farther east, through a proposed transmission line
called the Grain Belt Express. Even though the line was approved
by the Public Service Commission after a five - year process,
certain legislators are trying to deny the line's right to use
eminent domain, the way other utilities do when they provide
electricity to the public. We oppose
Senate Bills 597 & 604
and
House Bill 2033.