Missouri

Capitol Perspectives: Ignoring Missouri's Constitution • Missouri Independent

Published

2 years ago

January 3, 2024

Capitol Perspectives: Ignoring Missouri's Constitution • Missouri Independent

As Missouri legislators begin their 2024 session, they might want to consider a recent Missouri Supreme Court decision striking down a significant bill lawmakers passed in 2022.

The decision, issued just days before the 2024 legislative session, invalidated the 2022 law because state lawmakers and the governor violated a pretty simple restriction in the state’s Constitution.

Lawmakers should not have been surprised. The constitutional restriction is completely clear and has been upheld in previous Supreme Court decisions.

The issue involves a prohibition on the legislature passing a bill that gets amended beyond the bill’s original topic. The Constitution provides that “No bill shall contain more than one subject which shall be clearly expressed in its title.”

Seems pretty simple. But lawmakers in the 2022 legislative session ignored that restriction as they have so often in the past.

The bill in question, HB 1606, began as a pretty simple proposal to expand the requirement for counties to publish annual financial statements in local newspapers.

But in the Senate the process went off the deep end adding a pile of unrelated issues.

Missouri Supreme Court strikes down law banning sleeping on public land

The final version included restrictions on local government banning sleeping or camping on sidewalks, requiring martial status on deeds, banning local governments from COVID-19 vaccines requirements for their employees, limiting property condemnation awards, restricting local government regulations on refrigerants, exempting World Cup soccer tournament ticket sales from the sales tax, expanding local government power to expand employee retirement benefits and a pile of other unrelated provisions.

This long list of unrelated issues illustrates how the legislature went off the rails.

In the closing weeks of a legislative session, it’s not unusual for legislators to attach completely unrelated issues pushed by various special interests and lobbyists.

But legislative leaders have not enforced the state Constitution’s requirement that a bill be limited to the original topic by ruling a bloated bill out of order.

Surprising to me is that the governor signed that 2022 bill the Supreme Court struck down when in the same year, Gov. Mike Parson had vetoed two other bills in which he cited violation of the single-topic constitutional requirement.

A 1997 Missouri Supreme Court decision cited the importance of the single-subject constitutional restriction because “these constitutional limitations function in the legislative process to facilitate orderly procedure, avoid surprise, and prevent ‘logrolling’ in which several matters that would not individually command a majority vote are rounded up into a single bill to ensure passage.”

Although the court allowed the law in question to stand, finding the bill related to a single subject, I found that comment insightful.

In the final weeks of a legislative session, the process to win approval in the second chamber can be almost like blackmail requiring agreement of the original chamber’s sponsor to accept the unrelated provisions added by the second chamber.

This absence of discipline enforcing the state constitutional restriction could become even worse in the 2024 legislative session when legislators push amendments unrelated to the original bill to gain bragging rights for their upcoming campaigns or at the urging of special interests.

That likely was the case with the 2022 bill in which the House passed a simple single-topic bill only to see the Senate bloat what began as a simple seven-page bill into a 64 page quagmire.

Legislative and gubernatorial violation of a state constitutional single-topic restriction extends well beyond the lawmaking process itself. It interferes with governmental transparency and can obscure your understanding of the actions of your elected officials.

A bill containing completely unrelated topics makes it almost impossible for voters to understand and more difficult for reporters to describe the bill in a simple sentence.

Beyond that, a bill with a nearly incomprehensible number of topics allows a legislative leader or local legislator to focus their descriptions on just the most politically popular element rather than all of the more complicated and controversial issues inserted into a bill.

With the impending 2024 primaries and general election, this legislative practice only serves to foster confusion and obscurity for voters.

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Missouri

Missouri ice cream shop named best in the state. Here’s why.

Published

6 hours ago

June 24, 2026

Press Room

Missouri ice cream shop named best in the state. Here’s why.

Think you know the best ice cream shop in Missouri? Ask ten people, and you’ll likely get ten different answers.

Cheapism, a website focused on budget living, is weighing in on the debate with its recently released list of the best ice cream shops in every state. Here’s what it selected as Missouri’s best ice cream spot:

What’s the best ice cream shop in Missouri, according to Cheapism?

The media outlet selected the winners by scouring through Reddit threads, Yelp reviews, Google ratings and local favorites to find the best ice cream shop in every state.

Factoring all of that in, the honor of Missouri’s best ice cream shop goes to Clementine’s Ice Cream in St. Louis.

Clementine’s is a locally owned artisanal ice cream shop founded in 2015, known for its “naughty” (alcohol-infused) and “nice” (nonalcoholic) offerings, as well as non-dairy options.

The company has expanded from its beginnings as a single shop to multiple locations, boasting 11 shops across the Midwest, with three more on the way.

What’s Clementine’s best ice cream flavor?

Clementine’s also landed on Food & Wine’s list of essential ice cream flavors for all 50 states with its gooey butter cake ice cream.

The magazine praised the “super creamy” texture of the cream cheese ice cream and appreciated the large chunks of Clementine’s homemade gooey butter cake mixed throughout.

What is gooey butter cake?

For those not in the know, gooey butter cake is one of the Show Me State’s best-kept secrets, with its origins tracing back to St. Louis in the 1930s.

The cake allegedly came about when a baker accidentally reversed the butter-to-flour ratio while making a batch of coffee cake, resulting in a gooey, custard-like filling. Given it was the Great Depression, the bakery decided to sell the resulting cake rather than waste it, making it a hit with locals in the process.

It became so popular, in fact, that other bakeries in the city soon began making their own versions, and an iconic Missouri treat was born.

How to find a Clementine’s near you

Clementine’s has more than a dozen locations, mostly centered around St. Louis. It also has locations in Kansas City and Bentonville, Arkansas.

A Clementine’s is scheduled to open in Columbia this summer.

Check out this map to find the nearest Clementine’s location near you:

You can also get Clementine’s shipped directly to your front door via Goldbelly.

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Missouri

Missouri lawmaker pushes for more transparency from data center developments

Published

16 hours ago

June 24, 2026

Press Room

Missouri lawmaker pushes for more transparency from data center developments

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KFVS) – As more data centers are announced across Missouri, one state lawmaker wants to get rid of non-disclosure agreements.

Republican State Rep. Tricia Byrnes from St. Charles County organized a public hearing for Sept. 16 at the Missouri Capitol for lawmakers to discuss data center regulations. Any legislation that comes out of the hearing will have to wait until January to be introduced in the General Assembly. Byrnes said she hopes local communities take action before January.

The effort comes after Amazon and Google announced multibillion-dollar data center projects in Montgomery County, which Byrnes represents.

Montgomery County farmer Harry Cope said residents have concerns about how the projects have been handled.

“The transparency that’s gone on with all of this stuff in our county has been about like looking through muddy water,” Cope said.

Byrnes said Missourians are looking for state leaders to respond.

“Missourians should never take a bad deal. And right now, folks are waiting for Jefferson City to stand up and pay attention,” Byrnes said.

Byrnes is not proposing a complete statewide stop to data center projects. She said she wants to get rid of nondisclosure agreements for data center projects and create specific noise standards and water permits. She said she wants the process to happen in public.

Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, has said he supports more data centers in Missouri, saying they are better for the economy.

“It’s about opportunity, good-paying jobs, investment in our community, better efficiency. And it’s about making sure Missouri remains on the forefront of next-generation technology,” Kehoe said.

Byrnes did not directly comment on whether Kehoe will support her legislation. She addressed a comment the governor made last week, when he implied foreign adversaries such as China are spreading misinformation about data centers.

“We have extremely intelligent people all across Missouri, and what I’m hearing now is this spin that they’re hearing stuff from China. I can tell you, no one from China asked me to have you here today,” Byrnes said.

Missouri House Democratic Leader Ashley Aune said there is an opportunity for lawmakers to craft legislation based on what Missourians want.

“I don’t have a proposal top of mind about what regulation would, should, can look like across the state. But what I will say is that we have a real opportunity to work with our voters,” Aune said.

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