Top Missouri senator proposes $10 limit on lobbyist gifts

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri’s No. 2 Republican state senator is proposing a $10 limit on lobbyist gifts to elected officials.

The legislation Majority Leader Mike Kehoe pitched to a Senate panel Tuesday wouldn’t completely ban gifts, as Republican Gov. Eric Greitens has called on lawmakers to do.

Instead, it would limit lobbyists to spending at most $10 per day on each elected official.

A proposal passed by the House would ban most lobbyist gifts to individual elected officials. Exceptions would include flowers, honorary plaques and catering meals at some events.

Under the current law, lobbyists are able to give unlimited gifts to elected officials.

Greitens repeatedly has called for a total ban on lobbyist gifts.