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Kansas City Northland Republicans want special session on KCPD budget changes Jeanne Kuang, The Kansas City Star May 26 JEFFERSON CITY Four Missouri state representatives who represent parts of the Northland asked Gov. Mike Parson Wednesday for a special legislative session to push back on Mayor Quinton Lucas s plans to take some control over part of Kansas City Police Department s budget. The proposals, approved by a supermajority of City Council members last Thursday hours after Lucas introduced them, take $42.3 million out of KCPD s $239 million budget and place the money in a newly created fund for Community Services and Prevention to underwrite innovative ways of fighting crime. City Hall will negotiate with the state-appointed Board of Police Commissioners over how to spend it. ....
Missouri likely going to court either way as Senate panel rejects Medicaid expansion funds Jeanne Kuang, The Kansas City Star Apr. 22 JEFFERSON CITY A powerful Missouri Senate committee dealt an early blow Wednesday night to Democrats and Medicaid expansion advocates who hoped the upper legislative chamber would restore funding that the House had stripped out of the state budget. In a 7-7 tie, a proposal introduced by Springfield Republican Sen. Lincoln Hough to partially fund the voter-approved expansion failed to clear the Senate Appropriations Committee. Two other Republicans, including Lee s Summit Sen. Mike Cierpiot, joined the committee s four Democrats in voting for it. Appropriations Chair Dan Hegeman, a Cosby Republican, opposed funding the expansion. ....
Missouri Senators question former GOP chair s appointment to UM curator s role Jeanne Kuang and Bryan Lowry, The Kansas City Star Mar. 31 JEFFERSON CITY Former GOP Chair Todd Graves appointment to the University of Missouri Board of Curators was approved by a Senate committee Wednesday, despite some members misgivings about his partisan political background. Members of the Senate s Gubernatorial Appointments committee questioned Graves history of partisan political influence, particularly the state GOP s payment of $200,000 to a PAC tied to Graves and his powerful Kansas City law firm, Graves Garrett LLC, in 2019. The PAC was focused on overturning a redistricting reform provision in the ballot initiative known as Clean Missouri, which passed in 2018. The expenditure angered some Republicans, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Graves had represented opponents of the measure and his firm was involved in drafting the legislation that overturn ....