Pettis County Republican HQ Now Open

The grand opening of the Pettis County Republican Headquarters was held Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the main building (back side of Woods and across from Community Santa) of State Fair Shopping Center, 1400 South Limit.

The Republican Headquarters will be open from 10 a.m., to 2 p.m, Monday through Saturday, and is stocked with yard signs and political merchandise. Diane Herring of Concordia is volunteering her time to staff the office.

Pettis County Republican Central Committee Chairwoman Carla Young told KSIS that “We're going to overwhelmingly elect Trump.” She added that “we have great people that serve our county well and we expect Brad Pollitt to get his final term in the legislature and he does a great job there.”

The acquisition of the Republican headquarters was a blessing, Young said, adding that an election night watch party will be held there. “We've made it as homey as possible so people can come and sit for a while and visit.”

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As far as the proposals on the ballot, Young said that “Number Three needs to go down. We don't need to kill children. And that's what it is. We need to do better in other departments in order to save the kids. We can do better.”

State Rep. Brad Pollitt was one of the elected officials who attended the opening.

He noted that he doesn't have a strong opinion on Amendment 2, which would legalize sports betting in Missouri.

“The money does go to the schools, but it's not a lot of money … when you're talking about the department with a nine or ten billion dollar budget, you're talking about maybe $20 million a year that would go into that children's trust fund,” Pollitt said during his speech to the party faithful, adding that he voted no twice on the bill, “but it was very obvious that it was going to pass (in the House), because we have a lot of folks in Missouri who go to Kansas or Iowa to bet on sports, and we are losing out on that revenue.”

Pollitt said that “Sometimes I have a little bit of a problem with funding schools with stuff like alcohol, tobacco and betting. But that does not mean I judge people who do that, I do not. I think that's one of those things you have to make up your own mind on how you feel about that. I know our sports teams, the Royals and the Chiefs and the Cardinals put a lot of money into getting this on the ballot. So those sports teams are in favor of that. Is that going to help keep the Royals and the Chiefs in Missouri? I don't know that that's the case,” Rep. Pollitt said.

As for Prop A, Pollitt said he believes that the market should determine the minimum wage.

“Again, I want people to have a living wage. Like a lot of Republicans didn't do, I do vote for child care tax credits. Because I want to reward people that work ... If somebody's willing to work, I want to make sure their kids are taken care of, by qualified people,” Pollitt said. “Again, I don't think the government should be getting involved in wages when it comes to that. I think it should be driven by the market, and right now, the market is high. So it is above minimum wage.”

Amendment 5 would  allow a new casino to be licensed on the Osage River near the Lake of the Ozarks. The Osage River casino is reportedly being pushed by a committee that wants to build a casino that will compete with a planned Osage Nation casino in the same area.

Pollitt that Amendment 5 would add a 14th casino to the state of Missouri. A state law limiting the state to 13 licensed casinos, was passed in 2008 as a result of an initiative sponsored by casino operators.  The casino proposal is being sponsored by Bally’s, which currently operates a casino in Kansas City, and RIS Inc., which a major regional developer.

The casino would support more than 700 new jobs in the lake area. The project, if approved, would generate admission and other fee revenues of about $2.1 million annually, according to the language on the ballot, and annual gaming tax revenue of around an estimated $14.3 million.