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Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Missouri secretary of state cuts jobs as budget feud with state Senate escalates
Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, walks away after briefly talking to Sen. Mike Cierpiot, R-Lee's Summit, following the Senate's adjournment in 2024 (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). Almost two dozen employees in Missouri State Archives and the State Library are on paid leave and will lose their jobs at the end of the month because of a politically motivated budget cut targeting Secretary of State Denny Hoskins. Twenty-two employees — 17 in the archives, five in the library — were told Friday that they did not need to return to work Monday. The employees are being paid through the end of the month, — the final month of the current budget year — but according to Hoskins could not be retained because of 'budget restrictions enacted by the Missouri General Assembly.' However, the Republican lawmakers behind the cut say it only targeted unfilled positions in the office and there was absolutely no financial reason for Hoskins had to lay off any staff. Hoskins, a Republican, is former state senator and has been secretary of state since January. While in the General Assembly, he tried repeatedly to cut job slots he said had been unfilled for months or years, arguing that agencies that had functioned without filling some jobs didn't need the help. Hoskins was also a member of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, which fought harder with the GOP majority leadership than it did against Democrats. State Sen. Mike Cierpiot, a Lee's Summit Republican regularly tussled with Hoskins and the Freecom Caucus, punished him earlier this year with a budget amendment cutting 25 of the office's authorized personnel strength of 267 full time equivalent employees, or FTE, and $680,000 from one of the funds that helps pay salaries. In the last full year under Hoskins' predecessor, only 204 of those positions were filled. The office has not used more than 215 of its full time slots for at least eight years. At the time the cut was made, Cierpiot said it should not require any layoffs. In a statement to The Independent, Rachel Dunn, spokeswoman for Hoskins, claimed the office had no choice. 'The General Assembly did not cut vacant or flexible FTE authority,' she said. 'It explicitly eliminated 25 FTEs from our budget, meaning we were required by law to reduce filled positions to meet that mandate. These cuts were not based on current vacancies but on a hard reduction in authorized staffing levels.' The employees were given leave with pay to allow them time to seek new jobs, she wrote. 'This was done out of respect for their service, and to give them time to plan next steps with dignity, rather than executing immediate unpaid terminations,' Dunn said. The $19.6 million budget approved for Hoskins' office operations includes $11.6 million in general revenue and $8 million from other funds. In addition to the archives and library, the office is the state's chief election authority, the repository of records establishing every business and not-for-profit in the state, and the regulator of securities brokers and sales. Lawmakers give Hoskins — and every other statewide elected official — complete flexibility in determining whether each dollar is spent on payroll or the expense of maintaining the office. And in each of the past three years, the office has returned about $3 million unspent to the state treasury, including $300,000 to $400,000 of general revenue. There was enough money and enough flexibility for Hoskins to retain all his employees, Cierpiot said. The budget change, he said, did not mandate layoffs. 'If Secretary of State Hoskins thinks that he needs to pull back the number of people working at the archives, that's his decision,' Cierpiot said. State Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Republican from Springfield who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said there is no reason Hoskins should have terminated employees. 'I can't understand a financial reason,' Hough said, 'that there isn't ample personal service dollars within the 100% flexibility that the Secretary of State has to continue paying not only all those folks, but I'm sure they're still flexing some other dollars associated with the vacant FTEs.' The problem with looking to the flexibility within the office budget for money to retain the staff is the limited nature of some funds. Money collected to regulate securities can only be spent on that function, Dunn said, and there isn't enough general revenue to cover the cut in the dedicated funds that support the archive and library functions. 'The legislature cut both the FTEs and associated appropriations,' Dunn said. 'Previous administrations had kept many unfilled FTEs on the books, but unfilled FTEs don't always have funds associated with them. When the legislature cut both unfilled FTEs and payroll funds, our hands were tied.' The archives is one of the office's most public-facing functions. It stores and preserves records from the most important to the most mundane and is used for historical and genealogical research. It is also the only part of the office to have regular evening and Saturday hours. The archives for example, is where the original document for Gov. Lilburn Boggs' 1838 order that Mormons 'must be exterminated or driven from the state' is stored, as is former Gov. Kit Bond's 1975 order rescinding Boggs' directive. Online collections include territorial and state censuses, every volume of the Revised Statutes going back to 1825, and service records for soldiers and sailors from the War of 1812 through World War I. The archives will have 43 employees after the cut, and the library will have 11, Dunn said. 'The Missouri State Archives are a vital part of our shared history and cultural legacy,' Dunn said. 'These cuts will have lasting impacts on public access, preservation, and the historical transparency Missourians deserve.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Missouri Secretary of State withdraws state funding of digital library catalog
Secretary of State Denny Hoskins speaks to reporters at the conclusion of the 2024 legislative session. Hoskins announced Monday that he is withdrawing funding for a digital library catalog provider(Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins is pausing funding to the digital library catalog company Overdrive until it can prove that it has as safeguards barring children from accessing inappropriate content. The action comes after a Missouri Senate committee heard a bill last week seeking regulation of digital library catalogs, alleging Overdrive-run app Sora allows minors to access explicit sexual material. Rachael Dunn, spokeswoman for the secretary of state, said the move was in direct response to the bill and 'agency investigations involving digital library catalogs.' Overdrive and its other apps like Sora and Libby allow library patrons to check out digital copies of books and audiobooks online. The Secretary of State's Office, which runs the state library, helps fund access to Overdrive and its applications for a network of schools and libraries called the Missouri Research and Education Network, or MOREnet. The office's $3.1 million appropriation to MOREnet, of which $30,000 is directed to Overdrive, funds access to databases and discounts for services like Overdrive. 'Our priority is protecting Missouri's children while holding taxpayer-funded vendors accountable,' Hoskins said in a press release. 'We expect Overdrive to clarify its policies and demonstrate how it is ensuring appropriate access to content.' Overdrive did not respond to a request for comment.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Secretary of State Hoskins defends his decision to delay sports wagering
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins is defending his decision to delay the implementation of sports betting across the state. In particular, Hoskins objected to emergency rules from the Missouri Gaming Commission that would have expedited legalizing gambling of sports. 'Basically, the first (criteria for emergency rules) talks about if it's in the best interest and the for the well-being and health of Missourians,' Hoskins said in an interview. 'Well, a sportsbook has nothing to do with the health or general well-being of Missourians.' Hoskins, a Republican from Warrensburg, says the emergency rules clause was not designed to rush ballot initiatives into law before they are ready. 'Just because the casinos and some of the professional sports teams want to institute sports betting faster here in the state of Missouri or quicker, that doesn't constitute an emergency, according to Missouri state law,' he said. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Despite the perception that he is against sports betting, he said that is not accurate. 'When I was a state senator, I filed bills to legalize sports betting here in the state of Missouri,' he added. Hoskins believes that the campaign for November's Amendment 2, which only passed by a margin of less than 3,000 votes, didn't tell the whole story. 'I've had several voters and Missourians reach out and say that they want public input,' he said. 'Many of those commercials said that education would receive between $30 to $35 million a year with the passage of sportsbook in taxes–that those casinos would pay.' A recent report hints that number would be a lot lower, closer to $1 million. 'There's a big difference between $35 million and $1 million,' he added. As for when sports wagering will actually be rolled out, Hoskins said the fall season was a reasonable expectation. It must be enacted by Dec. 1. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
