Join the Holden Public Policy Forum for free pizza and expert roundtable discussion from the director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Margaret Donnelly. How do we increase access to medical coverage for all Missourians, and for the elderly in particular? Where does Missouri stand relative to the nation in terms of healthcare? What reforms need to be made to Missouri’s Medicaid program? Come and ask the director of health and senior services these questions and more at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29 at Webster University Center.

On Wednesday, March 18, Candice Walton again attended one of the Holden Public Policy Forum’s Pizza & Politics lectures, this time featuring Missouri Director of Transportation Pete Rahn. Here are her impressions from the event:

The Missouri Department of Transportation is receiving $525 million from the federal stimulus package. Pete Rahn, the Director of Missouri Transportation, is one person in charge of allocating these funds. Rahn has a big job to tackle and he seems well aware of the issues.

FACTS:

• Missouri has the 7th largest highway system in the country
• However we are 44th in state wide revenue
• We receive $44,000 per mile
• Illinois receives $200,000 per mile
• Missouri has deferred maintenance in many areas as well as a need to expand in developing areas
• Rahn points out the difference between needs and wants and recognizes that our state has some major needs.

One man asked when he would be able to drive on highway 70 without needing to take drugs. Everyone laughed, but it’s true. With all of the 18-wheelers on HWY 70, anyone would be scared to drive for miles next to them everyday.

FACTS:

• Trucks on HWY 70 are overwhelming
• Rahn has an idea to create specific truck lanes for 70. An example can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTUf3qZQvf4
• The damage caused to roads by one 18-wheel truck is equivalent to standard 9,600 cars.
• Trucks and traffic have turned 70 into “mush.” Rahn wants to rebuild 70 from St. Louis to Kansas City

Other issues that were discussed included: money allocated to sound walls and noise pollution, investment in public transportation and alternative methods of transportation, and the legal reasons behind how and why decisions are made.

To voice your opinions, make suggestions, or for more information visit the Missouri Department of Transportation website by clicking here.

MoDOT’s Rahn defends outstate stimulus spending, calls I-70 “worn out”, by Jo Mannies, Beacon Political Reporter

Click Here to Go to THE BEACON article

Join the Holden Public Policy Forum for free pizza and expert roundtable discussion from the director of the Missouri Department of Transportation Pete Rahn. What’s going on with upcoming cuts to St. Louis Metro services? What’s going on with Hwy 40/64? Are Missouri’s bridges safe? Come and ask the director of these social services and more at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18 at Webster University’s Emerson Library.

From time to time on the Holden Public Policy Forum blog, we will try to share the perspectives of real Webster University students who attend Forum events, and their thoughts on the issues discussed.

Candice Walton is one such student. She has been enrolled in a public relations class dealing with the Forum this semester. On Thursday, March 5, she attended the Pizza & Politics events with Missouri Social Services Directory Ron Levy. Here is her take on that meeting:

Levy is new to the political world, retiring in 2007 from his position as President and CEO of SSM Health Care in St. Louis. Although he is a new public official, Mr. Levy is no stranger to dealing with the healthcare issues that many Missourians must deal with regularly. And like speakers past, Levy acknowledges that we are in a crisis, but also maintains that crisis creates opportunity.

“Healthcare is the key to keeping our economy growing,” said Ron Levy, “and our healthcare system is at its tipping point. We have a lot of work to do.”

FACTS:

• Approximately 5 ½ million people live in Missouri
• ~8% are unemployed
• 1 million people are on food stamps
• 842,000 people are on Medicaid
• 730,000 are uninsured
• Missouri requires you to be earn 20% of the Federal Poverty Line to be eligible. This means you must make less that $292/month, or less than $3,600/year to qualify.

Levy said that Governor Nixon would like to use stimulus money to lower the requirement to 50% of the poverty line, which would include citizens earning less than $9,000 a year.

“The Hidden Tax”

Mr. Levy said that the Missouri State House is currently recommending a 10% cut in the children and family services divisions. This cut would come into effect even after the state receives its stimulus dollars.

Gov. Holden and Levy discussed the “hidden tax” Missourians will end up paying for their state’s broken health care program.

“If we don’t cover the children now, who do you think will end up paying for them down the road?” the governor asked.

Mr. Levy agreed. The two discussed the relative cost of preventative healthcare versus emergency healthcare. Levy said that ultimately, Missourians paying for turning a blind eye to healthcare issues that desperately need attention.

For more information on the Missouri Department of Social Services click here.

Missouri is expecting to recieve funds under the ARRA from literally dozens and dozens of sources, and for a similar number of uses. But these sources break down for ease of analysis into three basic categories of funds: (I) Budget Stabilization funds, (II) Exisiting Government Program funds, and (III) Competetive Grants. Descriptions of these, with details as to the funds available under each, are set forth [in the summary]. In addition, there are two other key components to the ARRA that the governor will be advocating and helping to implement, to ensure that Missourians can and will access. They are (IV) the substantial tax relief measures for Missouri families and businesses, and (V) a wide variety of other recovery financing tools, including tax credits, additional bonding authority, etc.

A link to this summary can be foud here: ARRA in Missouri.

Join the Holden Public Policy Forum for free pizza and expert roundtable discussion from the director of the Missouri Department of Social Services Ron Levy. How do we increase access to medical coverage for children? Where does Missouri stand relative to the nation in terms of foster care and child support? What reforms need to be made to Missouri’s Medicaid program? Come and ask the director of these social services and more at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 4 at Webster University’s Emerson Library.

Missouri Director of Corrections George Lombardi visited Webster University on Thursday, Feb 19 to participate in the Holden Public Policy Forum’s pizza and politics lecture series. Lombardi attended the meeting to share his thoughts and answer questions on the state of Missouri’s prisons and corrections systems.

When Lombardi began working for the Missouri Dept. of Corrections (MO DoC) in 1972, the prison environment was very different from today, a place where he says murder and stabbings were ordinary.

“The penitentiary was a bloody and horrible place [back then],” he said, “and our main focus almost all the time was keeping the peace.”

Today, he says, the system has thankfully changed. A classification scheme was put into place during the 70’s which separated at-risk and violent offenders from general population, and the result has been a significantly safer prison environment—and with that, a new focus and mission for the Lombardi and his department.

“Our priority now, the cornerstone of our work,” Lombardi said, “is doing everything we can to divert people from coming back into the prison setting once they’ve left it.”

The MO DoC has several key ways it helps to reduce the rate of returning prisoners. One new and effective response has been Missouri’s transitional housing unit (THU) system.

Months before their release, Lombardi says, inmates are offered the opportunity to link up with mentors and communities on the outside. Upon discharge, the THUs provide individuals with structured, supportive living environments while they make the transition back to the outside world.

The result has been an 11% decrease in recidivism among participants–a figure which Lombardi says is very significant.

“I think it needs replication, not only here in Missouri but across the country, because it’s really unique,” he said.

However, six to eight months of prearranged living isn’t often enough to reform career offenders, he warned. He said the DoC employs several other methods of character education for prisoners.

Upon arrival to a Missouri institution, a diagnostic is performed on prisoners by facility administrators who create a self-improvement plan, mapping what areas the inmate must work on. Lombardi said that for a person to be successful on the outside, self-improvement opportunities must be made available to them while they are confined.

So, he says, ducation is also stressed within Missouri’s correctional facilities, due to a law requiring inmates to seek a GED as a condition of their parole. Lombardi said that the DoC has become the 3^rd largest GED granter in the state. Department instructors must meet the same statewide education standards as those teaching in regular schools.

Beyond regular education, Lombardi says that character development is also paramount in state corrections facilities.

Classes teaching the impact of crime on victims are taught at every prison within Missouri. During the courses, real victims come into facilities to speak about what happened to them and how crime has affected their lives. Lombardi says that when inmates start to appreciate the consequences of their actions more fully, they can learn empathy for others.

“It can be powerful, powerful stuff,” Lombardi said, “For the first time in the country, the Parents of Murdered Children organization came into one of our facilities and explained some of their feelings.

“There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Not the staff, officers, inmates, me.”

However, Lombardi says the only viable long-term solution to reducing crime and slowing prison growth is a pre-emptive one: “We have to invest in our children as much as we possibly can. That’s where the answer is in the long haul.”

That means investment in early childhood education and mentoring, particularly in low economic development and problem areas, he said.

Lombardi said that young people who receive quality pre-school, even in at-risk areas, get involved in illegal activity at a significantly lower rate. He mentioned the Swiss philosopher Piaget, who theorized that the foundations of our ethical and moral principles come from experiences in early childhood. Lombardi said that when Missouri spends $16,432 per year per prison inmate, but only $9k per year on each student in public schools, the imbalance is clear.

The Forum’s next Pizza & Politics event will feature the Missouri Budget Project on Thursday, February 26 in Webster University Library. Admission is free to the public and free pizza and drinks are provided beforehand.

Leaders from the Missouri Democratic Party met Thursday, Feb 12 at Webster University for informal eats and town hall-style political discussion as part of the school’s free Pizza & Politics lecture series.

The hour-long panel discussion joined three of the top democratic lawmakers in Missouri—State Representatives Paul LeVota and Rachel Storch and later State Senator Jeff Smith—on stage with former Mo. Gov. Bob Holden to answer questions and comment on a variety of public policy issues.

Topics ranged from the present economic crisis and stimulus package, to the democrats’ dual priorities of expanding job growth and health care, to the importance of grassroots involvement in the political process.

Foremost on the minds of audience members was the newly enacted federal stimulus package, with several questions on the new legislation early on in the meeting.

The lawmakers first agreed that it was still too early to predict exactly how the money could or would be spent within Missouri, but Rep. Storch said that with an estimated state deficit of $200 million-plus by the end of 2009, the stimulus plan represents a chance for Missouri to weather the current economic storms.

“The stimulus is an opportunity for [the state] to keep its head above water,” said Storch, “Missouri lost 20,000 jobs in the last year. Now, 10 to 20% of the stimulus package looks to be going immediately toward ‘shovel-ready’ jobs.”

These “shovel-ready jobs,” she explained, refer to infrastructure-building employment created for Missourians in the short-term. Although they will be executed by private companies, measures will be taken to ensure jobs stay in, Storch said.

The second-term Rep has a great deal of familiarity with Missouri’s budgeting crisis as a member of three Missouri House committees: budget, ways and means, and appropriations for transportation and economic development.

Sen. Smith noted that Gov. Nixon would like to see stimulus money used to reverse the Medicaid cuts of 2005, in which more than 100,000 people lost health care coverage, and many more faced reduced benefits and higher cost-sharing. He spoke about the importance of foresight in public policy in general, and in health care policy specifically.

“For every dollar spent in preventative healthcare costs, nine dollars can be saved in the emergency room later,” said Smith, who joined the Senate in 2007, “We need to make strategic investments in the long-term, not only in healthcare but in research and development and early childhood education.”

Commenting on the state of their party within Missouri, the three lawmakers expressed satisfaction at the recent election of a democrat to the governor’s office. The transition in 2009 from Governors Blunt to Nixon, they say, has been long awaited.

“I’ve always felt like we’ve had a really good team on the field, but now it’s like we’ve got a great goalie, too,” said Rep. LeVota, a third-term member of the House, unanimously voted among state democrats as House Minority Leader in 2007.

LeVota said that achieving many of the party’s goals, such as expanding communication and transportation infrastructure, as well as promoting healthcare within Missouri, would be more easily achieved with an ally in the state’s highest executive office.

Still, democrats today occupy only 74 seats in Missouri’s 163-member House, making them the minority party by 15. Despite gaining ground in both of the previous two elections, Storch said that a spirit of compromise and cooperation is still necessary to move the wheels of government.

“Neither party has a monopoly on truth. We have to see other perspectives,” she said, “And initially, there does seem to be some desire to work together.”

Smith observed that two of the most prominent Republican leaders– Speaker of the House Ron Richards and Senate President Pro Tem Charles Shields– are perhaps the most moderate members of their party. Smith said that tough economic times are forcing policymakers to roll up their sleeves and work together toward advancing the state, regardless of party lines.

The event was sponsored by the Holden Public Policy Forum as part of its Pizza & Politics speakers series, which brings national public policy experts to speak at Webster University. Admission is free to the public with pizza and drinks provided beforehand. For more information, visit the HPPF’s website.