This week we continue our series of looking at priority issues for the 2025 Missouri legislative session that begins in January. Pre-filing bills continue and now 1,135 bills have been filed by Missouri state senators and representatives.

Governor-elect Mike Kehoe weighed in on Senator O’Laughlin’s bill to put MoDOT under the governor’s office to increase accountability (SJR2).

Kehoe, who at one time chaired the MoDOT Commission, said he disagreed with her proposal: “You don’t want politics deciding what road projects get done because it could be a disaster,” Kehoe added. “What Cindy O’Laughlin wants is accountability from a state department. That’s what she’s known for. She’s a small business person. I think her heart is very much in transportation. She wants accountability. She wants transparency and I respect that.”

Senator Mike Moon, from Ash Grove, sponsored the 2023 SAFE act that protects children from predators both inside and outside the medical system. He weighed in on his priorities for the 2025 legislative session.

Senator Moon said: “While my primary focus will be to protect the lives of developing humans (in the womb), I will also be advocating for more freedom for business owners by eliminating the corporate income tax (SB370), preserving the ability of Missourians to buy, sell, and trade using gold and silver backed currency (SB25), and supporting the enactment of law which enables residents of the state to fully and completely own their property (both personal and real) via a consumption tax.”

Property taxes are unfair because you never really own your car or house, if you must pay rent to the county each year with the valid threat they will seize your property if you don’t pay. The catch is how to replace property taxes with a stable tax that funds essential services such as fire, ambulance, sheriff, county government and government run schools.

Corporate taxes reduce the money businesses have to re-invest. Taxes on businesses directly reduce a business’ ability to hire more workers and expand. The catch is how to replace the lost revenue if that tax is eliminated.

There is also the option of trimming the size and scope of government.

Representative Louis Briggs, from Hannibal, thinks that is exactly what we need to do:

“This rural representative believes that a cornerstone of Trumpism is government efficiency. By definition, the fewer bureaucrats there are, the better the health of the body politic.

“To that end, I am introducing a state equivalent of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) controlled by the General Assembly, a state equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court undoing of deference to Federal agencies that will apply to state agencies, and for the seventh year, I am introducing legislation that will mandate performance audits for all state departments conducted by non-government auditors. That has saved Ohio well over a billion dollars already. Now that the crack cocaine Federal funding has dried up, it is past time to discipline our state bureaucracy through the budget process.”

Riggs also said: “You should see what I have in store for ‘Zero Accountability’ MoDOT while I’m at it.”

The Missouri legislative session starts on Jan. 8, 2025.