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Press
Release-June 23, 2008
GAMING COMMISSION
PUTS FREEZE ON NEW CASINOS
With
the possibility that voters this fall might impose a moratorium on new casinos,
the Missouri Gaming Commission on June 16 unanimously voted for a self-imposed
freeze on issuing new casino licenses. The move thwarts, at least for now,
proposals to build casinos in
Cape Girardeau
and Sugar Creek.
Owners of some of Missouri’s existing casinos have filed
an initiative petition to put a measure on the Nov. 4 ballot that would
eliminate the state’s one-of-a-kind casino loss limit of $500 every two hours,
slightly boost the gross receipts tax on casinos to 21 percent from 20 percent
and cap the number of casinos operating in the state at 13.
Missouri
currently has 12 casinos with one under construction. The Secretary of
State’s Office has until early August to determine if the petition has the
minimum number signatures needed to make it on the ballot.
KINDER SIGNS
BILL
CREATING ‘HOT WEATHER RULE’
Lt. Gov.
Peter
Kinder
on June 16 signed a bill into law that will prohibit electric or gas companies
from disconnecting service to delinquent customers when the temperature is
expected to rise above 95 degrees or the heat index is expected to exceed 105
degrees within 24 hours. The so-called “hot weather rule” will the
summertime counterpart to the long-standing “cold weather rule” that bars
utilities from shutting off service during the winter when temperatures drop
below 32 degrees. Kinder signed SB 720 into law as acting governor while
Gov.
Matt
Blunt
was out of state. Senate Minority Leader Maida Coleman, D-St. Louis, is the
bill’s sponsor.
An amendment added to the bill seeks to allow Aquila Inc.
to keep operating a power plant it illegally constructed in
Cass
County
. Various state courts have ruled several times that
Aquila
must dismantle the facility because it never received the required legal
authorization to build it. Local residents have been fiercely opposed to the
plant. The bill would allow the Missouri Public Service Commission to
retroactively approve the facility. It is unclear, however, if this portion of
the bill could withstand a court challenge.
BLUNT QUIETLY
SIGNS
VILLAGE
LAW REPEAL
With no public pronouncement or ceremony,
Gov.
Matt
Blunt
on June 19 quietly signed a bill repealing a controversial 2007 law that sought
to allow a landowner
to establish his or her property a village in order to avoid local land use
restrictions. The low-key signing was in sharp contract to the high-profile
fight to pass the bill that virtually shut down the General Assembly during the
final days of the 2008 legislative session.
Unbeknownst to most lawmakers, House Speaker Rod Jetton,
R-Marble Hill, slipped the village provision into an omnibus local government
bill the General Assembly approved last year. The existence of the provision
didn’t become known until several months later on the
day the bill took effect when agents of Lebanon businessman Robert Plaster, a
friend and political supporter of Jetton’s, filed paperwork to incorporate
Plaster-owned land in Stone County. Villages created under the 2007 law could
have existed on paper only with no obligation to offer standard municipal
services or meet normal minimum population requirements.
Legislative support for repealing the law was widespread,
and the Senate passed SB 765 to do so in February. Jetton stalled the bill for
months and then engaged in a series of political maneuvers to kill the measure,
which angered many of Jetton’s fellow Republicans who for a time considered
ousting him as speaker. The repeal bill ultimately cleared the General Assembly
on the session’s final day.
I
urge constituents to express their concerns and become informed of the upcoming
legislation. I may be contacted at
573-751-4065
and by email.
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