We the People of Johnson County Missouri Saturday, June 21, 2025 🗞️🗞️ Monday Meeting Wrap Up!
Hi Folks!
We had a terrific meeting last Monday night!
Our Representative for the 54th District, Brandon Phelps spoke and told us about his freshman year in the House. It was really interesting to hear! He also shared with us inside information on some of the controversial bills that were passed this year, and I can tell you, from his detailed description, the bills themselves were controversial and voting on them would tax anyone.
I’ll bullet point some of what he shared with us below, however hearing Brandon tell a story is worth your time. He’s an energetic speaker!
The first item Rep. Phelps discussed was a “learning experience” the legislature provides for their freshman Reps. They all get on a bus and tour the state! The tour includes numerous places of interest that are unique to Missouri, most of which are funded by Missouri taxpayers or are businesses that contribute economically to our state. These included jails, state parks, companies in Missouri that drive our economy, and other government facilities. He said it was a tremendous experience and very helpful in better understanding what Missourians’ tax money support.
Brandon filed a total of six bills. One of them, the original driver's license bill, he withdrew.
Four of the other five passed out of committee, including the second version of the driver's license bill, but stopped there.
Only one of those four, the Air Ambulance bill - HB991, was passed out of the House unanimously, had a 1st and 2nd read on the Senate floor, and was referred to Insurance & Banking. Session time ran out before further action could be taken.
The fifth bill, HB1147, required law enforcement to report immigration status on crime incident reporting. That bill was negotiated into HB495, which passed the House and Senate, and was signed into law by the Governor. It is not common for freshman Representatives to get bills signed into law, so that was important.
Brandon voted "Yes" on the controversial utilities bill. He wanted to make sure that Missouri would be able to support AI, support new industry and manufacturing, and prevent future rolling black-outs. He also wanted to protect the tax-payers from paying interest costs for power plant construction. Currently, rate payers, (those who use the utilities), are on the hook to pay back all interest that accrues during construction of new power production facilities. The utility bill that passed will prevent those practices.
Representative Phelps also voted yes on the controversial stadium bill. He gave his reasoning, and although I still have doubts about the bill, what in life do we not have pro/con feelings about. So, his reasoning:
Funding to pay back the bonds comes from sales tax generated from the stadiums. Sharing of the tax revenue that is created by these teams is determined by a formula that provides for the state's portion to be very small in the first year and then grow a little each additional year after that for the entirety of the 30 years for which the teams will be bound to the lease.
Two take-aways from that: the teams will be bound to the lease for 30 years, so we won’t have to deal with this again for a while - and - what is the “formula” used to determine taxpayer sharing of the revenue?
The economic value to the greater KC region and what it would mean to restaurants, hotels, gas stations, as well as overall Public Relations derived nationally from the teams, would equal zero if they left.
There are around 13,000+ jobs that the stadiums create for the area that would be lost, albeit many of those are seasonal.
Merchandise and supplies (cups, straws, game day souvenirs, etc.) sold at the stadium have to be purchased from vendors within a certain mile radius of the stadium, so if the teams leave those jobs and that income would be lost.
Jackson County has already announced that they will default on their bonds if the teams should leave Missouri, which would mean that the state (our tax dollars) would be on the hook for the remaining cost.
Additionally, he noted that tearing down the stadiums would cost $500 million and Jackson County would not assume ongoing maintenance of empty stadiums.
He also mentioned the tax credit aspect of the bill.
In terms of the constitutionality of the bill in regard to single subject issue, Brandon discussed how several different attorneys weighed in on that matter with several saying everything in the bill pertained to taxes, so it was “single subject.”
My take-away from all this was that Brandon gave us a candid look at his thought process. Is there more to the issue? Most likely, but in politics and business deals knowing ALL the ins and outs is pretty darn hard!
The meeting was lively, informative, and I came away realizing how remarkably difficult it would be to make political decisions with so many complicating factors involved in every bill.
Pray for our legislators! Theirs is a tough job even in the best of times. Ask God to give them His Direction and Wisdom!
Next month at our meeting on Monday, July 21, we’ll show the J.J. Carrell movie “What is Treason #Trafficked.”
This is a hard movie to watch because of the horrible truth of what has happened in our country in terms of sex trafficking children. Under the Trump administration the trafficking has significantly slowed, but the practices of the deep state continue where they are still unseen and funded by undetected dark money.
We don’t recommend bringing children, as young minds may be too confused/scared by the content. Please use your discretion on that.
I felt a little frantic watching the movie, trying to figure out, “WHAT CAN I DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THIS???” At the end of the movie Carrell provides an answer to that. When working with the traffickers as a border patrol agent, Carrell asked one of the traffickers what could make him stop. The response was that if he thought he would be killed for his crimes, that would likely make him stop.
Carrell has a petition to make rape of a child punishable by the death penalty. His goal is to get 10 million signatures. You can sign it right now at Petition for the Implementation of the Death Penalty for Child Rape in All 50 States – What Is Treason.
Our mightier weapon is Prayer.
Mark 11:24-25 Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Proverbs 3:5-8 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understandings. In all ways acknowledge Him (Thank Him/Pray to Him), and He will direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes but fear the Lord and shun evil. For it will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.
It was great to see all of you last Monday! CONTINUE to tell people about We the People of Johnson County Missouri!! There is so much information we need to know, so we can pull together in prayer and whatever man-power God asks of us.
LET PEOPLE KNOW WE’RE HERE. 😀🥳