Money runs Missouri politics. Just ask the parade of past and current lawmakers who have been called in to the federal courthouse in recent weeks to chat about shady pay-to-play tactics controlling bills down in Jefferson City.
Everyone is talking ethics reform at the state capitol, but Rep. Jason Kander, a Democrat from Kansas City, has made it his main priority this session. He sounded the alarm last October and partnered with Rep. Tim Flook, a Liberty Republican, to craft a bill that would eliminate many of the money-laundering schemes that are still totally legal according to Missouri statutes.
To get you educated on the importance of such legislation, Kander produced this nifty little "Pop Quiz."
Before the General Assembly adjourned for spring break last week, a special House subcommittee cobbled together ethics reform provisions from a handful of different legislators and came up with H.B. 2300. It doesn't address everything in Kander's legislation or deal with all the loopholes raised in his pop quiz. The Democratic rep says the subcommittee's bill (still a work in progress) doesn't do enough to clean up the activity of political action committees or punish lawmakers who straight-up lie to investigators.
But, with two months left in the session, the debate about ethics reform is just starting to heat up.
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