A video of yesterday’s House Democratic Caucus end of session press conference provided by the Missouri House Communications Office:

The transcript:

Representative Jacob Hummel (D), House Minority Leader: Um, you know, we’ve had, uh, we have now historic Republican super majorities and historic dysfunction. Um, it’s been a rough couple of days, um, some personal failings on the part of the Speaker [John Diehl]. Um, you know, I think he did the right thing. He needed to go. He went. I look forward to working with, uh, Speaker Richardson. Um, I think he’s a man of integrity and, uh, hopefully we can work together on some issues in the future and actually get some good things accomplished for the State of Missouri.

Um, I think that we’ve seen that the majority seems to have an agenda of cruelty, uh, towards poor people, poor children especially, um, we’ve eliminated local control, uh, we’ve hurt working families with right to work, we’ve cut unemployment benefits to the lowest in any state in the nation, uh, we’ve failed again to expand Medicaid, we’ve left billions of dollars on the table, we have still yet again failed to pass any type of ethics reform, um, we have failed to properly address Ferguson, Uh, we did pass Senate Bill 5 which made some important and, uh, needed reforms but by treating St. Louis County differently, uh, we’ve put the constitutionality of the bill into question.  Um, once again, we’ve also failed to pass a clean [school] transfer fix. All we’ve actually passed is an expansion of charter schools.  Um, that’s actually all I can think of that’s been done. So, happy to take any questions.

Question: With the deadly force bill there seems there’s some disagreement  in the Democratic caucus about what it would actually address in the issue of deadly force by police officers. Do you think that was a needed change that needed to happen this session?

Representative Hummel (D): Um, I think that public perception is that change needed to happen. Absolutely.

Question: Was that language sufficient?

Representative Hummel (D): I don’t know that it was sufficient, but it was a step in the right direction.

Question: You mentioned ethics reform did not get passed. Um, how serious was the effort to pass that [inaudible]?

Representative Hummel (D): Uh, I believe what I told, uh, a few reporters, uh, a couple of weeks ago that was, that both sides would probably blame the other side for not getting the bill done. I’ve proven that I was absolutely correct in my prediction that they would pretend to get something done and then never actually get anything done.

Question: Also, uh, Speaker Richardson says that some of his caucus have said they want to look at rules regarding interns for anything that can be done with the situation with the former Speaker.

Representative Hummel (D): Sure. Absolutely.

Question: Uh, do you have a plan on that, or what are you gonna [crosstalk]?

Representative Hummel (D): Actually, we talked about that, uh, obviously, over the last few days.  And, uh, I appreciate Speaker, Speaker Richardson saying that. Um, and I look forward to working with him on that over the interim. And hopefully we can do a joint committee. I know that on both sides of the aisle this is a bipartisan issue that needs to be fixed and I look forward to working with him on that.

Question: Speaker Richardson said that he wanted new, uh, a revised policy in place by the time the legislature comes back in January. So, most likely I’m assuming that’s gonna by something you’re gonna be working on throughout the summer.

Representative Hummel (D): Yeah, that, that’s our hope and, and I plan on, uh, getting with him shortly to, uh, see what we can do to work together.

Question: To those thousands that were protesting in Ferguson, um, what do you say to them about a legislature that did not deal with the specific issue that they were raising of police shooting [inaudible] black man?

Representative Hummel (D): I think that the legislature failed them.

Question: And what can the legislature, what can you guys do to prevent that failure next year?

Representative Hummel (D): Well, for one, we could get some of our bills referred to committee. Um, we could get some of the bills heard, some of them actually voted on. Brandon, [Representative] Brandon Ellengton, uh, representative from Kansas City, is chair of the Black Caucus. Brandon, would you like to address that?

Representative Brandon Ellington (D):  Yeah, hopefully next year with our new Speaker we can actually work on some of these bills. Uh, we had over sixty bills that was related to police, uh, uh, police misconduct or, or police reform. None of those bills made it out of committee. Uh, the last Speaker that was here said we would not have a Ferguson agenda and he guaranteed that none of the bills moved out of the committee. Uh, so I look forward to actually working with, uh, uh, Speaker Richardson to address these issues. But like, uh, the Minority Leader said, we have to get these bills moved. And currently the way the system is set up it’s all on the majority to make sure our bills can move or they can kill our bills.

Question:  [inaudible] You had another, uh, part of a bridge close in, uh, Kansas City just recently.  Uh, what will it take for the legislature to pass something transportation related? And what can be done?

Representative Hummel (D):  I think, well, I, I think that we were actually moving in a direction, um, I, I think there was Senator Schaaf (r) I believe and a few others that were filibustering that in the Senate.  I don’t think there’s any question that something needs to be done. Um, what that level is I don’t know. Um, I would have voted for the gas tax increase. I think that was the responsible thing to do. Uh, I mean, certainly I think some people would be willing to look at toll roads. Uh, there has to be some combination of funding, um, we just are not going to be able to maintain, uh, the roadways that we have.

Question:  Does the Governor have any responsibility for coming up with a proposal, a comprehensive proposal?

Representative Hummel (D): You know, it’s, I, I can’t speak for the Governor but it was my understanding that, that, uh, a deal, or compromise was reached, after that debate, after that filibuster and because of what happened with right to work in the Senate, uh, the Senate imploded, um, which they knew was going to happen. Uh, I know that, uh, Leader, uh, Richards said that that was his agenda and that was more important so I guess he got his way. Um, and as a result Missouri is not able to fund their roadways.

[crosstalk]

Question:  Well, that bill was a tenth of what the Transportation Department says it needs. Who’s responsible for coming up with a half a billion dollar or more total transportation package that the department says it needs or roads continue to crumble, bridges continue to be closed?

Representative Hummel (D):  Obviously it’s the legislature’s job to, to enact that change.

Question:  Are the  Democrats gonna come up with a plan for the next session?

Representative Hummel (D):  I would raise the gas tax.

Question:  Well, back in two thousand eight the Governor flatly said he wasn’t gonna raise taxes. And he talked in two thousand twelve about how he didn’t raise taxes [Representative Hummel (D): “Okay.”] and then in two thousand fourteen he didn’t support the sales tax hike. So, doesn’t the Governor bear a little bit of responsibility by painting himself in a corner like a year before he’s leaving office instead of like before the crisis occurred?

Representative Hummel (D):  I mean, I, I can’t speak for the Governor. I think, uh, I think at least right now he seems to be, uh, in favor of some type of gas tax hike, um, or at least some combination of, of fix. So, I, I think he’s at least moving in the right direction now. I can’t speak for his previous, uh, previous stances, but, uh, I mean, at the same time, let’s be honest, the legislature creates the legislation. We file the bills. Nothing’s been done.

Question:  What is your reaction to the House basically stripping off provisions they did not like in bills they passed today because of the Senate’s inaction?

Representative Hummel (D):  Well, I mean, I don’t believe that they stripped them off because they didn’t like them. I think they stripped them off because they had no [crosstalk], because they had no other choice. Um, I think that you can ask, uh, Senator  [Ron] Richard. It was his idea, he decided that that one piece of legislation that he knows is not going to become law, uh, would destroy the Senate. He was right and he got what he wanted. Blame lies at his feet.

Question:  Can the Senate in your opinion, um, take up the veto override of the unemployment comp bill that the House overrode?

Representative Hummel (D):  No, I don’t think they can.

Question:  Missouri state workers have been asking for a pay raise for years. Uh, you guys have mentioned you’ve had a plan but haven’t given details.  Do you have any plans on that?

Representative Hummel (D):  Well, I think next year we’ve, a, a few of us have talked, uh, and we plan to file legislation to increase worker pay. Um, there’s, every year we hear of, there’s going to be a different study, there’s going to be a different study. Missouri workers are the lowest paid in the state, in this country. Um, we need to move the needle. We’ll look at, we will be filing legislation next year to address that.

Okay. Thank you. Thanks everybody. Thanks for a good session.

Previously:

Opening of the 2014 legislative session – photos (January 8, 2014)

House Democratic Caucus press conference – Jefferson City – January 8, 2014 (January 8, 2014)

“…Well, first of all, I don’t feel that we should be leveraging the children of this state on anything. They should be our number one priority…”

Yesterday afternoon the House Democratic Caucus held a press conference in the House Lounge after the opening of the legislative session in Jefferson City. After prepared remarks by Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D) and Assistant Minority Floor Leader Gail McCann Beatty (D) they took questions from the press.

The video:

The transcript:

Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D): Questions.

Question: There is not agreement between the Governor and, uh, legislature on a consensus revenue estimate, so a couple of questions there. Where does your party stand on how much money the state should, uh, plan on having next year? And does that play into where you hope to see money come to the foundation formula? Do you think there’s more money there that can be pumped into that, or where is that gonna come from?

Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D): Well, first of all, I haven’t seen the, uh, Governor’s budget proposal, but I assume that that is where his, uh, numbers are coming from. Uh, look, I think we know that the, the House is going to, the Governor is gonna start with his number and the House Budget Committee will start with their number. You know, if, if they want to go ahead and start cutting money from education, from fully funding the foundation formula, um, and not try to trust the Governor’s number then that’s up to them. Then they can be in the position to go ahead and cut things from education. So, do I know which number is the absolute correct answer? I don’t. And I don’t think, I don’t think that it’s fair to say that either one, either one party does, so.

Question: From a position of a minority with fifty-two members you can’t force much, um, in the House of Representatives. So, you’re gonna have to rely on public pressure in some ways to [inaudible] the Republicans. What do you intend to do that would be different from what happened last year on Medicaid that would, uh, create that pressure to [inaudible] move ahead on this bill?

Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D): Well, first of all, I think that there’s enough people within the majority party that would vote for Medicaid expansion if someone in the Speaker’s office had the courage to let it come to the floor for a vote. How are we going to know if no one will bring it up for a vote? The Chamber of Commerce in Missouri as well as numerous chambers of commerce across the state have come out more strongly in favor of this. You know, they realize that this is a huge, uh, job creation tool. Why is it that the majority only wants to listen to the business community when it suits their agenda? I don’t think it’s fair to say that they want to say that, okay, fine, we can’t expand jobs in the state unless we do this. They’ve come out and said they think this is gonna create twenty-four thousand jobs. I mean, they agree with us. We’re not always on the same page as the Chamber of Commerce.

Question: Yeah, but chances are that, you know, barring peasants with pitch forks coming up here and pushing the Speaker in to this, um, up to the dais, uh, to get a vote on that, how do you, how do you get that pressure on him?

Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D): Well, what we have been doing is we’ve been going, in the interim, we went around the state for quite a while. Uh, we went to different areas of the state and we tried to inform the voters and the citizens that this is the right thing to do. And we’re gonna continue to do that. Um, and as you said, it’s up to public pressure to get these guys to do what they [inaudible], so.

Assistant Minority Floor Leader Gail McCann Beatty (D): Just a, a quick comment, too. I think as we start to see some of these hospitals start to close I think, uh, a lot of our counterparts are gonna have to rethink, uh, how they vote on this.

Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D): For the first time in history BJC has laid off employees. I mean, if that’s not an eye awakener I don’t know what is.

Question: Where would you like to see the minimum wage increase to? What is your, what, what’s your proposal  [inaudible]?

Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D): That’s Representative Roorda. Let’s let Representative Roorda  answer that, it’s his bill.

Representative Jeff Roorda (D): Thank  you, Jake. Uh, well, first of all, it’s great to be part of a team that is bringing common sense solutions to the table, uh, instead of what we heard in a very red meat speech from the Speaker today that, uh, I think folks notice that, uh, his own caucus was not excited about. We saw nothing but unenthused golf claps, uh, throughout the Speaker’s speech. And I think it’s because it’s an extreme speech, uh, that offers no bipartisan attempt to work with the Governor to pass important legislation. Uh, and I don’t think that’s reflective of the Speaker’s entire caucus, so.

To confirm what, uh, my friend and leader said, I think we’re gonna advance issues like minimum wage, House Bill 1098 was filed in early December. That seeks to raise minimum wage to eight dollars twenty-five cents per hour. Uh, for tipped employees it, it raises their percentage of minimum wage from fifty percent to sixty percent. It also, uh, doubles the damages, uh, for employees who were not, uh, paid properly under the minimum wage statutes. So, uh, it very closely mirrors the, uh, petition initiative, uh, that just fell few signatures short of getting on the ballot in November two thousand twelve. And it’s common sense legislation I think, uh, Missourians of every stripe can agree that it’s good for our state and good for our economy.

Question: Do you keep the COLA on?

Representative Jeff Roorda (D): Keep the COLA, yes.

Representative Jeff Roorda (D).

Question: Last year, uh, Representative Barnes, uh, worked on an alternate Medicaid proposal that would include, uh, a smaller increase with some, uh, market based reforms mixed in. And he’s been working on that over the, uh, since the last session ended. Is that something the House Democrats can get behind?

Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D): I, absolutely willing to sit down with Representative Barnes and, and discuss the proposal. I mean, the Speaker created special interim committees. So did the Senate. So tell me now why after we have been working on this the entire interim that all of a sudden they’re, it’s just not gonna be brought up. I mean, why did we waste all the taxpayers’ dollars having these interim committees if they weren’t going to do anything? And, you know, the Speaker said in his speech that he was tired of the Governor picking winners and lose, losers as he did in the Boeing proposal. Unless I’m mistaken, I could’ve swore the Speaker voted for that proposal. So, I’m confused on where he’s going with that.

Question: Question for some of your, uh, maybe for some of your members with the Education Committee. But, on the transfer issue if there comes up an opportunity to leverage that with some of the other issues that, uh, uh, Speaker Jones or the Republicans have been favorable for are there any that you can see working with or using as leverage?

Representative Genise Montecillo (D): Well, first of all, I don’t feel that we should be leveraging the children of this state on anything. They should be our number one priority. Educating our children in this state should be our number one issue that we’re addressing this session. Um, without that everything else falls by the wayside. So, no, I don’t believe that our children should be wagered. Uh, there were bills last year, I filed a bill, and, and several of us did and we were told that unless the Speaker’s legislation was moved ours wouldn’t see the light of day and it didn’t. That’s wrong. If we know something is gonna provide good education outcomes that should be a priority.

Representative Genise Montecillo (D).

Question: What would you like, do you have a proposal on the transfer law in terms of what changes you, your caucus supports on, on that law?

Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D): No, we don’t, we don’t have a, you know, we’ve looked at the proposal that being brought forward in the Senate. Um, we think there’s some good ground work there, think there’s some changes that probably need to be make, be made. But, um, and I’ll let Representative McNeil. She’s not here. [crosstalk] Well.

Representative Genise Montecillo (D): Representative McNeil does have, um, she’s working on legislation. She’s not present today.

Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D): I think there’s some common sense things that we can, we can start with. Like, I think that it’s, I think that it’s not out of the picture to say that the receiving districts can at least have some common sense way to set classroom sizes. Certainly I don’t think that they should be able to lower them they way some of them have below the number of students that they already actually have in class. Uh, but I think that there’s, there should be some reasonable expectations to, uh, take in mind classroom sizes in those proposals. And there’s some other things that we can work on, but, um, it’s a tough issue as everybody knows.

Representative Genise Montecillo (D): I think one other point to understand and, it’s worrisome to me that the Speaker said that the transfer issue doesn’t seem to be a priority for him.  Back in St. Louis we have students that already lost their teachers this year. They, when they return to school after the snow storm they are going to brand new schools. Their school has closed. I don’t, I cannot understand how that’s good, um educational policy for our children.

Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D): Any other questions? Okay. Thank you.

Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D).

Previously: Opening of the 2014 legislative session – photos (January 8, 2014)

“…The speaker said that we need new, fresh ideas. None of those ideas were new. They were the same ones, over and over, again. All of the crazy stuff that was, uh, brought to the floor last year…”

This afternoon the House Democratic Caucus held a press conference in the House Lounge after the opening of the legislative session in Jefferson City. Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D) and Assistant Minority Floor Leader Gail McCann Beatty (D) started with prepared remarks.

Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D).

The video:

The transcript:

Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D): Everybody, thank you, thank you all for being here today.  I appreciate, uh, everyone’s time.  Welcome back to, uh, session after a very brief break, um, in the news stories.  Uh, here to present our legislative priorities for this year on Elvis’ seventy-ninth birthday. Representative Mayfield wanted me to mention that in case anybody was curious.

Um, our number one issue, of course, is, is Medicaid. Uh, there’s no issue that’s before us that could be any more important. Uh, we came together in a bipartisan fashion, uh, to try and lure Boeing here, um, obviously without success. But, when you look at, at what we did, both sides of the aisle, to bring that issue to the forefront in a short time and try to create jobs in this state, it shows that we can do it.

We came together to try and create eighty-five hundred jobs in this state. We did it in record time. There is no reason whatsoever that we cannot create twenty-four thousand jobs in this state in the same manner. We’ve left twenty-four thousand jobs on the table last year. We cannot afford to do it again.

We support the Governor’s proposal to fully fund the foundation formula by twenty-seventeen. It’s been a long time coming and it’s something that we’ve needed across the state. We talk a lot about education reform in this state – it’s never about making sure that our schools and our high, higher education facilities are fully funded as they should be. That is one of our top goals for this year, is to support the Governor’s agenda.

We support a responsible fix to the school transfer issue. Uh, everyone knows that that is a, a huge problem. We think there are absolutely responsible ways that we can work together to get this issue fixed. What we don’t think is that we should be putting some of the majority’s extreme school reform issues tied to that legislation. We need to fix what’s going on right now and leave the crazy stuff to another day.

Um, we also support a raising of the Missouri minimum wage. We think that that is important to, as we talk about job creation to bring the people at the bottom of the social layer to create a living wage so that they can provide for their families to begin to crawl out of poverty. And when you talk about the problems in some of our schools what people never talk about is the problems at home. The problems of people trying to feed their families, to make sure that there’s a place for their kids to sleep at night, and get them to school on time. You can’t do that on minimum wage. Representative Roorda, um, has a bill that he’s working on to do that.

We are going to present a bill to found, uh, to, uh, implement the school transfer issue. Uh, Representative Carpenter is going to, has a bill that he’s been working on the entire interim, uh, to our tax proposal, not a tax proposal that will drive an eight hundred million dollar hole in the state budget and one that will create tax breaks for the wealthiest corporations, but one that will give tax relief to ninety-eight percent of Missourians and will be revenue neutral.

We think that all of these things can be accomplished in this session and there’s no reason that we can’t tackle these.

Um, I do want to say that I was a little disappointed in the lack of bipartisan tone that came out of the Speaker’s, um, announcement today on the floor, on his priorities. Uh, we came together in December and look what we got done for the state. Maybe it didn’t work out, but that’s what the citizens of this state expect. They expect us to work past our differences and create jobs. The speaker said that we need new, fresh ideas. None of those ideas were new. They were the same ones, over and over, again. All of the crazy stuff that was, uh, brought to the floor last year – Sharia law, uh, drones – all that stuff’s been filed again. It’s nothing new. There’s no new ways to create jobs in this state. The Speaker wants to talk about right to work. It’s amazing then that Express Scripts is adding fifteen hundred jobs in St. Louis, that Boeing is adding several hundred jobs, Ford is adding, um, a thousand jobs, General Motors is adding jobs. We’ve created forty-four thousand new jobs from January twenty-thirteen to now. Forty-four thousand. Our unemployment rate, while at six point one percent is still unacceptable, it had been below the national average for, I think, fifty-one consecutive months. We’re doing something right. Right to work is not gonna help anybody in this state, except to lower wages for the people of Missouri.

So, my Assistant Minority Floor Leader Gail McCann Beatty has, uh, something to say and then we’ll take questions.

Assistant Minority Floor Leader Gail McCann Beatty (D): Good afternoon. So as we go into the two thousand -fourteen session two of our top priorities will be Medicaid expansion and the school transfer law.

The expansion of Medicaid represents the largest jobs creation bill that we have seen in generations, creating twenty-four thousand jobs in the health care industry alone. Our tax dollars are already going out to other states. It’s now time for us to bring our tax dollars back home.

School transfers are, are bankrupting school districts in the St. Louis area and the Kansas City School District is destined for that same fate. We must make, we must make common sense changes to our school transfer law. Our Missouri students are entitled to a quality education regardless where they live. We won’t improve our struggling districts by putting them in bankruptcy. We must be careful not to hurt the receiving districts. These districts should have the ability to set reasonable class limits to avoid overcrowding. We must act now. We cannot hold our children hostage to advance personal agendas. We have an obligation to Missourians to move forward without getting bogged down in unrelated issues in pushing personal agendas.

Minority Floor Leader Jacob Hummel (D): And one more thing,  I did forget one of our proposals. I’m sorry, I got the page turned.  Um, Representative McManus is, uh, leading our effort on ethics reform this year. It is not the same bill that we proposed last year. It is a much stronger version, uh, one that we think is, is desperately needed in the state. And he will be, he will be filing that probably either this week or the beginning of next week.

Assistant Minority Floor Leader Gail McCann Beatty (D).