Ron Richard

Speaker Ron Richard says he needs "line-by-line details" before he can evaluate Governor Nixon's outline for streamlining state government and reducing state spending. "Until we see the governor’s line-by-line details of ways to shrink state government and bridge the $500 million gap in (his) budget, we aren’t confident that he has a plan," his spokesperson said yesterday.

This is the same Ron Richard who one week ago told reporters he had a "plan" to reform state government "top-to-bottom," but couldn't share it with the world just yet.

Speaker Ron Richard has a message for all the haters who didn't like the way he blocked a House vote on autism legislation last year: Kiss his grits.

Speaking Friday with The Globe, The Most Powerful Man in Missouri cited to the recently-passed autism insurance legislation (HB1311) as evidence that he has been on the right side of the debate all along. "We were right, as usual. The House.  As usual, I was right,"  he says. Listen:

Last year, there was a consensus that something should have been done. There wasn't a consensus in the House, and I was somewhat criticized throughout the state that I just didn't ram something through.

In a short 24 hour-span last weekend, House Speaker Ron Richard (R-Joplin) declared and then denied a desire to be on a "short list" of Republican candidates for Governor in 2016.  Such plans were not welcomed by Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, who fancies himself a viable challenger to Jay Nixon in 2012.

The story seemed to be over as quickly as it had come, until Richard was asked about it by reporters for his hometown paper, The Joplin Globe.  At the end of the interview, Richard deviated from the blanket denial he gave The Beacon last Saturday, and again said he was interested in running for governor.  But to make the math work (and not hurt Kinder's tender feelings again), Richard says the Post-Dispatch's Tony Messenger made up the fact that he was thinking about running in 2016.

"I just haven't made up our mind."

Speaker Ron Richard, speaking with The Joplin Globe about what the House Republicans want to cut from the state budget.  The day before, Richard told reporters that he and "House Republicans" had a plan to "reform [government] top-to-bottom," but would not release said plan until Governor Nixon "stands with them to announce it."

Listen:

The Ron Richard Roller Coaster continues:  

[House Speaker Ron] Richard also said Friday that House Republicans would not support a tax hike to help supplement the state’s shrinking revenues. In fact, he favors the opposite.

"We’d like to do a small tax cut — something to help businesses in this tough economy," he said, in discussing a wide range of issues on the table in the current session.

Ozarks First:

SPEAKER DEFENDS ALLOCATION OF EXPECTED STIMULUS FUNDS

State House Speaker Ron Richard says Republicans in the House did not use $300-million in unappropriated stimulus money to balance the budget.

An instant Ron Richard classic:

On Thursday, House Speaker Ron Richard declared during a press conference that House Republicans didn't use $300 million in federal stimulus dollars that haven't been appropriated by Congress yet.

“We thought that was … on the irresponsible side, and we decided not to do that,” Richard told reporters in front of the GOP caucus.

But the GOP spending plan introduced late Wednesday by House Budget Chairman Allen Icet does include the $300 million.

Friday afternoon, House Speaker Ron Richard (R-Joplin) told the Post-Dispatch's Tony Messenger that he wanted to be on "the short list" of GOP candidates for governor in 2016.  And then at some point in the next 24 hours, Richard decided -- or was persuaded -- that we shouldn't believe what he'd stated the day before. 

It's not hard to see why some of his colleagues at the MOGOP's Lincoln Days celebration were freaked out by Richard's statements.  Implicit in his 2016 dreams, of course, is the assumption that Peter Kinder will not survive his 2012 campaign for governor. 

Missourinet and the AP report that Senate President Charlie Shields (R-St. Joseph) and Speaker Ron Richard (R-Joplin) are both cool to the replace the state income tax with much higher sales taxes.  Missourinet's Bob Priddy:

Senate leader Charlie Shields does not think the bill will pass but he expects a robust debate. In the event it does clear the Senate, the proposal goes to the House, which passed the bill last year. But this year, Speaker Ron Richard sees problems. “I just want to make sure there’s not any uncertainty about where we’re moving, about schools formula, about libraries, about fire districts...And I can see the amendments on the floors now, everybody getting exempted out to kill the bill...I don’t think St. Louis can take 11 or 12 or 13 percent sales tax on their retail. I don’t think that would work and I don’t think that’s proper,” he says.

UPDATE: Richard is calling for the establishment of a charitable trust to finance the Capitol renovations, which means the money would come private donations, not state taxpayers.  My tweet about the story incorrectly assumed that the people would be paying for upgrades to their  Capitol. That said, having politicans try to raise all this money from private donors sounds like a horrible idea. 

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The librul free-spending austere budget hawk Ron Richard wants $350 million to renovate the Capitol building, build a tunnel from the Capitol to the MoDOT building next door and move the Department of Transportation to some other location.

Sounds swell. But how, exactly, does the Speaker plan to find this $350 million? 

And how is this a top priority for The Most Powerful Man in Missouri?

I'm concerned some lawmakers and leaders in the Capitol may have spent too much time debating nonbinding resolutions about federal policies, and forgotten that the General Assembly has actual responsibilities regarding appropriating money in Missouri.

Consider, for example, the following passage from Sen. Kevin Engler's most recent constituent newsletter (h/t The Turner Report):

Also this week, we continued to hear about some of the troubling news of budget withholdings and shortfalls that will affect people’s lives and safety. On top of over a $42 million dollar shortfall of this year’s budget for public education, the governor announced a $24 million withhold of the state’s investment in rural broadband and another $29 million that was supposed to go for interoperability of public safety communications systems. While I understand times are tough for the state. Much of these painful, unexpected cuts could have been avoided if a balanced budget were presented by the governor to the general assembly over the past two years.  (emphasis mine).

What, exactly, is Kevin Engler talking about?

"The chair will call on those in its own time. But I will not tolerate any insubordination. All I'm -- If I miss you, Gentleman...just... Gentleman, if I miss you or anyone, you have leadership and they have a phone, they can call me too..."

~ Speaker Ron Richard, the Most Powerful Man in Missouri, reminding his underlings that his "Law is Word" on the House Floor

Listen:

Speaker Ron Richard (R-Joplin) and Birther Rep. Tim Jones (R-Eureka) got really grumpy this morning on the House floor this morning when Rep. Mike Talboy (D-Kansas City) asked why the FBI was asking questions about why Jones' "stacked taxes" bill didn't pass last year.  Listen:

Jones' outrage is ironic, considering the fact that he was the one who publicly stated the FBI was asking questions about his bill. According to Jones own account, he told the FBI to talk to Speaker Richard and Majority Leader Steven Tilley (R-Perryville).

Speaker Ron Richard has been making a lot of promises in recent months about making the autism legislation he killed last year the "top priority" this year. 

Today, the House took up its first actual bill on the floor -- and it was legislation from birther Rep. Tim Jones (R-Eureka) bill to end the uncertainty over local sales taxes and shut down former Rep. Tom Burcham's predatory lawsuits.

Apart from the meaningless gesture of assigning autism legislation to committee early in the year, there's no way Richard can say he's kept his many promises to make autism insurance his #1 priority. 

Don Lograsso, the Missouri House's general counsel and top advisor to disgraced former Speaker Rod Jetton, has been placed on unpaid leave.

According to the Associated Press, Lograsso is on unpaid leave because his eyesight is deteriorating and he might need surgery, and this development has absolutely nothing to do with FBI questions or potential grand jury testimony in the news this week.

UPDATE: The Star reports that current Speaker Ron Richard said he had no idea why Lograsso is taking "an unexpected and indefinite leave of absence." 

House Speaker Ron Richard, a Joplin Republican, said he talked to Lograsso but still doesn’t know exactly why he needs time away.

“It beats me,” Richard said. “You can have that conversation with him, I don’t know.” 

Richard’s staff, however, told The Star that Lograsso was taking leave for medical reasons.

“He has some eye issues,” said Jeff Brooks, Richard’s chief of staff. “He is going to take a leave of absence to take care of medical issues.”

But Richard said nothing about a medical reason for the leave.

How does Richard not know why Lograsso is taking an unpaid leave of absence, even after they talked about his departure?  What did they talk about, bowling?