Friday Flyover | Rex's Deep Pockets; Kansas Recovers; Biden Forgives Student Loans (Again); Gov. Abbott Wants Public Funding For Private Schools

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This week on the Friday Flyover: MO GOP candidates cashing big checks, Kansas Gov Laura Kelly announces huge budget surplus, Biden Admin announces $9 B more in student loan forgiveness, Gov. Abbott’s got a fever - and the only prescription, is school vouchers, and Bidden-Harris campaign ads hit battleground states. Alright, let’s get into it.

http://missouriindependent.com/briefs/st-louis-mega-donor-drops-425k-into-missouri-campaigns-in-last-week/

St. Louis mega-donor drops $425K into Missouri campaigns - in one week

BY: JASON HANCOCK - OCTOBER 3, 2023 10:00 AM

Rex Sinquefield, a retired investor from St. Louis and Missouri’s most prolific political donor, cut $425,000 worth of checks to PACs supporting eight different candidates in the last week — with the largest going to bolster Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe’s bid for governor. 

His $250,000 3rd quarter contribution to Kehoe brings Sinquefield’s total to $750,000. That’s right - Mike Kehoe has taken $750,000 from Rex Sinquefeld.

Sinquefield also donated $25,000 each to two GOP candidates for state treasurer — state Sen. Andrew Koenig and state Rep. Cody Smith. He gave $25,000 to Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, who is rumored to be eyeing a run for secretary of state, and to Sen. Denny Hoskins, who is already in that GOP primary. 

He also donated $25,000 to two state representatives running for the state Senate: Phil Christofanelli and Chris Dinkins, and to a state senator who is term-limited, Tony Luetkemeyer. 

Sinquefield has given more than $42 million in campaign contributions in Missouri — mostly to Republicans, though not exclusively. His main policy priorities are defunding the state’s public education system and eliminating income taxes.

In neighboring Kansas, he helped bankroll a group called Kansans for No Income Tax that promoted, in 2012, one of the largest state tax cuts in history with the support of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. Sinquefield called the cuts “unbelievably brilliant” and predicted that “there’s going to be a cloud of dust … as the businesses move from Missouri to Kansas.”

By 2017, National Public Radio reported state lawmakers were seeking to close a $900 million budget gap,[2][Note 2] following nine previous budget cuts.[43] Earlier efforts to close budget gaps had left Kansas "well below national averages" in a wide range of public services from K-12 education to housing to police and fire protection.[4][17]

Kansas’ sharply reduced revenues following the income-tax repeal led rating agency Moody’s to cut the state’s bond rating in April from its second-highest bond rating to its third highest.

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https://kansasreflector.com/2023/10/03/kansas-on-track-for-2-6-billion-state-revenue-surplus-1-6-billion-stash-in-rainy-day-fund/

Kansas on track for $2.6 billion state revenue surplus, $1.6 billion stash in rainy day fund

Mountain of cash guarantees political fight over tax, education, health spending

BY: TIM CARPENTER - OCTOBER 3, 2023 1:16 PM

Democratic governor Laura Kelly said, “Because of my administration’s work to put our state on solid financial footing, we have been able to grow our economy and make historic investments in schools, roads and law enforcement. Now, it’s time to give money back to Kansans through responsible tax cuts.”

She urged the Republican-led Legislature to reduce property taxes, grocery sales taxes and drive down taxes on retirees. In addition, Kelly is recommending additional spending on K-12 special education and to expand eligibility for Medicaid to working-poor families. 

Adam Proffitt, the state budget director, said the Kansas unemployment rate contracted from double digits during the pandemic to 2.7% in August of this year.

He also said Kansas has two job openings for every available person in the workforce. Thank you, Governor Kelly. You are my ultra dark horse candidate for Democratic nominee for U.S. President in 2024. 

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White House provides another $9 billion in student debt relief as pandemic pause ends

BY: ARIANA FIGUEROA - OCTOBER 4, 2023 6:03 PM

WASHINGTON — As federal student loan repayments restart, the Biden administration Wednesday announced an additional $9 billion in student loan forgiveness for 125,000 borrowers.

“For years, millions of eligible borrowers were unable to access the student debt relief they qualified for, but that’s all changed thanks to President Biden and this Administration’s relentless efforts to fix the broken student loan system,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

The announcement comes days after federal student loan repayments restarted following a nearly three-year pause due to the pandemic. Borrowers with federal student loans have the option of an on-ramp program, where they can delay making payments for 12 months, but interest will still accrue.

The $9 billion in new relief includes $5.2 billion in forgiveness for 53,000 borrowers in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program; $2.8 billion in forgiveness for 51,000 borrowers from a one-time fix to income-driven repayment plans; and $1.2 billion in forgiveness for 22,000 borrowers with permanent disabilities.

The PSLF program forgives remaining student loan debt after qualifying public sector and non-profit employees have made 10 years’ worth of monthly payments. Since October 2021, the Biden administration has forgiven more than 715,000 borrowers with PSLF loans, totaling $50.8 billion.

With Wednesday’s announcement, more than 854,870 federal student loan borrowers have had their student loan debt forgiven through the IDR adjustment, totaling nearly $42 billion in relief, the administration said.

The Department of Education also implemented a new income driven repayment program known as Saving on A Valuable Education, or SAVE, and many borrowers have been automatically funneled into the program. It’s a plan that, for some borrowers, could result in no monthly payments.

So far, the Biden administration has approved up to $127 billion in student debt cancellation for about 3.6 million borrowers.

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/29/greg-abbott-texas-leglislature-school-vouchers/

Gov. Greg Abbot wants school vouchers and he wants them right now!

BY BRIAN LOPEZ AND WILLIAM MELHADO

SEPT. 29, 2023

[He] has notified the Texas Legislature that a third special session will begin on Oct. 9.

A Sept. 26 letter signed by Abbott and addressed to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan, did not indicate the focus of this special session. But the governor has said repeatedly the next special session would focus on public education, including the issue of school vouchers that would allow parents to use taxpayer dollars to pay for their children’s private schooling. 

Lawmakers are to return to Austin on Oct. 9 at 1 p.m. This year’s regular legislative session ended in a stalemate between the House and Senate over education savings accounts, a voucher program that would allow parents access to a state-managed account to pay for private school tuition.

The Senate tried different ways to pass an education savings account program — even tacking it on to the only school finance bill the House advanced during the session — but Democrats and rural Republicans blocked it from moving forward.

Abbott recently said that if lawmakers fail to pass a school choice proposal, he won’t hesitate to bring lawmakers back. And he promised political consequences for those who get in his way.

Abbott said “If we do not win in that first special session, we will have another special special session and we’ll come back again. And then if we don’t win that time, I think it’s time to send this to the voters themselves.”

Biden touts blue-collar roots in latest AZ ad

BY: JIM SMALL - OCTOBER 3, 2023 5:00 AM

The Biden campaign today is launching a new TV ad in Arizona and other battleground states that spotlights how the president’s agenda is lowering costs for America’s middle class.

The ad, titled “Never Left,” is part of a 16-week, $25 million campaign that launched last month. The ad focuses on Joe Biden’s roots in Scranton, a blue-collar city in northeastern Pennsylvania, and his pursuit of policies that benefit low- and middle-income Americans.

The narrator says of Biden, “He knows what life is like for working people and knows middle-class life is too expensive right now,”

The ad highlights Biden administration policies capping insulin costs at $35 for some seniors, allowing Medicare to negotiate certain drug prices and investments in the American clean energy sector, which the campaign said would lower power costs for families.

The Biden campaign said the ad will run on broadcast TV and cable channels, and will target programming that is widely watched by general election voters, including “Dancing with the Stars,” “Bachelor in Paradise” and NFL games.

Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the campaign manager for Biden-Harris 2024 said “This ad serves as an early reminder of the choice Americans will face next year: between MAGA Republicans whose agenda would give tax handouts to the ultra-rich at the expense of working people, or Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ agenda for the middle class.”

We’ll see what happens!

Welp that’s it for me. Stories for today’s show originally published by States Newsroom outlets the Missouri Independent, Kansas Reflector, Texas Tribune, Arizona Mirror. Additional Rex Sinquefeld information from National Public Radio.

Host: Adam Sommer 

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