Recommended Candidate, Rep. John Wright to Host Town Hall Meeting Tomorrow!

Rep. John Wright is an incumbent for the 47th house district, and is recommended by MNEA.  Hope you can attend to support our recommended candidate.  You may wear your MNEA pin.

Rep. John Wright, Vice Chair of House Ethics Committee, to Host 

Town Hall Meeting at the Daniel Boone Regional Library on Wednesday, July 30, 2014, 7 pm

Rep. Wright to share findings on lobbyist gift practices in state government and discuss the need for reform to limit special interest influence

JEFFERSON CITY, MO. – Rep. John Wright, Vice Chair of the Missouri House Ethics Committee, will be hosting a town hall meeting in the Friends Room of the Daniel Boone Regional Library in Columbia at 7 pm this Wednesday, July 30.  Rep. Wright will share his recent findings on lobbyist gift practices and lead a discussion of potential ways to limit the growth of special interest influence in state government. 

“Last year alone, Missouri State Legislators accepted nearly $1 million in personal gifts from lobbyists, including over $40,000 in Cardinals and Royals tickets, expensive steak dinners, golf outings, and concert tickets,” said Wright.  “Missouri is now the only state in America that has no legal limits on lobbyist gifts and no legal limits on campaign contributions, and the inflow of money into our political process is stacking the deck in favor of special interest groups at the expense of Missouri families.”

Rep. Wright cited a lobbyist-sponsored $5,000 steak dinner for the House Utilities Committee as an example of a growing pattern of behaviors that threaten to erode public confidence in the political process.  The House Utilities Committee helps oversee the rates that electric companies are legally allowed to charge Missouri households. 

The majority of lobbyist expenditures are funded by regulated industries, including utilities and telecom companies, and groups that receive state tax subsidies, including real estate developers in St. Louis and Kansas City.  State tax subsidies have increased six-fold over the past fifteen years and now account for more than the entire amount of the shortfall in Missouri’s public school funding formula. 

“Too many people in the Capitol building have a vested interest in the status quo,” said Wright, “That’s why we’re holding these town hall meetings to discuss this issue:  only by coming together as concerned citizens can we hope to improve the system.”