ALEC in Missouri & Kansas
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
EXPOSED: ALEC’S INFLUENCE IN MISSOURI AND KANSAS Which elected officials are outsourcing their duties to the ALEC corporate bill mill? TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 1 How Expansive is ALEC’s Reach in Jefferson City and Topeka? ............................................................ 1 Why is ALEC’s Influence in Jefferson City and Topeka Important?....................................................... 1 ALEC’s Campaign Flows Through Topeka and Jefferson City ................................................................ 3 Missouri and Kansas Elected Officials with ALEC Ties .................................................................................. 4 Missouri State Senators ........................................................................................................................ 4 Missouri State Representatives ............................................................................................................ 4 Former Missouri State Legislators ........................................................................................................ 4 Missouri Statewide Officials.................................................................................................................. 5 Kansas State Senators ........................................................................................................................... 5 Kansas State Representatives ............................................................................................................... 5 Former Kansas State Legislators ........................................................................................................... 5 ALEC Model Legislation Introduced in Our Statehouses .............................................................................. 7 Missouri Bills ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Kansas Bills .......................................................................................................................................... 10 Beyond Copycat Bills: ALEC-Inspired Attacks .............................................................................................. 11 Missouri Copycat Bills ......................................................................................................................... 11 Kansas Copycat Bills ............................................................................................................................ 11 Missouri and Kansas Corporations with ALEC Ties ..................................................................................... 13 Missouri Corporations with ALEC Ties ................................................................................................ 13 Kansas Corporations with ALEC Ties ................................................................................................... 13 Missouri and Kansas Corporations that have cut their ALEC Ties ...................................................... 14 ALEC Junkets and “Scholarships” ................................................................................................................ 16 Missouri Legislators Who Received ALEC Junkets and “Scholarships” ............................................... 16 Kansas Legislators Who Received ALEC “Scholarships” ...................................................................... 19 Corporate Donors to ALEC “Scholarships” .......................................................................................... 20 ALEC Gifts Written Off as “Campaign Contributions” ......................................................................... 21 ALEC Member Corporation Donations to ALEC Politicians ......................................................................... 24 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY HOW EXPANSIVE IS ALEC’S REACH IN JEFFERSON CITY AND TOPEKA? Through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), corporations hand Missouri legislators wish lists in the form of "model" legislation that often directly benefit their bottom line at the expense of Missouri families. Behind closed doors, ALEC legislators vote as equals with corporate lobbyists to adopt ALEC model bills crafted by corporations, for corporations. The same corporations that benefit from ALEC model legislation funnel thousands of dollars of gifts and campaign contributions to ALEC legislators, which pushes the envelope on ethics and lobbying law. Elected officials who are members of ALEC then bring their model legislation back to Missouri, where they pass-off the bills as their own ideas and important public policy innovations without disclosing that corporations crafted and pre-voted on the bills at closed-door meetings with legislators who are part of ALEC. The influence of ALEC is strong in Topeka, Jefferson City and state capitols around the country. Our research shows: 120 current and former Kansas and Missouri legislators with known ALEC ties 47 current MO legislators with known ALEC ties, although ALEC claimed in leaked documents last year that 57 are members (leaving at least 10 unknown) 48 known KS legislators with ALEC ties, while ALEC claims 69 are members (leaving at least 21 unknown) At least 24 ALEC model and ALEC-inspired bill filed in the Kansas legislature in recent years At least 58 ALEC model and ALEC-inspired bills filed in the Missouri legislature in recent years Identifying a complete list of Kansas and Missouri legislators who are part of ALEC is a difficult task, because ALEC operates largely in secret, and refuses to make their full list of members public. WHY IS ALEC’S INFLUENCE IN JEFFERSON CITY AND TOPEKA IMPORTANT? ALEC gives state legislators a way to appear highly active in the legislative process by secretly outsourcing their role in drafting legislation to the corporate special interests that curry influence with lawmakers behind closed doors at ALEC meetings. The Kansas City Star writes that ALEC “is funded and dominated by free-market and corporate interests who work with like-minded legislators to push various agendas.” What are these “various agendas”? Here is a taste: Taking away workers’ rights while shielding corporations from accountability. ALEC works fervently to promote laws that limit the rights of workers, and at the same time pushes bills that help shield corporations from legal accountability for injuring or killing Kansas and Missouri citizens. ALEC model legislation rolls-back or blocks efforts to guarantee workers are paid a fair 1 wage. Its bills undermine organized labor by stripping public employees’ collective bargaining rights and weaken private-sector workers’ voices through so-called ‘right to work’ laws. ALEC also promotes so-called “tort-reform” bills that shield corporations from liability for harming state residents, for example, by making it harder for injured Missourians to access the courts and capping damages that corporations might owe. Taking away voters’ fundamental freedoms. ALEC is directly tied to the trend among state legislatures to limit the ability of American citizens to vote by passing restrictive ‘voter ID’ laws. Citing demonstrably false allegations of ‘voter fraud,’ right-wing politicians, many of whom are ALEC members, are pursuing policies that threaten to disenfranchise people of color, students, and other voters - including the elderly and the poor - who are statistically less likely to have the forms of identification required under the laws and who previously could vote by showing proof of residence and other identification. By suppressing the vote of such groups of likely Democratic voters, ALEC’s model ‘Voter ID Act’ grants an electoral advantage to Republicans while undermining Americans’ fundamental right to vote. Privatizing public schools. Despite constitutional problems, negative impacts on public schools, bias against disadvantaged students, and comprehensive studies demonstrating that private- school voucher programs fail to make any substantial improvements in education, ALEC pushes vouchers as a way to privatize public education and put dollars from Missouri and Kansas taxpayers into the pockets of for-profit and private school operators. Under the guise of ‘school choice,’ ALEC pushes bills with titles like the ‘Parental Choice Scholarship Act’ and the ‘Great Schools Tax Credit Program Act,’ that establish or expand private-school voucher programs. Protecting polluters. At the behest of its major donors like Peabody Energy, Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries, ALEC puts its muscle behind state-level legislation that hinders citizens’ ability to curb polluters through environmental regulation. ALEC has previously said that carbon dioxide “is beneficial to plant and human life alike,” and promotes climate change denialism, even in schools. ALEC’s model legislation assails EPA emissions guidelines and greenhouse gas regulations, undermines regional climate initiatives, and pushes for extreme deregulation, giving free rein to some of the biggest polluters on the planet. Undermining public systems and structures. As states face challenging budget deficits, ALEC seeks to make it harder to generate revenue in order to close budget shortfalls. Such bills include the “Super-Majority Act,” which would allow a tiny minority of lawmakers to block a majority vote to raise taxes (and created