Local representatives praise Gov. Parson's leadership following his final State of the State address

Missouri's 57th Gov. Mike Parson delivered his final state of the state address this week, at the beginning of his sixth year in office.

Wednesday, Jan. 24, Parson touted the personal victories under his administration, including reshaping the state's Supreme Court, reducing the number of elective abortions, reducing income taxes by more than 20% across three tax cuts and increasing state funding for K-12 and higher education, among others.

State representatives from Southeast Missouri praised the governor's leadership since taking office in 2018.

District 148 Rep. Jamie Burger of Benton said he appreciated the positive aspect of Parson's speech.

"The positive aspect and talking about his accomplishments over the last eight years," Burger said. "He's kind of setting Missouri up moving forward, and I think we can continue to build on his leadership and keep investing in Missouri and Missourians. Our goal needs to be to shoot high, and I think that's where I'm going to be part of that."

Barry Hovis

Burger also touted the state's financial, infrastructural and educational improvements under Parson.

"I'm excited about where Missouri stands both financially, as far as I'm concerned, and also where we ranked for our infrastructure improvements, which I think is good to lead to business development and job growth," he said. "It's exciting where our workforce development programs and infrastructure accomplishments are. I think we've done an outstanding job leading Missouri. Fully funding the K-12 foundation formula with an additional $120 million over last year's levels is big and fully funding school transportation is good. That helps our local schools out tremendously, so those things are pretty exciting."

District 147 Rep. John Voss of Cape Girardeau felt Parson's introduction of the first-ever female majority in the Missouri Supreme Court stood out the most from his address, and praised the governor for speaking on his financial victories.

"Governor Parson highlighted the many achievements of his administration over the last six years," Voss said, "cutting taxes by 20%, reducing debt by over 50% while maintaining a AAA credit rating, adding 110,000 jobs and reducing the unemployment rate to an all-time low of 2.1%. I'd say that's a pretty good record."

Both Burger and Voss said they were impressed with the governor's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as well.

Jamie Burger

"I think keeping us open during COVID was monumental for our businesses where other states shut down," Burger said.

District 148 Rep. Barry Hovis of Whitewater -- who considers himself a friend of Parson's -- has enjoyed working in the House of Representatives during the governor's administration, citing Parson's willingness to work with him on his ideas and concerns.

"I've got great relationships with (Parson's staff)," Hovis said. "I feel like he's always had an open-door policy, at least when it comes to things that I want to talk to them about."

While he doesn't necessarily agree with every decision Parson has made during his tenure, Hovis praised the governor's work ethic.

"I think he's worked hard. Not everything he's done has been something that I think that I would have done, but then again, I'm not the governor, and that's his decision," Hovis said. "Anybody can critique someone positively or negatively, but I like to try to stay positive with stuff."

Hovis believes Parson's successor -- whoever it may be -- will "hit the ground running" once they're sworn in.

"Every governor is his own man," Hovis said. "One will come in with priorities that everybody will agree with and another one may come in with other priorities that are needed. I would say that the new governor coming in, they've been doing this long enough. Out of the three that's running, whether it's Sen. (Bill) Eigel, our Secretary of State (Jay) Ashcroft or whether it's Lt. Governor (Mike) Kehoe, all three of them have very strong leadership abilities."

For Parson himself, Voss said he feels the governor can look back at his years of public service with pride.

"In my view, Gov. Parson can reflect on his public service as a sheriff, member of the House and the Senate, lieutenant governor and governor and hold his head high," Voss said.