Kraus: Watching Your Money

When I see wasteful spending of your tax dollars, your money, I am going to try to fix it.

That is why, during the last week of session, I worked hard to pass Senate Bill 270. The key provision of the bill would have eliminates the February and June election days from the state calendar. Currently, there are five election days in a given year, during February, April, June, August, and November. I chose to remove February and June because they are usually not used unless a political subdivision wants to raise taxes or issue bonds. I also selected these two months because in each case there is another election date within about 60 days.

It costs tax dollars to hold an election – your money. It is wasteful spending to hold two elections within 60 days of each other. For example, a political subdivision recently ran a tax increase in February then had an election to elect political board members in April, about 60 days later. Why not run both issues on the same ballot? It would save taxpayers’ dollars that could be used on better things.

Senate Bill 270 passed both the House and the Senate, but in different versions that had to be reconciled in a conference committee. I successfully shepherded the bill through the conference committee with both dates removed, and the conference committee report was brought to the Senate floor for a vote. However, the conference committee recommendation fell just short of passing the Senate with 16 “yes” and 17 “no” votes.

Despite the loss on SB 270, I am happy to report that we were able to remove the June election date through another elections bill, SB 282, which is on its way to the governor’s desk.

I also sponsored SB 324, which would have required that only one license plate be issued for all motor vehicles instead of the current two plates. Again, this bill would have saved taxpayer money, estimated to be over a million dollars per year. However, it was opposed by the Missouri Highway Patrol and never made it out of committee.

Finally this session, I also sponsored SB 74, which would require drug testing for work-eligible TANF applicants and recipients based upon reasonable cause. I see this as an issue of wasting taxpayer dollars when state assistance goes to people who are going to turn around and use the money to buy drugs. Although SB 74 was combined with another bill, HB 73, the House bill was Truly Agreed to and Finally Passed, sending it on the governor for his signature.

As your taxpayer watchdog, I will continue to look for wasteful spending of your tax dollars and attempt to alleviate it.

District Activities

During the interim, I welcome the opportunity to spend more time meeting with constituents in the district. On Friday, I look forward to attending the Independence Chamber of Commerce meeting to discuss legislation from the 2011 session. Later, I will be at the John Knox Village to speak with residents there.