Mehlville Fire Board Breaking News

This coming Tuesday, a meeting will be held by Missouri State Attorney General Chris Koster at the AG's office in Jefferson City. Several people will try to persuade the the AG to ignore the State Auditor's Office that said the state law was violated when the Mehlville Fire Protection District Board of Directors submitted a tax rate of .593 when they had just proposed a major tax decrease to the voters in April. The .593 is actually a few cents higher than last years tax rate and about four times what is allowed by Missouri statute after passage of April's ballot measure. Should the Attorney General's Office find the district broke the law, our fire district will have a budget shortfall of 12 million dollars next year.
All of this comes because of the politics of the Mehlville Fire Board and Mr. James Stonebraker, a Republican activist from St. Louis County. The board had the authority to lower its own tax rate but instead sought legislative approval and went before the voters. This earned them much praise in conservative circles around the state. All the while, they spent lots of money with their co-conspirator, the Call Newspapers, which not only passed the unnecessary ballot measure but helped bring voters to the polls for their candidate Director Bonnie Stegmann.
Numerous people will be heading to Jeff City Tuesday, among them State Senator Jim Lembke(R), and State Representatives Walt Bivins (R) and Mike Leara(R). Rep. Leara controls the district's employees' pension funds. Rep.Walt Bivins was the author of the bill that allowed the district to put the issue on the ballot. Sen. Jim Lembke pushed hard for its passage after not being for it but then getting pressure from Stonebraker and the Call Newspapers! None of these three are lawyers but they will try to defend Arron Hilmer's irresponsible decision to put a ballot measure before the voters with only the advice of a political activist. They will ask that AG Chris Koster to ignore the law and speculate as to what the voters really wanted. I voted against the measure in April but I think the voters wanted a tax decrease not a tax increase. Get yourself some popcorn. This will be fun to watch.

Thanks to Walt Bivins and Jim Lembke

http://columbiaheartbeat.blogspot.com/2008/07/assessor-shocker-millionaire-tax-breaks.html#links

All around Missouri properties are under assessed, yet Representatives Bivins and Lembke refuse to acknowledge the problem. If these properties paid their taxes, we could have lower taxes, better schools, roads and health care. Why won't they fight for the middle class?

Can You Imagine What the Call Would Do?

What would the Call do if one of our area's elected officials sponsored one of the state's most anti-public records bills?

What if this law helped corporations hide the fact that they spilled toxic chemicals into our drinking water?

What if the law even gave immunity to those who might be poisoning your grandchildren?

I'm guessing that the Call will endorse Walt Bivins. The other candidate is a woman.


http://www.moenviron.org/pdf/OtherIssuesFactsheet.pdf See Audit Privilege HB 1854

This is what's known as the "Dirty Little Secrets" bills that corporations have been pushing in state legislatures around the country. Our own Walt has been carrying the (toxic) water for his former(?) employer, DOW Chemical.

Closing records that impact human health and the environment is a recipe for trouble and devastating to environmental protection. Walt should be ashamed of himself!

Are South County Republicans Ashamed?

I mentioned earlier that I didn't see a slogan on Councilman Campisi's billboard. There's something else I didn't see, the word Republican. I think there might have been a tiny elephant in the corner, but that was it. This last week, I saw literature for two Republican State Representatives running for office, Jim Lembke and Walter Bivins. Both propaganda sheets didn't indicate that they were Republicans. Has the complete lack of leadership from the governor's office and sexual scandals from the Missouri House of Representatives completely embarrassed these elected officials that they don't even want to be associated with their own party?

http://www.imvotingrepublican.com/

http://lateshow.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/video_player/index/php/965633.phtml