It’s Denny Hoskins’ (r – noun, verb, CPA) day today. He does a weekly radio show with Marion “Woody” Woods on 1450 KOKO Radio in Warrensburg.

Denny Hoskins appears to have a rosy view of the legislative session which others don’t share:

State legislator calls effort of general assembly poor

…After his first year in Jefferson City, Democratic representative Tom McDonald joked that he would have better explained the political process before he attended the session than afterward. With 1,800 bills heard in committee this session, only 165 passed, which McDonald called “a poor performance.”

McDonald, who represents the 49th District representing parts of Independence, Raytown and Kansas City, also spoke against the amount of “frivolous legislation” that was heard this session, including the right to own slot machines newer than 1983, tax breaks for sky-diving schools, allowing residents to mine gravel from a stream on their private property and others.

[emphasis added]

Representative Hoskins is on the Budget Committee, and said this about the process in response to a question on today’s radio show: “…Correct. Correct. All Bills have to go through committee first…” Denny Hoskins’ description of the committee process for bills this session is priceless considering the rule breaking that went on with the republican majority. This is what actually happened with HB 22:

From our friends at Fired Up!.

Democrats walk out of Rules Committee Meeting in protest

The Evolving Fiscal Philosophies of House Republicans: A Resource Guide

…Democrats walked out of the House Rules Committee to protest Chairman Michael Parson’s ruling to move the House GOP’s new(est) stimulus spending to the floor without deliberation by the Budget Committee. Immediately after Parson’s gaveled the meeting to order, Rep. Mike Talboy raised a point of order, citing House Rule 25 (10) (a)….

….The rules of the appropriations process didn’t bother Parson, and he promptly ruled against the point of order. Democrats, in turn, chose to leave the committee hearing rather that participate in the “sham process”…

RULES OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY, Rule 25 (10)(a) [pdf]:

…The Committee on Budget.

(a) The Committee on Budget shall have the responsibility of filing all appropriations bills, assigning of those bills to the appropriate appropriations committees and shall report upon all bills recommended to it by the respective appropriation committee and any other bills, measures, or questions referred to it pertaining to the appropriation and disbursement of public money….

The radio show [personal information has been omitted]:

[transcript by CC]

…Marion “Woody” Woods, KOKO Radio: Hi, we’re back with the Magazine. Our guest right now for our regular Monday visit, Denny Hoskins, our State Representative of the 121st District. You have a page full of notes there. Like[crosstalk]…

Representative Denny Hoskins: Yes.

Woody:…you have things you want to talk about I guess.

Representative Hoskins: I guess so. I have a few things written down so I don’t forget.  

Woody: Alright, first I wanna, I got a couple of questions….

….Representative Hoskins: …trying to get back in the groove of things, uh, since Session ended a little over two weeks ago and trying to stay abreast to what’s going on in Jefferson City still as far as, you know, bills that the Governor’s signing.

Woody: That, that’s kind of news out of Jeff City right now is he’s going through all of these Bills to see if there’s anything that, uh, he may not want to put his signature on.

Representative Hoskins: Right.

Woody: Or may want to change.

Representative Hoskins: Right.

Woody: Line, does he have a line item veto? I guess he does, doesn’t he?

Representative Hoskins: Yes, he has line item veto power on the budget so [crosstalk]…

Woody: Okay.

Representative Hoskins:…we’ll see. I believe he has until around around the middle of July to figure out if he’s going to sign a bill or not. What I thought we could talk about, you know, kind of every week, is maybe some of the bills that he has signed or some of the bills that he’s said, “No, I’m, I’m gonna veto this.” Or has vetoed.

Woody: Okay.

Representative Hoskins: One of them that he said that he did sign was the Tractor Parade Bill.  

Woody: I saw that listed somewhere.

Representative Hoskins: Right.

Woody: What is that? I haven’t heard of that.

Representative Hoskins: Well, I, uh, the way I understand, and the way it explained out on the House floor when we debated this bill, it was, uh, Representative Mike Thomson, out of Maryville, um, was the sponsor of this bill. And, um, Mike’s a, Mike’s a great guy, he has, he and I sat next to each other on Budget Committee and he has Northwest Missouri State University in his District. So, he’s a very pro-education legislator as well.  

Woody: Yeah.

Representative Hoskins: But, the way I understood it is tractors, um, are, were not, it was illegal to have a tractor in a parade, on a, on a street. Believe it or not.  

Woody: I didn’t know that.

Hoskins: Yes. Yes, that’s the way that I understood it and so this, um, bill made it legal for tractors to be in parades like the UCM Homecoming Parade.  

Woody: Haven’t we had tractors in that parade?

Representative Hoskins: Yes, we have.  

[Laughter]

Representative Hoskins: I’m not saying that that law had been actively forced, enforced all the time but, you know we’ve, we’ve had tractors in many parades and, and everybody’s been to a parade.  

Woody: But it is illegal.

Representative Hoskins: Yes, yes. [crosstalk]

Woody: Or it was.

Representative Hoskins: Right, it was, but you know, there was an emergency clause on it.

Woody: So it’s in effect now then?

Representative Hoskins: Yes, it’s in effect now. So I think they said the first, I think, tractor parade that this would go into effect for was the tractor parade in Vichy, Missouri.  

Woody: Yeah.

Representative Hoskins: Down in Maries County. So, tractors are legal now to be in parades.

[Laughter]

Woody: I had never heard of such a thing before.  

Representative Hoskins: Right.

Woody: And I had read that somewhere. The tractor parade…  

Representative Hoskins: Right. [crosstalk] Some of the exciting things we learn about in Jefferson City.

Woody: I’m glad you brought that up.

Representative Hoskins: Yes.

[Laughter]

Woody: Okay, has he signed any other bills now or is that all he’s signed so far?

Representative Hoskins: Uh, he’s signed a couple of them, they weren’t really too much of note.

Woody: Yeah.

Representative Hoskins: Um, he hasn’t signed any, really, any of the big budget bills yet. So, when he, when he signs those and, and when he goes through with the, you know, with his fine tooth comb [crosstalk] and, and kind o
f…

Woody: Yeah. Now if, if, uh, if he signs a bill, now, it goes into effect, I don’t know, August 28th?  

Representative Hoskins: August 28th, unless it’s an emergency clause.

Woody: Unless it has the emergency clause and then it goes into effect as soon as he signs it.

Representative Hoskins: as, yep, as soon as he gets done signing it. When he lifts his pen it is law. The way I understand.

Woody: Now I’m going to ask you a question and you may not know the answer to, and I won’t blame you if you don’t know.  

Representative Hoskins: Alright.

Woody: How many bills did pass the Legislature this year?

Representative Hoskins: [Sigh] I believe, I think I read about a hundred and sixty.

Woody: That’s, I, I was thinking, a hundred and something.

Representative Hoskins: Yes. [crosstalk]

Woody: I wasn’t sure if it’s. Out of, proposed, thirteen hundred or something like that?

Representative Hoskins: Uh, well there was more than that. Well, between, between bills and resolutions and everything else, I was, I want to say over eighteen hundred. So it, it, uh.  

Woody: It’s a small percentage that actually, eventually gets through the first. [crosstalk]  

Representative Hoskins: Right.

Woody: Any one year.

Representative Hoskins: Exactly.

Woody: A lot of them are held over.

Representative Hoskins: Right.

Woody: And will be presented again.

Representative Hoskins: Yes, yes.

Woody: And again.

Representative Hoskins: Yes, and again, and again. Just based on what’s priority for it [crosstalk]…

Woody: Uh huh.

Representative Hoskins: …for that year. And you know, we, we get, you know, as I was, you know, looking through the different proposed bills from past years, I mean, like you said, a lot of them get retread.

Woody: Yeah.

Representative Hoskins: And, and come up again and again until, you know, it gains some traction or gets sent to the right committee. You know, one bill may go to, um, a certain committee this year where, you know the committee members didn’t like it, but it might be, you know, it, it is appropriate to send it to a different committee the next year [crosstalk]…

Woody: Really.

Representative Hoskins:…just because it deals with different things. And uh, so, then next year it may go to a different committee and you know, the committee likes it [crosstalk] and votes it out and gets some floor time.

Woody: No bill goes to the floor without going through committee, right?

Representative Hoskins: Correct. Correct. All bills have to go through committee first.

Woody: And then to the floor.

Representative Hoskins: Yes.

Woody: And then how many, is it a simple majority vote?

Representative Hoskins: Yes. Simple majority vote. So, eighty, there’s a hundred sixty three representatives. So we have to have eighty-two votes. Eighty two votes [crosstalk]  

Woody: To pass something.

Representative Hoskins: …in order to pass something, yes.

Woody: Are some of them that close?

Representative Hoskins: Some of them are that close. We had a, few this year that were passed right on eighty-two or eighty-three votes.

Woody: Really?

Representative Hoskins:. Yes, yeah. A few of them that did. Most of them, you know, passed with. Some of them were overwhelmingly. We, we, had a couple bills which they usually refer to as consent bills, but to have a consent bill in the House it can’t have a fiscal note, so there can’t be a cost to it, and it’s supposed to be non-controversial. Well, non-controversial to me and you, may be two different things, Woody but.

Woody: Yeah.

Representative Hoskins: Sometimes that, that gets ’em where they’re, where they’re not, called consent bills but, yeah, there’s a lot of bills that are brought up and it’s tough to keep track of all eighteen hundred bills as, as they come through. Some of ’em could be as short as a sentence. A, a bill.  

Woody: Yeah.

Representative Hoskins: We had other Bill. –  

Woody: A sentence?

Representative Hoskins: Yes. A sentence just to change one particular thing.

Woody: Yeah.

Representative Hoskins: And other, uh, bills may be two hundred, three hundred pages long.

Woody: Now, during the summer months here, and I guess winter, too as far as that goes.

Representative Hoskins: Yes.

Woody: Now and next January.

Representative Hoskins: Yes.

Woody: You will be trying to figure out something that you, uh, need to work on or?

Representative Hoskins: Yes.  

Woody: Bills that you want to propose?  

Representative Hoskins: Yes, bills that I want to propose or, um, right now is kind of the research time, the research, well I say, maybe I should say listen and research, listen to my constituents, and then research those issues to see if there’s a possibility about file, pre-filing a bill, which starts in December. And now’s a good time, um, you know, for my constituents, and businesses here in, in the 121st District to contact me if they’ve got a particular issue. And it’s funny mention that, there’s a, about a week and half ago I, I had gotten a call from the Holden School District about a therapy, their therapy dog program. And, in Holden they have, Warrensburg also has a certified therapy dog but Holden has three certified therapy dogs. And.  

Woody: That are in classrooms?

Representative Hoskins: They’re in classrooms. They, they help with, uh, I believe one of ’em, in, at least in Holden is with the counselor, the school counselor there. Another one is with um, special education and serves with a lot of the special ed, ed students. And, what these dogs do, I mean, they’re comforting, they go through lots of different training. There’s certified therapy dog training in order to respond to emotions and, and things. From these kids and these students and then they also do public access training. So they go through the same public access training as a hearing dog or seeing eye dog, however, their main concern was, and these dogs go home, I mean they’re a part of these teacher’s families. They go home with the teachers every night after school, the teachers have them during the summer, and then bring them to school during the day, I mean these are, you know, certified therapy dogs. Well.  

Woody: Therapy, therapy for what?

Representative Hoskins: Um, well as far as like counseling, the counselor off, office uses their dog to kind of help transition kids. If, you know, kids are having a bad day or they may be having problems at home.  

Woody: They get to pet the dog and.

Representative Hoskins: Yes, they get to pet the dog or sometimes they will actually, they will actually talk to the dog and, um, you know then the counselor, one example they said is hey, you know, Sparky, you know wasn’t quite for sure what, what you said, you know, could you tell me what, what you said? And it makes the transition easier for some of these students.

Woody: Oh really? Yeah. What do they want out of you then?

Representative Hoskins: What they want is, uh, currently there are laws in place for, like I said, seeing eye dog, hearing dog, in order to go to different places and businesses around town and [crosstalk] that’s legal.

Woody: There’s none for therapy dogs?

Representative Hoskins: But there’s none for a certified therapy dog even though they’ve been through the same training as a hearing dog and, and seeing eye dog so.

Woody: Now you shouldn’t have any trouble getting that through, should you?

Representative Hoskins: You wouldn’t think so but, y
ou know, you never know Woody. Something like I said, sometimes, you know, things that are non-controversial to me are highly controversial to someone else. But, um, you know…is the one that, that called me from Holden School District and, um, I told her that, you know she had done a lot of research, so I’m going to take her research and then talk to Legislative Research, in, in Warrensburg, I mean, in Jefferson City, and then try and file a bill and we’ll see where it goes from there.  

Woody: Work something out?

Representative Hoskins: Yes, yeah, work something else.

Woody: Goodness, we’re out of time, it goes quickly.

Representative Hoskins: Yes.

Woody: Do you have anything else you really needed to mention?

Representative Hoskins: Uh, just one thing, we, I am going to have town hall meetings and I believe that is on, I didn’t even bring my calendar.

Woody: Oh, the June calendar is not turned, you have noticed.

Representative Hoskins: Oh, okay. I believe it is on Friday, June, or July 19th. Or June 19th. Friday, June 19th. And we’re gonna start off in Holden from nine to ten, and then Warrensburg eleven to twelve, and Knob Noster from one to two and it’s going to be at the Trails Regional Library at each one of those locations so, I’ll mention it again [crosstalk] over the next couple weeks but.  

Woody: Okay. Alright, well, see you next Monday.

Representative Hoskins: Alright, Woody.

Woody: You bet. Denny Hoskins, your state representative for the 121st District.

“…he’s a very pro-education legislator as well….” Did Mike Thomson come out in favor of carry conceal on campus too? Just asking.

“…Correct. Correct. All Bills have to go through committee first…” Just not necessarily the ones that the rules dictate, and when it isn’t convenient for the republican majority. Denny Hoskins doesn’t bother to tell us all that.

June 19th for those in district town hall meetings? We’ll be there.