Hovis, Wallingford ready for General Assembly budget session Monday

Citing the need to enact a state budget, members of the Missouri House and Senate will reconvene Monday in Jefferson City, even though Gov. Mike Parson's stay-at-home order does not expire until May 4.

Rep. Barry Hovis (R-146th District/Cape Girardeau) says legislators, mindful of the pandemic, will observe best practices in gathering next week at the Capitol.

"It is odd to tell other people not to (gather) and yet we're going to meet," said Hovis, who is unopposed for a second term in House District 146.

On April 1, Parson announced a cut of $180 million for the current fiscal year ending June 30.

Nearly half of the cut, $80 million, will come from Missouri's public universities and community colleges.

Barry Hovis

On Monday, on top of the earlier-announced reduction, Parson announced $47 million will be withheld from nine state agencies, the state attorney general's office and the legislature.

Parson told a press briefing rises in unemployment and lower revenues flowing into state coffers are the drivers of his decision.

"No one will be exempt from cuts because of what needs to be done to fight COVID," said Hovis, 55.

"Obviously, we're constitutionally mandated to pass a balanced budget in (this) time of decreased funding," he added.

Hovis noted $5.8 billion allocated from the federal CARES Act, otherwise known as the stimulus bill, is helping.

"(But) people are out of work and sales tax revenues are down," added Hovis, a retired Cape Girardeau police officer.

The one-term lawmaker is clear Wayfair legislation, as a way of raising more revenue, is unlikely to be on the agenda next week.

On June 21, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in South Dakota v. Wayfair, holding states may require a business to collect and remit sales and use taxes even if the business doesn't have a physical presence in the taxing state.

Missouri has not acted on Wayfair and Hovis believes it shouldn't.

"When voters in municipalities vote down a use tax, why would we pursue it at the state level?" he asked.

Hovis noted Jackson has turned down a use tax in 2014, 2016 and 2019. Cape Girardeau declined to support such a tax by a two-to-one margin in 2016.

Sen. Wayne Wallington (R-27th District/Cape Girardeau) disagrees with his House colleague.

"(Wayfair) is a no-brainer for me and it should be passed," said Wallingford, who sits on the senate's appropriations committee.

"A lot of people consider (Wayfair) to be a tax increase and it's not," said Wallingford, who is term-limited in the upper chamber and is seeking election to the House later this year.

"If you buy something on the Internet from outside Missouri and it's shipped or brought into our state, a (use) tax should be paid," added Wallingford, 73.

The Vietnam veteran and ex-military pilot regrets the massive reductions to education spending announced by the governor this month.

"(Cuts to education) always bother me," said Wallingford, "but there aren't a lot of places where we can get cost savings."

Wallingford says legislators must return to work if there is any chance of getting a new budget passed in time.

"We have to get the budget out by the end of May," said Wallingford, "and the deadline is tight."

Wallingford, who previously served two years in the House before his current eight-year tenure in the Senate, says this upcoming legislative session will be unique.

"In my 10 years here, we've rarely convened on Friday and never on a Saturday," said Wallingford, "but we're going to do both this coming week."

Wallingford is undecided whether Parson's stay-at-home order should be extended.

"We'll have to see," the senator said, "but I'd rather be safe than sorry."