CHRISTIAN COUNTY

 His political goals are:

• Stop overtaxing the Middle Class!
• This will spur job growth.
• Fight for our fair share of highway building funds.

• Let us get Hwy 14, Hwy CC, and Hwy EE improved – it will result in commercial & retail growth in the 139th

• Support local businesses and farms that create jobs and a vibrant economy.

• Keep our sales tax money in Christian County, not Springfield or Greene County

• Secure fair and adequate funding for our local public schools.

• Our schools are HUGE assets for our communities in Christian County. We MUST support them.

 As your Representative I will promote

common sense cooperation

 and positive solutions

 to the complex issues Missouri

 and the 139th District face.

Paid for by Committee to Elect Bob Rubino, Susan Rubino Treasurer

January 16, 2012

LETTER TO PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS 

Missouri faces a budget shortfall of over $500 million in tax revenue for the upcoming fiscal year. In previous years education funding has been cut to address budget shortfalls. I agree with Missouri Senator Jason Crowell, R – Cape Girardeau, who says: “We must stop balancing the budget on the backs of our children through education cuts.”

Besides the huge budget shortage, the school funding formula, if not changed, will result in millions of state dollars being shifted from poorer schools to richer ones.

The Missouri Senate and House fought for 10 months and could not agree on an overhaul plan for tax credits. The result was the legislative bodies adjourned without passing any job creation legislation. Missouri now faces a projected $600 million in tax credit handouts in 2012. Instead of addressing tax credit problems that negatively impact revenue, the Missouri Senate and House leaders have agreed to support bills pushed by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce & Industry. The bills will change the workers’ injury compensation system; make it harder for workers to prove workplace discrimination; and enact ‘Right to Work (for less)’ legislation.These proposed bills will do nothing to address the budget shortfall crisis.

Speaker of the House, Steve Tilley, has also packed the K-12 Education Committee with legislators who strongly support legislation that would eliminate the state constitutional ban on giving public (tax) money to religious schools and authorize tax credits to pay for tuition at private schools. 

K-12 Education Committee Chairman Scott Dieckhaus, R-Washington, said he is working on an ambitious package that will phase out public school teacher tenure. 

I am the Democratic Candidate for the new

Missouri 139^th Legislative District

As your State Representative I will support and defend teacher rights, protect public school funding, be a stalwart against undermining workers’ rights, and see that OUR tax dollars work for us.

 I need your help and/or financial support to win.

If you have any questions or comments please contact me.

E-mail me at: BobRubino@msn.com

We are in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Our unemployment rate in Missouri has hovered around 9% for the past 2 years. You would believe a jobs creation bill should be a high priority for our Legislators.

The Republicans have controlled the Missouri Senate since 2001 and the House of Representatives since 2003. Even with their overwhelming majorities the Republicans could not come together to overhaul economic development programs and to pass an incentive program to build an airfreight hub in St. Louis, which could greatly improve the job creation climate and boost foreign investments in Missouri.

The St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association president, Dick Fleming, was so upset with the Missouri Legislature’s failure to pass economic development legislation he said: “It’s hard to image that we as a region and a state want to go another year with nothing happening on comprehensive economic development legislation….  The rest of the country is eating our lunch.”

To address this failure Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer, R-Dexter, at the end of the regular legislative session talked with Governor Nixon about calling a special legislative session. Nixon responded that he would not call a Special Session until the Legislators reached consensus on a specific plan that could help spur the economy.

After waiting more than month for the House and Senate Leaders to get back to him, Governor Nixon invited them to a meeting to work together on an economic development compromise. Both House Speaker Steve Tilley and Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer issued a joint statement informing the Governor not to call them; they would call the Governor when they were ready.

Personally I am tired of the inability of the Missouri House and Senate Republican caucuses to work together and address the high unemployment rate in Missouri. To wait to the last few days of the regular legislative session to attempt to forge jobs creation legislation and then fail is unacceptable. Please contact your State Senator and Legislator and express your thoughts on their failure.

I have had my fill of listening to claims by various candidates (including my Republican opponent) about cutting taxes and removing regulations that hamper businesses. None of these claims detail specific taxes or regulations they believe need to be cut or removed. They all appear to be sound bites!

I think of myself as being a reasonable and common sense person. I do believe there are Missouri taxes and business regulations that need to be changed, modified, or eliminated. I also know that taxes and business regulations have been either voted into existence by the voters or their representatives to address problems, generate money for voter identified tasks, or to regulate markets or business practices that the voters desired to be regulated.

As your 141st Missouri State Representive I want to work with other representatives from all political ideologies to ferret out obsolete or useless taxes and regulations. But first I want to ask the question: “What possible impact(s) will occur if we eliminate or change specific taxes or regulations?”  I certainly do not want to eliminate or change a tax or regulation if the action results in bigger problems.

My guiding principle as your Representative is to always remember I work for the voters and my responsibilty is to always work to better the lives of the people of the Missouri 141st Legislative District.

Following are a few samples from various candidate web sites: 

“I want government to step back and let businesses do what they do best—create jobs and services. I believe less regulation and interference will empower our Missouri businesses to thrive.” 

We’re Fed Up with a large intrusive government that tries to regulate every aspect of our lives and thinks that it has a right to take as much of our money as it wants through higher taxes. 

How can Washington help create new jobs on every Main Street? By reducing the tax burden and heavy-handed regulations on job creators. 

The three quotes are from three different candidate web sites (all three candidates are running for political office in Missouri – state and federal positions). None of them say which regulations they want to see change or eliminated.

I want a candidate who talks about reducing regulations to be honest and tell me which regulation(s) should be changed or eliminated. 

I have closely reviewed a number of state regulations and I can point to one that should be reviewed. It is CSR 10-104.020 Sales and Use Tax Bonds (click on it to go to web page). This regulation requires all new taxpayers applying for a retail sales tax license or vendors use tax license to file a bond in an amount determined by the Director of Revenue. The bond may be a cash bond, surety bond, certificate of deposit or an irrevocable letter of credit. The department will refund the bond to the taxpayer after two (2) years of satisfactory tax compliance or when the taxpayer closes its sales/use tax account, provided the account has no outstanding delinquencies. 

The problem with this regulation is it can possibly hinder a business from being able to open if the bond amount is set to high by the Department of Revenue. The bond is calculated to be three (3) times the average monthly tax liability of the taxpayer. I believe the rate for bonding should be reviewed by the legislators to see if it is too high. Unreasonable startup overhead costs can stop a new business from opening. 

I have showed one regulation I believe hinders the growth of businesses. As your State Legislator I will work to seek out others that need to be reviewed. 

If a candidate uses a “sound bite” to catch your interest but does not give you facts to go with it, I say “Where’s the beef?”

Here is a link to the State of Missouri Code of Regulations: http://www.sos.mo.gov/adrules/csr/csr.asp. Please look them over and let me know if you find one that should be reviewed.

Thanks,

Bob Rubino – Candidate for the Missouri 141st Representative seat

2) Transportation – I will work to improve roadways and highways in the 139th. Good transportation for our area is one of the keystones to attracting jobs.

3) Education – The State must do a better job in helping to fund our local schools. A strong education program is another keystone to attracting jobs to our area. The Missouri Chamber of Commerce supports appropriate legislative action to stabilize funding for all levels of education and encourages the legislature to begin the process of restoring recent funding reductions.

4) Tax Credits – I will work to see that tax credits are used to benefit all citizens, not a select few. I am not opposed to tax credits, but I want them to give us the “biggest bang for our tax dollar!” 

5) As your 139th State Representative I will FIGHT for a stronger voice in Jefferson City for Southwest Missouri.

6) I will work to see that the State does not transfer more tax burdens from the State Government to local governments – Cities and Counties.

7) I will work to bring State Medicaid costs under control. I will introduce legislation to address the growing fraud and waste in the Medicaid program.

My goals are to strengthen education funding (Missouri is ranked 47th in the nation), and be a LEADER in creating well paying jobs and strong business opportunities. To reach these goals I must first be elected. That is why I need your financial support. Your support will allow me the ability to get my voice and goals out to the voters as we go door to door, make phone calls, do mailings, and buy newspaper and radio ads.

I spent 35 years with the U.S. Postal Service, of which the last 15 years was in Springfield, serving in various managerial positions. I have an Associate Degree in Industrial Electronics, and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Management and Computer Studies.

I have been both civically and politically active in Christian County. I am an elected Board member for the Nixa Fire Protection District. I was secretary for the non-partisan Christian County Coalition. The  group was responsible for getting the Building Codes proposal on the ballot and passed. I also served as the Christian County E-911 sales tax campaign fund raising chairperson, which passed with a 65% voter approval.

I have a plan, I have a mission, and I have a message.

With your support, I can win this race!

Paid for by Committee to Elect Bob Rubino, Susan Rubino, Treasurer

Click on the following link to e-mail Bob: BobRubino@msn.com

The reason given by the politicians who championed this bill was that the state budget was burdened by Medicaid costs. During this same time, 70 of our state representatives who voted for the Medicaid bill also voted against and defeated a bill that asked these same representatives to pay an additional $115 for their health care coverage. I guess the lesson was belt-tightening for the budget only applied to the poor, the disabled and the senior citizens of Missouri, not to our elected state representatives.

Prior to the passage of the Medicaid bill, the Kansas City Star reported that Medicaid fraud and overbilling by health care providers cost Missouri an estimated $575 million a year. The Medicaid bill did not do anything to address Medicaid fraud problems. In December 2005, Senate Pro Tem Mike Gibbons, R-Kirkwood, formed a special senate committee to investigate Medicaid fraud. The committee was charged with the task of conducting hearings to examine Medicaid fraud, particularly as it involved fraud by providers of Medicaid services. Furthermore, the committee was to report their findings and propose recommendations. This special committee, chaired by Senator Chris Koster, R-Cass, found that health care providers committed much more fraud than Medicaid recipients. In 2006, the committee proposed legislation that would bar people convicted of Medicaid fraud from receiving Medicaid benefits for life. The legislation would also allow people, such as employees of health care providers, to serve as whistleblowers to report fraud. Rep. Rob Schaaf, R-St.Joseph, Chair for the Special Committee on Healthcare Facilities, said the legislation would cause doctors to quit taking Medicaid patients and increase business for attorneys. State Medical Director Mike Ditmore, a neurosurgeon, countered Rep. Schaaf’s claim by telling the committee the state typically takes legal action against large health care providers, not individual doctors who may have made a billing error. Legislation weaker than that proposed by Senator Koster finally became law on Aug. 28, 2008 — more than two years after issuing the findings to the General Assembly.

Today, there are still tens of thousands of former Medicaid recipients — children, parents, senior citizens and disabled Missourians — still not receiving Medicaid help. Why have our state legislative bodies continued to inflict the state budget tightening burdens onto Medicaid recipients, when all the established evidence shows health care providers commit much more fraud that Medicaid recipients? Why are our state senators and representatives not enacting laws to more vehemently address Medicaid fraud? Fraud is the obtaining of money by deception – so produce legislation that follows the money.

The strongest economic engine for communities is their schools. Almost every tax dollar for schools stays in the local community. School funding goes to pay for teachers, school administrators, maintenance and custodial salaries; school and student supplies; transportation costs; and various other school items. Because these tax dollars are spent in the local community they provide income to a multitude of local businesses. School employees live and spend their wages in their local communities. Homes are built and purchased. Retail stores are opened to satisfy the needs of schools and their employees. Schools sponsor local activities (sports, music, clubs, and many other events) which bring more money into the community. High academic achievements, winning sport teams, and school sponsored community activities raise the livability and desirability of local communities. Families and businesses overwhelming move to communities with schools that have these qualities.

Now tax credits may help local communities attract businesses and families, but at what costs to the tax payers? Recently the Nixa City Council approved the building of a senior (+55) low-income housing development. One of the promised benefits of this housing development is the economic benefit it will produce for the city. This benefit may not be all that it is suppose to be. A 2008 state audit found that nearly all low-income housing tax credits are regularly sold by the recipient. Only 35 cents of each $1 tax credit is normally used to build the housing. So where does the other 65 cents go?

In 2009 over $584 million in tax credits were redeemed by businesses and individuals in Missouri. Tax credits sound wonderful if you only talk about how we do not shell out money up front to entice businesses to do something, but who makes up the lost tax revenue? We can not continue to cut school funding. Missouri is ranked 49^th in the nation in providing school funding. Our local schools are one of the strongest economic engines for our communities. Why in hard economic times should the state gut funding for a strong economic engine (your local schools) and give away tax credits that do questionable good for the economic health of the State and local communities? Is this any way to run State Government?

Bob Rubino