by State Rep. Jim Whorton
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It seems you can tell that it’s likely to be a close contest in government elections by the atmosphere in our Missouri House of Representatives.
Right now everyone is “making nice.” On our first day, you would never believe it’s the same people that were participants during the last few years.
Speaker Rod Jetton proclaimed that we’re friends and one big family — yeah, right. When their time came, the minority party leaders, Paul LeVota, Jackson County and J.C. Kuessner, Shannon County echoed similar statements, again yeah, right.
Well, we’ll see; I’ll be surprised if the love fest goes very long. Leadership on each party will struggle to gain favorable attention and opinions from a majority of potential voters in November. It’s already beginning with almost weekly releases from the Governor’s office about great things to come. Most of those releases actually relate to perhaps replacing or partially reinstating cuts that the majority party pushed through during the past three years, but those are separate stories and each will probably be discussed in detail as the session progresses.
Hallway talk has it that some of the issues we’ll work on include: illegal immigration (actually not a real big deal in Missouri, but we’ll make it one because leadership on both sides believe you can get fired up about it), minimum teacher pay, along with overall education funding, property taxes for real estate, transportation funding, higher education issues and several components of healthcare and funding for those respective programs.
As we move forward, both parties will want your full attention, both want to win in November. Leadership of the majority party will likely restrict movement of bills and proposals offered by the minority party and tempers will flare.
Our political “family” will fall out of love again and the Capitol atmosphere will return to what we’ve accepted as “normal”. Too bad! Too bad! I’ll try to keep you informed about significant HAP- PENINGS.
If you have any questions or concerns during session, please feel free to contact Pam in Jefferson City. Our number there is 573-751-1649 and the email address is jim.whorton@house. mo.gov. You can also contact me at the district at 660-359-3988.