Complaints about the lack of parking near the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City date back decades, and those complaints continue today. Jefferson City Mayor Ron Fitzwater joined us live this morning on 939 the Eagle’s “Wake Up Mid-Missouri” to preview Missouri’s 2024 legislative session, which begins tomorrow at high noon in Jefferson City. Mayor Fitzwater tells listeners that parking remains a challenge and that he’s committed to looking at that. State employee pay remains one of Mayor Fitzwater’s top priorities. More than 14,000 state employees work in Cole County, making state government Jefferson City’s largest employer. Mayor Fitzwater praises Governor Mike Parson for proposing and signing last February’s bipartisan 8.7 percent pay raise for state employees:
(LISTEN): State Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin (R-Shelbina) appears on “Wake Up Mid-Missouri”
GOP Governor Mike Parson remains in the Missouri Governor’s Mansion in 2024 and Republicans will have supermajorities in both legislative chambers in the new session. It begins on Wednesday January 3 at high noon in Jefferson City. Republicans control the Missouri Senate 24-10 and the Missouri House 111-51. Missouri Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin (R-Shelbina) joined us live on 939 the Eagle’s “Wake Up Mid-Missouri” to preview the 2024 session. Leader O’Laughlin expresses frustration with a term that’s used sometimes in Jefferson City: RINO. That means Republican in name only. Senator O’Laughlin tells listeners that some of her GOP colleagues don’t want to compromise, adding that you must compromise to get 18 votes in the chamber. Senator O’Laughlin also doesn’t think the controversial slot machine issue will be resolved during the 2024 session:
Missouri’s 2024 legislative session begins one week from today
Missouri lawmakers will return to Jefferson City one week from today for the start of Missouri’s 2024 legislative session.
Under the state Constitution, lawmakers start their session on the first Wednesday after the first Monday in January, which is January 3 this year. GOP Governor Mike Parson will deliver his final State of the State address on Wednesday January 24 at 3 pm. He’ll outline his legislative priorities and his budget recommendations. One of the governor’s top priorities in 2023 was state employee pay. Cole County’s approximately 14,000 state employees received a 8.7 percent pay raise in February, under a bipartisan plan proposed by the governor. The governor will address a joint session of the Legislature, where he’ll be flanked by Lt. Governor Mike Kehoe (R) and House Speaker Dean Plocher (R-Des Peres).
State Sen. Mike Bernskoetter (R-Jefferson City), who chairs the Missouri Senate General Laws Committee, says state lawmakers have also set aside millions of dollars to fund improvements to the Missouri Capitol’s aging interior. Senator Bernskoetter would like to see the governor address that during the State of the State.
Republicans will have supermajorities in both chambers again in 2024: they hold a 24-10 supermajority in the Missouri Senate and a 111-51 supermajority in the House.
(LISTEN): Mid-Missouri state lawmaker says rebuilding I-70 between Columbia and Kingdom City to take three years
A state lawmaker from mid-Missouri’s Callaway County says you can expect construction to begin this summer on I-70 between Columbia and Kingdom City in the first phase of the massive I-70 expansion plan between St. Louis and Kansas City.
The state Department of Transportation (MoDOT) briefed State Rep. Jim Schulte (R-New Bloomfield) and other mid-Missouri state lawmakers in both parties this week. Representative Schulte tells 939 the Eagle that MoDOT will award the contract in February for the Columbia to Kingdom City stretch.
“They’re going to redo the interchanges at both of those intersections and then they’re going to add a third lane in both directions between those two locations and that’s going to be the first phase of this I-70 improvement. So we in central Missouri will get the first taste of it, but we’ll also be finished first,” Schulte says.
Representative Schulte is referring to Columbia’s I-70 and Highway 63 interchange and to Kingdom City’s I-70 and Highway 54 interchange. He says the section between Columbia and Kingdom City will take three years to complete.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson bipartisan legislation in August that provides $2.8 billion to rebuild and expand I-70 to six lanes from St. Louis to Kansas City. The governor signed the bill into law at MACC’s Columbia parking lot, near I-70.
UPDATE: Convicted double killer from mid-Missouri’s New Bloomfield to be put to death in 2024
The state Supreme Court has scheduled an April 9 execution date for a convicted double killer from mid-Missouri’s New Bloomfield. The Supreme Court issued a two-page order this morning.
The 51-year-old Dorsey is under two death sentences for the gruesome Christmas Eve 2006 deaths of his cousin Sarah Bonnie and her husband Ben Bonnie. Both victims were shot in the head with a shotgun at their Callaway County home. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey says Dorsey also sexually assaulted Sarah and that he stole a car, firearms, medical supplies, a social security card and the couple’s daughter’s copy of Bambi II after the murders.
Barring intervention from a federal judge or the U.S. Supreme Court or clemency from Missouri Governor Mike Parson, Dorsey will be executed by lethal injection in April at the maximum-security prison in southeast Missouri’s Bonne Terre.
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