Capitol report

We had the State of the State from the chief justice of the Supreme Court this week. It was good but it always scares me when there are that many lawyers in the building. We took up and passed another ethics bill banning gifts, trips, and meals from lobbyists. It’s long overdue. I have made practice the past 14 years of not taking anything, so this bill should not affect some of us.

My bill on raising the HealthNet asset limit for the elderly and disabled received unanimous support from the sub committee and now the bill has to go to the Health Committee for final approval to proceed to the House floor. 

For the next few weeks we will be working to come up with a balanced budget. This is our own constitutional duty. The Governor’s budget proposal is once again overly optimistic in my opinion. If the revenue does not come in, then he gets to “budget” by withholding what he didn’t want to spend money on in the first place. Budgeting works best when agreed upon together and then spent accordingly. 

I saw both the head DNR/Parks and the State Guard. They tell me plans are going ahead with the shooting range at St. Joe Park. I’ve been working on this since I was in the Senate. There will be more to follow.

 Also we had great responses to the weekly jokes last session and we will be starting them up again. Please send your “Clean” jokes to kevin.engler@house.mo.gov with the subject line (Joke of the Week).

Please contact me at 201 West Capitol Avenue, Room 313-3, Jefferson City, Mo. 65101-6806; by phone at 573-751-3455 or by email at kevin.engler@house.mo.gov.

State Rep. Kevin Engler, R-116

This report was filed Jan. 28, 2016