24thState

The Right to Work: Hope in Missouri

Yesterday, Gubernatorial candidate Bill Randles put out a bold statement on theneed for a right to work law in Missouri.  It seems his opponent in the GOP primary, Dave Spence, is also a supporter of all Missourians having the right to work without being forced into a union.  Good for Spence!

From the AP, delivered by NBC Action News:

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - St. Louis businessman Dave Spence says he is entering the Republican race for Missouri governor. (sic)

Spence is the president and CEO of Alpha Packaging, which makes plastic bottles, and also chairman of Legacy Packaging.

He says job creation will be the number one theme of his campaign. Spence says he wants to reduce government interference in businesses and make Missouri a "right-to-work" state in which union fees cannot be a condition of employment.

Read more: http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/news/political/st-louis-businessman-dave-spence-to-run-for-missouri-governor#ixzz1lNEPkqM

Sadly, these positons stand in stark contrast to the deafening silence and outright hostility and toal inaction on the right to work issue that we have come to expect from too many current Republican office holders.

The China Hub is back

Repackaged as the “Freight Forwarders Incentive Act,” HB 1476 is the reincarnation of the failed China Hub bill that cost the 24th State hundreds of thousands of dollars in a protracted and futile special session last year.

This year's “Freight Forwarders Incentive Act” is the portion of the Aerotropolis Bill SB 8 that gave $60M in tax credits to exporters who send goods out through Lambert Airport to an international destination, presumably to China. HB 1476 - heard in the Economic Development Committee today - gives the same $60M to State approved Freight Forwarders.

The questions about the China Hub bill still remain unanswered with the Freight Forwarders Incentive Act.

• Why is the rest of the state excluded from these incentives by the requirement that only freight leaving Lambert Airport is eligible for the Tax Credits?
• Why are only international freight forwarders favored by the state with these Tax Credits?  Why not include domestic freight forwarders?
•  Why are these Tax Credits transferable – allowing, in effect, cash payments to businesses that receive them and allowing businesses that do not engage in international exports to lower their tax rates?
• What is the increased tax burden to the rest of the businesses in the state?  Those that don’t receive this special break, but have to make up the difference of lost state revenue?
• Most perplexing of all, why does the Republican majority that claims to support capitalism continue to promote the same mercantilist (crony-capitalist) polices that King George used to oppress our founding fathers?

It will be interesting to see if the new label will make this bill any more palatable to the tax payers of our state who aren’t on the receiving end of this governmental largess. 

 

Missouri's Establishment Speaker Steve Tilley

For those not familiar with the local control issue, a bill originated from the state House to eliminate the citizen-board that oversees the St. Louis City Police Department, in exchange for exclusive mayoral control.  This was sold by various organizations and legislators as a solid tea party issue.  Myself and others argued there was no solid tea party principle behind the bill, and that in fact, the measure was anti-tea party because it flies in the face of responsible government.  Well, it passed the House last week, and will now make its way through the state Senate, where the seasoned veterans of the Missouri Assembly should give it a more thorough examination.

Local control is not the focus of this post, though.  The focus is on Speaker Tilley's commitment to the grassroots movement embodied by the tea party, groups like As A Mom, and the many patriots that supported Prop C and fought Prop B.  Missouri Republicans have a veto-proof majority in the Senate and a near veto-proof majority in the House.  And the grassroots activism of the tea party movement drove those new Republicans into office.  Speaker Tilley does not seem to understand what that means.

Speaker Tilley's statements on Right to Work:

H/T MONewsHorizon

"You know, I've said it's not a priority for the House...."  "It's just not one of the things I talked about on the opening day of session."  "Right now we're going to focus on the things that the business coalitions sent us at the beginning of the year that we can find some compromise."

The gathering of tea party groups in Jefferson City last Saturday, while not as big an event as 9/12, represented a coalition of state tea parties and patriot groups that banded together on extremely short notice.  What was the main topic of the day: Right to Work!  Right to Work is a major issue for the tea party movement, and I would venture a guess that it is only up in this session of the legislature because of a push by the tea party movement.

Now, don't get me wrong, creating a vibrant business environment for the state of Missouri should be a priority of the State Assembly, but not to the point of ignoring the tea party movement.  Besides, Right to Work contributes to a vibrant business environment, right?  And he would not just be ignoring the tea party movement; the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry backs Right to Work.  

The problem, it seems, is that Speaker Tilley cut deals with individuals and groups before the present legislative session even started.  The local control issue is a perfect example.  If Speaker Tilley's priority was the "Fix the Six" agenda put out by the Missouri Chamber, then why the rush to pass local control?  Was this one of the compromises he referred to; an exchange of votes for his agenda?  And if that is the case, then all of the high and mighty rhetoric about returning power to the people was merely a facade for compromise, or "bipartisanship," as he calls it.

Bipartianship, in the present political climate, does not mean working with Democrats, especially when we do not need their votes.  2010 represents a rejection of the Democrat agenda for this country, not a wholesale endorsement of the Republican agenda; at least, not an endorsement of a Republican agenda that ignores the tea party movement.  Let Governor Jay Nixon veto bills to his own detriment come 2012.  

What Speaker Tilley should do, as a representative of the establishment in Jefferson City, is reach out to all of the tea party freshmen that want to represent the constituencies that put them into office.  Or maybe, he would rather be the establishment candidate for Lieutenant Governor.

Layoffs And A New Definition For Penny Stocks

I've been made aware of a possible interesting story related to a local company.

It seems several people were the target of layoffs, and their stock options were paid off at a penny per option.

If you happen to know what I'm talking about, and can provide me information, please email editor@24thstate.com

Confidentiality and anonymity will of course be respected. I'm just looking for a few sweater strings to tug on and see how the story checks out.  

State Requires More Advance Notice For Local Government Meetings

The State of Missouri has mandated that cities and other governing bodies that want to hold meetings to raise taxes, implement eminent domain, and create special taxing districts provide four days' notice instead of only one before the meeting takes place.  Story:

City councils and other government boards in the state will have to give greater notice before voting on tax increases. Gov. Jay Nixon signed a law on Tuesday that requires public notification four days before meetings on tax increases, eminent domain or redevelopment plans financed with public funds.

The House bill reads:

Section A. Chapter 67, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 67.2725, to read as follows:

            67.2725. For any public meeting where a vote of the governing body is required to implement a tax increase, or with respect to a retail development project when the governing body votes to utilize the power of eminent domain, create a transportation development district or a community improvement district, or approve a redevelopment plan that pledges public funds as financing for the project or plan, the governing body of any county, city, town, or village, or any entity created by such county, city, town, or village, shall give notice conforming with all the requirements of subsection 1 of section 610.020 at least four days before such entity may vote on such issues, exclusive of weekends and holidays when the facility is closed; provided that this section shall not apply to any votes or discussion related to proposed ordinances which require a minimum of two separate readings on different days for their passage. The provisions of subsection 4 of section 610.020 shall not apply to any matters that are subject to the provisions of this section. No vote shall occur until after a public meeting on the matter at which parties in interest and citizens shall have an opportunity to be heard. If the notice required under this section is not properly given, no vote on such issues shall be held until proper notice has been provided under this section. Any legal action challenging the notice requirements provided herein shall be filed within thirty days of the subject meeting, or such meeting shall be deemed to have been properly noticed and held. For the purpose of this section, a tax increase shall not include the setting of the annual tax rates provided for under sections 67.110 and 137.055.

Wow, that's the whole bill right there?  What is wrong with our state legislature that it produces one paragraph bills?  Certainly, those guys in Jeff City a're not following Washington's lead in these things.

The bill is good news for newly minted citizen activists who have an extra couple days to find a babysitter for the night of the meeting to explain to their local officials that maybe taxes are quite high enough and if Dudley's Megaemporium wants to put in a new store on a vacant lot, maybe they should pay for the sewer hookups out of their annual budget, not the citizens who would shop there's annual budgets.

On one hand, I think this is a great piece of citizen enablery.  On the other hand, I'm a little sad it had to come from the state level of government instead of trusting the local governments to play it straight and open with their citizens.

Missouri Utilities Fund Conservation Promotions By Charging Consumers

Ok, see if you keep up because it took me a few minutes to figure out what's going on. Missouri utilities are poised to charge consumers extra in order to fund promotions that encourage conservation.

Though it might seem illogical, the new energy efficiency charge has support from utilities, most lawmakers, the governor, environmentalists and even the state’s official utility consumer advocate. The charge covers the cost of utilities’ efforts to promote energy efficiency and cut power use. The assumption is that charging consumers for those initiatives ultimately will cost less than charging them to build the new power plants that will be needed if electricity use isn’t curtailed.

If the efforts to promote conservation actually lead to reduced use, that may be true. However, what's really happening is more subtle. Most businesses don't encourage their customers to buy less of their product, but utility companies in America have been forced into this awkward position by environmental extremists. The more effective these conservation promotions are, the less demand there will be for the products these utility companies sell. Less demand equals lower volume and lower prices, the combination of which will eventually make a business unprofitable. Of course, most of these utilities are natural monopolies that enjoy implicit government subsidies by the nature of their monopoly. That's why there are public utility boards that regulate the prices the utilities can charge. That these boards (and the state legislature) are now going to allow utilities to charge extra for non-production costs is quite a sea change. This new permission is an extension of the implicit subsidy the utilities already enjoy and is intended to offset the revenue that is lost as the utilities companies pressure their customers to buy less.

Legislation pending before Gov. Jay Nixon would set the criteria for state utility regulators to approve the energy-savings charges. If he signs the bill, the new law would take effect Aug. 28. ... “To save power is the equivalent of making power,” Nixon said, “and it’s a pretty seismic shift” in Missouri’s energy strategy.

This statement by Nixon may sound wise on the surface ("a penny saved is a penny earned") but a little contemplation will reveal the underlying absurdity. In a free market, every bit of energy that is consumed is paid for by the consumer, which means that the consumer believes that the use he is putting the energy towards is more valuable than the price he pays for the energy itself (i.e., energy use is profitable to the consumer). Reducing energy use in this scenario means the loss of that profit. The more we "conserve", the more profit we lose. Producing more energy and then consuming it would lead to more profit; producing and consuming less energy would lead to a reduction in profit. (I.e., a reduced quality-of-life.) (Our energy market is not free. The prices are regulated in such a way that many people pay artificially low prices. (This is done to ensure that poor people aren't priced out of the energy market entirely, despite the fact that the uses they put energy to are worth less then the energy they consume and therefore a net loss.) Unless we're willing to let the poor live in the dark there's no real way to avoid this market manipulation. Even with this inefficiency, however, a net increase in energy production and consumption will almost certainly create wealth.) Unfortunately our public officials seem to be completely clueless, as usual.

“Any tool we can give a consumer to reduce their usage is a good thing,” [Public Service Commission Chairman Robert M. Clayton III] said, adding: “The trick is making sure the expenditure (by the utility) is a prudent expenditure and it’s going to achieve results.”

Haiti uses far less energy per capita than we do, maybe we can learn from them? The only way to make a significant dent in energy use is to significantly reduce our quality of life. Everything else is fiddling around the margins. (Cross-posted to Master of None.)

Is Missourians For Fair Electric Rates Another Carnahan Astroturf?

In 2008, Missourians for Fair Elections, a "broad" coalition of citizens and groups worked with Robin Carnahan to put pressure on Missouri representatives to defeat a Voter ID bill strongly opposed by leftist groups.  The group was a fake - an astroturfed campaign put together by Jeff Mazur and Laura Egerdal, SEIU and AFCSME employees who were rewarded for their campaign skulduggery with fat jobs in the offices of Robin Carnahan and Jay Nixon.

Don't take my posts for the truth - they admit it in an article on Alternet.

Why is this relevant?  It seems the Carnahan tentacles are spreading through the Missouri political system yet again.  The sad part is they barely bothered to change their name.  I guess they just changed the letterhead. 

Missourians for Fair Elections Electric Rates is a "coalition" of groups opposed to the Ameren bill that's supposed to pay for the construction of a new nuclear power plant.  The group has a website, http://nocwip.org, which was registered in December by the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.  So is this really a coalition?  Not really. The organizer is Erin Noble, of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, and is endorsed by outfits like ACORN and the Sierra Club.  The coalition sprang to life in the last week, getting massive press with their NO CWIP tour, and showing up on The Platform, KMOU, the Columbia Tribune, and other news outlets, as well as the FiredUpMissouri gossip blog.

Who is Erin Noble?  A committed progressive eco-activist, who seems to really like talking about, wait for it, the substantial investment in wind power by the Carnahan family's own Wind Capital Group.  The Wind Capital Group, we are told over and over by Noble, has raised $300 million in investment for their Rockport wind farms.  And of course the Missouri Coalition for the Environment supported Prop C, which passed with the help of $100,000 from Wind Capital Group (to another group, Missourians for Cleaner Cheaper Energy, which no longer exists). 

If you're dizzy from all of the names and groups and coalitions, think of it this way.  The same small group of left wing progressives that all seem to work closely with people named Carnahan spawn new groups to get press attention, and when those groups shut down, the organizers get cushy state jobs.  In the case of Laura Egerdal, it was a $60,000 job as Communications Director for Robin Carnahan. For Jeff Mazur, it's an $80,00 Special Assistant position.  For Ron Berry, it's a $60,000 job as a legislative liaison.  Fascinating, isn't it?  When Republicans leave office they go out and get real jobs. For Democrats, it's a revolving door between "non-partisan" groups that work for the election of Democrats and government jobs where funds are then directed back into the left wing groups. 

Let's check in with what Wind Capital Group's John Hensley thinks about that. 

The company was able to tie into existing distribution lines to use the power it generated, but getting much power further into the state will require that new power lines be run, and there are a number of different forms of cost and delay in getting that accomplished. He did note the potential of the stimulus package to help.

So Wind Capital Group, run by Tom Carnahan, works closely with left wing groups to push legislation that will benefit his company, even if it will cost the taxpayers money to lay new lines to make the venture worthwhile.  At the same time, when Ameren wants to build a nuclear power plant, these same left wing groups create "coalitions" to drive press coverage while organizing "citizen's groups" to call in and pretend to be outraged.  How convenient for the Carnahan family.  Every time they want to block a piece of legislation, a coalition forms to put pressure on the Republicans.      

It's one of the most common tactics of such groups.  Pretend to be broad-based, organize the same groups of professional protestors and malcontents, and barrage the capital with press conferences and phone calls.  4,200 calls for the VoterID act.  I wonder how many can be generated for the buy another Senate seat for the Carnahan family No CWIP campaign?

So if history repeats itself, we can expect the site to shut down in a few weeks, and then an offer of some kind will go out to Erin Noble, who will move from being paid by left wing groups into a job paying $60,00 working for the state of Missouri. 

Understanding John Galt

The beauty of symbols is they can be appropriated for your ends.  That's the power of John Galt.  There are a lot of fools on the left and right who don't understand the symbol of John Galt. When they hear us at the tea party protests, they go back to the Cliff Notes of Atlas Shrugged and laugh at the idea of creating a Galt's Gulch, where the productive go to escape the confiscation of their labor.  They dare us to withdraw our talents.  They have the luxury of doing so because they've never had to carry the weight of a small business on their back.

ABC News is writing about some people talking about cutting back on their work to get below $250K.  Some professionals, like doctors and others may do so, crimping supply of critical talents.  Some business owners may take longer vacations.  Those are just news stories, fun but probably not impactful enough.

The real damage is done when those who run small and microbusinesses shut down their companies and layoff their employees to take a more relaxed lifestyle.  Being in business is dangerous (bankruptcy is always around the corner), but it is also rewarding.  That's a work ethic few people have the stomach for. Once you've built a successful company, you have enough money to live comfortably.  Staying in business is a choice - one society needs to reward.  Off the top of my head, I can give you 8 names of business owners who sold their business and now live off consulting fees and their capital.  They "net" the same amount as when running the business, with a lot less work.  I can name another dozen who have layed off in the economy and are only keeping vital employees.  That's normal policy in a recession, but understand something - the decision to lay someone is not an easy one.  Business owners, especially small business owners, understand that it's real families we are impacting here. Layoffs are about protecting the company, but there is usually room for average and suboptimal performers.  When we lay someone off, we have to weigh the health of their family against our own.  Most owners are willing to work with less than perfect workers - it's the right thing to do.  But when our business is threatened by too many outside forces, charity is a another word for turning off the lights one bulb at a time.  

The problem is not just current employment regulations, higher expected taxes, and a soft business climate.  Those are irritants, but they can be dealt with.  Add those burdens to a culture and a president who look down on wealth creators as evil rich businessman, and you have a real problem. 

Missouri's Bridge To Nowhere

Well that was money well spent. The first, critical infrastructure project to get funds from the stimulus bill has broken ground, and it's the great state of Missouri.

The Missourian has the details.

The nation's first stimulus-triggered project is the replacement of a 1933 bridge that had to be closed to large trucks in 2007 because of structural concerns. A badly deteriorating steel beam was identified during inspections conducted after the deadly Minnesota bridge collapse.

The 1,000-foot long bridge is part of a state highway route that crosses the Osage River — a tributary of the Missouri River — about 30 miles southwest of the state capital in Jefferson City. The project is expected to cost $8.5 million.

But it's not exactly on a well-worn path. Only a couple hundred people live in Tuscumbia, the county seat of sparsely populated Miller County. It's so remote that Missouri transportation officials brought a special satellite truck to allow highway commissioners to meet and award the bridge construction contract.

Now some people might be shocked and angered that Barack Obama campaigned against the Alaskan Bridge to Nowhere, and then signs into law a whole new raft of bridges to nowhere so he can reward union buddies who gave $100 million to elect Democrats, but those people would be wrong.

Both Obama and Biden voted for the original Bridge to Nowhere.  Obama even voted against Tom Coburn's amendment to shift funds from the Alaskan bridge to Katrina funding.

So if you're angry, it's because you were misinformed prior to the election.  Obama likes bridges to nowhere, and this Missouri stimulus project is an excellent example of what he wanted.  Don't worry though - you won't have to pay for it. Governor Nixon has made is clear it's our children and grandchildren who will be picking up that tab.

Wachovia Buys AG Edwards

I should have bought me some AG Edwards stock last year.

Wachovia Corp. said Thursday it would acquire A.G. Edwards Inc. for $6.8 billion in cash and stock in a deal to form one of the largest retail stock brokerages in the United States.

Wachovia said A.G. Edwards shareholders would get 0.9844 Wachovia shares and $35.80 in cash for each A.G. Edwards share held. That offer values A.G. Edwards at $89.50 per share based on Wednesday's closing prices, a 16 percent premium.

One day, we'll miss AG Edwards like we miss Boatmen's.  They were good names, back in the day.  I wonder if we should buy some land in Charlotte?  Hey - I own a Charlotte domain!