Landmark Live with Missouri State Senator Tony Luetkemeyer

all right let’s do this we’re back it’s Landmark live which is a production of the Platte County Landmark which is America’s favorite newspaper and tonight we’re talking politics we’re going to have a special guest on in fact you can see him right now but we’re not going to start talking to him first first some introductions I’m Ivan Foley the editor and publisher on my far left that’s guy Speckman he is the pride of Plattsburgh I think I think he’s a member of the Plattsburgh High School Hall of Fame are you not absolutely not okay I got bad information just waiting for the Statue to be built that’s good tonight we’re gonna we’re gonna speak with uh Tony lukemeyer our state senator who serves Platte in Buchanan County so Tony welcome to the show it’s great to be here I’ve been I’ve been waiting for this invitation Ivan and I’m excited to finally be here well we’ve we’ve talked many times and one time we talked about maybe doing the show from down at the state capitol one time you were you were kind of through that out there as a possibility well let me just say the offer is still on the table um so assuming everything goes well in November and I head back to Jefferson City for another four year years I would love to have you down and we actually could shoot it inside the Chamber of the Missouri Senate which would be a great thing for your viewers if folks from Platte County have not been down to the state capitol we could give them a great tour that would be that would be fun now guy would you be up for that trip would you be up for a road trip because we typically don’t travel much because we have a well but I mean if I had the correct budget if I mean if you doubled what I’m getting paid already oh absolutely we can double that maybe even triple you know the one thing I’ve noticed about the capitol if you if you spend any time there at all or around the offices they bring lots of food in there’s always like something being catered there so I would be up for going there for anything like that do you guys still have Pages you have these little uh Junior High kids coming to service pages and the because when I was a kid I was a page at the state capitol over in Kansas and that was like one of the worst days of my life but anyway I was do you guys use Pages down there you know so we we do we we you know have college interns who come and you know work in the various offices I mean they work for an entire semester for credit but then we also have Pages which are very temporary positions it’s just like one day you’re on the floor right that’s what mine was yeah carrying paperwork back and forth now it’s traditionally limited to like really little kids so a lot of the times if if a member of the Senate has you know a relative in town and they’ve got a small you know kid that you know can walk around and you know shuffle paper around uh we’ll we’ll have Pages for the day on the floor that’s what that’s seventh or eighth grade and uh yeah I got a lot of coffee cups that day but you get a nice little certificate yeah they told me what a great job I did I’ve been just still on the wall down yeah we’ll have to make a we’ll show that on the show so he carries a badge the number one page Kansas state house oh the good times Tony we got a lot of things to talk about now I gotta say there’s one thing that guy and I are particularly interested in just because we have a hobby uh we’re both interested did in legalized Sports gambling we would never Fester off into anything that’s not on the up and up so we we specialize in legal sports academy and when we do that I drive over to Kansas and go to Hollywood Casino guy hates the state of Kansas so he’ll drive up to Iowa and better as you’re glad you can surely respect the fact that yeah 100 I’m with you yeah but if you can’t go to Kansas and spend any money well I broke the rule I was just over there Wednesday night I’ve been over there several times Tony and I always see because when I go over there I end up eating at a restaurant you know when I’m going over to placed a sports bed I I eat over there at Legends and I think to myself self if we were doing this in the state of Missouri I’d be eating at a restaurant in Missouri right now and spending my money in my home state there so is there any future for legalized Sports wagering in Missouri yeah there certainly is so I I’ve actually sponsored the sports wagering Bill all four years that I’ve been in the Senate so I sponsored my my first year in the Senate I’ve sponsored it every subsequent year and uh the short answer your question is yes I think the fact that Kansas pass Sports wagering this last legislative session really puts the pressure on Missouri to get something done this upcoming session because as you probably know and and many of your listeners may know as well we derive educational dollars from Gaming revenue so when someone places a bet in the casino that money goes to Missouri schools and so right now what we’re seeing is both on the Eastern side of the state over in St Louis Illinois has a legalized sports betting which means those educational tax dollars that would normally be spent in the state of Missouri are going to Illinois and then now on the western side of the state here in Kansas City we see dollars that are leaving that are going over to Kansas and so we need to fix this we also know that there is although I know you would never be a part of this is a illegal Black Market that exists in Missouri for online sports betting yeah and so the best way to clear up that market make sure you have a well-regulated market where consumers are protected is to legalize it in the state right and what are the has there been opposition anytime you bring this up are there are there people who argue with you like hey we don’t we don’t need Sports uh wagering imagery you know really the debate has never focused on whether or not we should have sports wagering um because I think actually if you brought a bill to the floor of the Senate tomorrow and it was a clean sports betting bill with nothing else attached to it it would probably pass 32-2 maybe 34 to nothing um the issue in the past has been there there are certain individuals in the Senate who want to see what are known as video Lottery Terminals and basically these are gaming machines that would go sometimes you see them in gas stations right now um Illinois yeah yeah prosecutors had a few of them destroyed in a parking lot here and it was it takes like a bobcat to them you must really hate those machines so anyway go ahead so there so so there was an effort to to legalize those machines in the state of Missouri and I think that the you know the main proponents of doing so see the sports betting bill as something they can leverage against the casinos who would like to see sports betting pass and so the casinos do not want to see VLT machines um as you might imagine that that’s seen as competition right and um they they don’t they don’t want that competition out in in the marketplace and so so those two groups then pit against each other and you get the VLT folks who are trying to attach a VLT amendment to legalize those machines in Missouri and then you have the casinos that are oftentimes pushing back against that saying we would rather neither is against gambling neither group is really against the gambling concept right it’s it the yeah the the sports gaming concept is being used as a leverage tool to try to get video Lottery terminals that’s that’s the reason that the bill dies every year and and the casinos have always taken the position that we would rather not have sports betting even though it’s beneficial for us uh if it means we’re going to have VLT expansion and then on the VLT expansion side they say well if we don’t get ours you don’t get yours and so that has caused a a daytime VLT uh Lobby I mean yeah yeah significant they’re they’re they’re they’re yes there there are a lot of uh folks in the state capitol that that Lobby on on video Lottery terminal issues and and then there are a lot of folks that Lobby in the capital on the in the casino industry as well what impact would those machines have what do they have on lottery on on I mean do they have any type of of negative impact on the amount of people that would play the the lotteries that you get out of a machine uh you know I don’t know what what impact if any of they would have on the lottery um um I think most of the time it’s been looked at from the casino perspective but again my my view in this whole thing is number one I have a lot of constituents it sounds like two of them here next to me that would very much like to be able to place a bet on you know the Chiefs when we are back in the Super Bowl uh to be able to place a bet on you know college basketball during March Madness or to be able to bet on the Mizzou tigers um and they’re not able to legally do that right now in Missouri and so they are going over to Kansas or they are going over to St Louis or Iowa as the case may be um and and so you know we are losing those educational dollars to other states because of the legislature’s failure to act end to pass and legalize sports are you old enough to remember when riverboats were going to solve our education funding problems I’m not nearly that old yeah really that at one time they were going to but they they didn’t yeah yeah just so you’re aware yeah well guy and I are old enough to remember when the casinos opened here you had to get on the boat and I actually had to go out in the water before that’s what I’m talking about yeah yeah and then we could only get these boats to float and you could go out there you could take a two-hour cruise and Gamble and it was going to save education yeah it was they had one at St Joe and then when you got back to shore you couldn’t gamble anymore man illegal yeah it was the strangest thing so what do you think the chances are that something gets done this next session on Sports wager you know I think there’s a there’s a decent likelihood that we see something if not this session then certainly next session um one of my colleagues who is I think I would say is probably the main proponent of the expansion of video Lottery terminals is going to be terming out in two years and so I think he’s going to feel some pressure to to make a deal to get something done because if he turns out and there is no deal then probably there’s going to be a bill that passes that he would prefer not to see so this is really going to be his last opportunity over the next couple of years to to weigh in on that issue we’re not trying to tell you how to do your job or anything but there was a letter to the editor this week in the landmark I read it please I read it basically said this should be pretty easy yeah so I mean it I I mean I agree and if it should be easy and and and again if we had a sports betting bill on the floor of the Senate tomorrow and we didn’t have the VLC issue I think it would pass with overwhelming numbers makes sense yeah I mean the letter the letter writer said I mean it’s not brain surgery really yeah it’s what he said it’s that or maybe he said it’s not rocket surgery or brain science I don’t know but one of those anyway but um yeah so so work on that for us Tony and you’ll have a happy a couple of happy constituents right good good I love it and then uh let’s let’s move on to something maybe not quite as popular to talk about and that’s the Kansas City Police board what are your thoughts on on the on the Kansas City Police board situation um well let me just first off step back by saying that that I’m a big supporter of the way that the Kansas City Police Department is run right now which is to say that we have an independent bipartisan Commission of Kansas city-ins who run the police department the mayor has a spot on that board and then there are four other members that are appointed by the governor confirmed by the state senate that has been the structure that’s been in place for the Kansas City police commission since the 1930s and what it does is it really insulates the Kansas City Police Department which is the largest police force in the state of Missouri from a lot of what I would consider to be Petty City Hall politics and we saw a lot of that manifest itself in May of last year when the city council took a vote to strip you know over 42 million dollars worth of funding from the KCPD and did so with no warning to at the time police chief Rick Smith no warning to any of the poor Northland city council members who all voted against the resolution and of course cut out all four of the police Commissioners that I just previously mentioned who were responsible with the day-to-day running of the department I think that was example enough of what I needed to see from that city council to say they absolutely should not be in charge of a 1200 officer police force um they contend on on the other side I’ve seen where they that that was not a cut but that was a reallocation to uh what I what I took from most of the statements was like a community type policing type activities maybe mental health type services and things of that nature do you contend that that’s not what happens so what I would say is there’s been a lot of uh rewriting of history after that decision was made I think there have been some some justifications that have been invented by certain members of the city council to justify what they did especially when they saw the amount of public backlash they were getting from those actions in particular up here in the Northland and um no I don’t think there was any plan and let’s even just say for the sake of argument they wanted to take a portion of that 42 million dollars and and use it for you know some type of Social Services um you know I’m not opposed to more social services but not at the expense of our Law Enforcement Officers the reality is you know we have record high crime in Kansas City right now in 2019 Kansas City was listed as the sixth most dangerous city in America and you know almost 90 percent of the police department’s budget is spent on Personnel on benefits and salaries so the notion that you can make a cut that was one-fifth of that Department’s budget and not have to remove officers from the streets is just a total fallacy and so what we would have been seeing is we would have seen massive layoffs within the department and you know I’m a big believer that you know well yes it’s good to have social workers when there is a violent individual on the streets that is threatening to use violence against another citizen you have to have a well-trained police officer with a gun who’s able to intervene in those types of violent circumstances and go ahead go ahead I was just going to move on to you have something else and I was going to talk about Amendment four but if you’ve got something else on that just just one one thing real quick they’re they’re very quick to um the other side of these issues very quick on on the violence that that to blame outstate Republicans mostly for the lack of gun laws that that create the violent situations in in uh in the city where do you stand on that I disagree with that I mean the reality is is that an individual who is willing to and oftentimes individuals who do use guns to commit crimes have obtained the gun illegally and oftentimes they are convicted felons when they’re in possession of the gun which in and of itself is a federal crime you know so the notion that somebody who you know has it in their mind that they’re gonna hold somebody up and and steal their purse or that they’re going to shoot them that they are going to be persuaded by some gun law not to commit those criminal Acts I don’t buy that that just seems absurd on its face talk to us about Amendment four which would have some effect on the on this police board situation would it not yeah no so um what amendment four is is it’s a direct response to what the city council did uh last year whenever they stripped the 42 million dollars worth of funding from the KCPD so because of the unique governing structure for the Kansas City Police Department not only do you have a board of police Commissioners that run it but as you might imagine in state law because the city could just decide well that’s fine you’re going to run the department but we’re not giving you any money so in the legislature back in the 1930s thought about that and said well we should probably have some minimum funding mechanism to make sure that the city council has to give some amount of their budget uh to the police department and so in the 1930s that percentage was 15 in the 1950s it was increased to 20 percent and it has remained Frozen at 20 percent of the city’s General Revenue since the 1950s so I sponsored a bill during the legislative session that would increase that minimum funding threshold that the city has to give from their budget to the KCPD from 20 to 25 percent and I I picked that number principally because that is in in recent decades what the city has been voluntarily funding the police department at uh and it’s in line with the modern day funding needs of the department inflation has far exceeded five percent uh since the 1950s and this is making sure that the department has the resources that it needs to do its job and provide the basically critical services and so the reason for Amendment four is I sponsored at the same time as the bill a senate joint resolution which put Amendment four on the ballot so the the Missouri Constitution has a provision in it known as the Hancock Amendment most people know of Hancock because it places a cap on the amount that the government can increase taxes without going to a vote of the people there’s a lesser known provision in the Hancock amendment that prohibits unfunded mandates meaning the state coming in and saying that the city has to spend a certain amount of money or a county has to spend a certain amount of money without providing a revenue stream and so what um the amendment 4 does is it provides an exception to Hancock that allows the general assembly to require minimum funding thresholds for police departments so that we can move the number from 20 to 25 so how was that placed on the ballot what was it was that place all about it okay yeah so so when I filed the the legislation that increased the funding threshold for the KCPD from 20 to 25 percent of the city’s General Revenue that same day I filed a senate joint resolution which put Amendment four on the ballot to create this carve out for the hand could that have an artisan vote you know we had one Democrat who voted in favor of both the resolution and the bill um otherwise it was a straight party vote every Republican in the Senate voted in favor of the legislation and then all the one Democrat voted against it and the Democrat who voted in favor of it happened to be the minority floor leader of the Senate John Rizzo who represents portion of the Kansas City area um and and his brother is a police officer in the department what we’re getting mixed letters to the editor on that one I’ve had one that came in that was opposed to it and for next week’s paper I already have one has come in that’s in favor of amendment four so have you seen any polling on that how’s it how’s that shaking out and by the way I’m going to add another one to your list because I’m working on one right now that I’m hoping to send into the paper in favor of amendment we’ll get it in soon Tony we’ll get it we’ll get it in soon if my wife Lucinda is watching it’s in her inbox to edit uh she’s a journalist in the family all right so I I have I have written it and now I’ve asked for some edits back and so I’m listening to them waiting on those edits um so um I know I’m sorry the polling on on Amendment four yeah I mean it’s been a while since I’ve seen polling um you know but I I would I I will confess I would be pretty surprised if it didn’t pass um you know you look at the ballot language it basically asks the question you know should the legislature be able to require minimum funding for police officers to make sure they have adequate funding to protect to their cities my guess is that the overwhelming majority of missourians probably agree that that should be allowed especially fop support behind it yes the terminal or police has come out in Kansas City in support of the state paternal Order of Police has come out in support of it um you know I will tell you that during the legislative session when I sponsored the bill the Kansas City Police Department itself came out in favor of it through the board of police Commissioners uh whenever we we have the bill that wasn’t the unanimous vote then uh it was it was four to one okay the mayor the mayor voted no in all four uh police Commissioners who were appointed by the governor voted in favor of supporting that legislation yeah I’m going to take a minute to talk about letters to the editor too by the way we we cut those off like a week ahead of the election so there are two current editions and not current but two additions remaining before the election so you’ve got one week to get your letters to the editor and then I cut them off uh because that avoids a late letter to the editor trying to perform a hit piece on someone guy and we just don’t want that right absolutely we’re big Believers unless you’re gambling to some kind of gambling issue hey everybody thanks for tuning in uh it’s Landmark live you are watching Ivan Foley and Guy Speckman interview uh Tony lukemeyer who’s a state senator and Tony is an attorney and that guy and I are not attorneys I don’t know if that’s clear to you through the watching but but we do own a gently used set of Encyclopedia stuff so that’s I think we’re on we’re on even ground all right we’re getting closer yeah okay so uh guy you had a couple things you wanted to talk to Tony about well I mean we I saw in Missouri times you were listed on a short list as a potential if Eric Schmidt the current attorney general would be elected to the United States Senate then there’s a uh there’s an open position as attorney general and you were on that short list in that in that uh article as somebody that would potentially fill that fill that position uh you care to make any kind of comment on that or well I mean it’s an honor to be mentioned but it also creates uh uh difficulties for you sometimes you know I mean it’s it’s always flattering to hear your name mentioned for positions like that you know I and I will tell you and I mean this truthfully I mean I’m I’m very focused on my campaign here you know to to get reelected to continue representing the citizens of platinum Buchanan County and the Missouri Senate I’ve enjoyed my time in the Senate I think I’ve been able to do some things that have made a meaningful difference for our state and for our community and I look forward hopefully if I if I have the confidence of Voters in November or having an opportunity to do that for another four years is a state office uh would that be something that you would be looking at in the in the future uh you know I mean I would never count anything out um you know of course I I would have to ask my wife’s permission before I ever uh decided your waitchester gets done with the letter right until she gets done with the letter of the editor um they made a good elected you might want to get elected yeah yeah yeah so um yeah my you know my focus right now is you know getting reelected uh to the to the senate seat that I hold right now and been spending a lot of time you know on the campaign Trail going around you know talking to voters meeting people at their homes talking about issues that are important to them and so that’s what we’re focused on right now boom couple of topics coming up that you’ll want to stay tuned for we’re going to talk about taxes and property assessments that’s always a a popular Topic in guys beckman’s World guy is an appraiser when he’s not reading his encyclopedia or writing writing his column for the landmark which appears on page three and it’s called Ponder the thought and he is our funny guy we like to uh we call him our humor columnist guys did you know that we called you that I did know that but you know Scott webman really got me last week when he said he said what do you do for the paper you write Sports and I said no I write an opinion column he dead pan looked at me in the eye and said there’s a lot of that these days everybody with a Facebook okay I got it yeah good time so uh property evaluations let’s go there uh Tony are there and just talk to us about the assessment process is there a limit on a percentage limit on how much the county assessor can raise a person’s assessed value in a year so the short answer is no but let me back up before I kind of jump into that and that is one of the things that I hear from constituents a lot and this is both now when I’m campaigning I’m going door to door and I’m talking to folks is the impact that that these huge reassessments have on people’s lives particularly seniors who are on fixed incomes I mean when their assessment goes up you know by 40 50 60 percent and they’re eventually going to see a corresponding you know real estate property tax increase the tracks with that um that is a situation where people are literally fearing that they’re going to be taxed at their home and so that’s something that you know as a government official I take very seriously and want to make sure that we’re not having that happen particularly to our seniors um so there the short answer is no you there is no current limitation in the law that limits the amount that a real estate assessment can increase now there are limitations which we mentioned before under the Hancock Amendment uh that would force the levy from local governments to be pushed back once once it’s hit and it triggers now does that include the schools which would be the biggest part of this yeah includes includes the schools the only the only School District that is is currently excluded from those Hancock limitations is the Kansas City public school districts it doesn’t impact Platte County but yeah when you saw the you know the huge increases that we saw in Jackson County a couple of years ago yes the library district is subject to Hancock yes the fire district is but the school district is not and as you know from looking at your tax bill the school district is the biggest recipient of local tax dollars and so in Kansas City when when we saw you know south of the river a few years ago the the Jackson County assessments go up by 50 60 people’s Actual taxes were going up by almost that percentage amount at least as to the school and the reason for that is because the Kansas City Public School District is under still under a federal desegregation order and so they’re not subject to the Hancock that like most of the other school districts in the state but like the Park Hill School District Platte County R3 they would all be subject to Hancock so the current status is I I sponsored and passed a bill a couple of years ago that extended the same protections that exist in St Louis and Jackson County Statewide and what the bill did is it said that if the assessor is going to reassess your property at more than 15 percent they have to come and do a physical inspection and what that does is in a way it sort of serves as an artificial cap because if the assessor doesn’t have the ability to go out and and do a physical inspection of all the properties in in the county are you talking interior physical inspection or just an exterior so I mean to meet that criteria do they just have to go through so they they have to get permission or to enter the home which of course the homeowner can permit or deny and if there’s an exterior inspection that’s done whenever you’re not home and you get your assessment you can ask them to come back out and do an interior inspection now you do that at your own risk because they may come in and say oh we didn’t realize we did the exterior inspection that you finished your basement so your assessment actually should be higher but that that is an additional protection for homeowners that I put in my legislation and the other piece that was in there is that normally whenever you get reassessed if you want to appeal that to the Board of Equalization the burden of proving that the assessment is wrong is on the landowner so the assessor could basically if they wanted to just kind of sit on their hands and see if they could disprove the assessment under my legislation at that 15 percent threshold the burden of proof flips over to the assessor which means that if you go appeal it you as the homeowner don’t have the burden they the assessor have to justify to the Board of Equalization that the assessment is correct so so once you once you’ve reached that level of 15 though I mean can they cut it off right there can they can they hit 14 and just leave that alone yeah it’s so so we so we saw that actually in Jackson County which again has had the same protection in place for for years um in Jackson County when we saw reassessments go through the roof what we saw is that there were many properties that got reassessed at 50 60 but then you had a whole bunch of properties that were assessed at 14.9 percent and the reason is is they couldn’t go above that because they didn’t have the manpower to go around and actually reassess all those properties and do physical inspections and so when I said earlier that that the 14 you know or the 15 for physical inspection sort of serves as an artificial cap Jackson County is an example of that because the assessor just went are you planning anything to come back at that or yeah yeah so I I have legislation that I filed last year that we actually passed out of the Senate um it ended up dying over in the house that would have capped the amount that a real estate assessment can increase at the greater of either five percent or inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index and so that is the legislation I currently got out there much like the Kansas City Police Department funding bill because that would require a change to the state constitution there was a corresponding Senate joint resolution I filed along with that so there would be if I passed that next year if I get reelected there would be another ballot question in 2024 that would say you know should the legislature be allowed to pass laws to cap the amount that real estate assessments can increase on your property taxes my guess is without any polling that would pass Pretty overwhelmingly um this leaves all agricultural land alone there’s nothing to do with that yeah so the the bill that I filed um you know this last session uh was residential property only so it didn’t touch commercial it did not touch Agricultural and in the fourth category of taxable property is utility property and that that’s treated separately so this only focused on on residential property hey we’ve mentioned the word polling a couple of times here and I want to talk to you about this and I don’t know how deep you’ll want to go into this but there’s a sense out there that Platte County is becoming a little bit more democratic not not that the Democrats are a majority in Platte County because we know they’re not but but there is a growing sense among people I talked to that there are more Democrats now in Platte County especially Southern Platte County than than there used to be are you getting that feel I think that’s probably an accurate statement I don’t know that I have polling necessarily that would back up that um but look I mean that we were talking about this before um we went live on the show I mean Platte County is the fastest growing County by percentage of population in the entire State over the last 10 years um and a lot of that growth has to do with some some good things in our accounting I mean we have great school districts we have relatively low crime and because of that you’re seeing a lot of younger families moving to Platte County I think that as a general matter people who are younger tend to be a little bit more left-leaning a little bit more Progressive maybe and so I think we’re seeing a bit of a demographic shift and where as Platte County is trending younger we’re maybe seeing the county politically get a little bit more mixed certainly I would agree with you that that there are more Republicans in Platte County and certainly the elections would bear that out uh than there than there are Democrats but those numbers those margins are are you know starting to narrow you know when I first started here in the 80s and then into the early 90s even uh it was Heavy Democratic you know Platte county-wise and that kind of Switched in like 94 I think was a big was the first big local election where you could see things had shifted and there was a republican now and it’s kind of been that way ever since but your other County Buchanan County let’s talk about that because and guy you might know more about this than me because you’re you’re familiar with that part of the uh Northwest Missouri because Guy Speckman if you don’t know he’s familiar with every you mentioned a small ass town in Missouri and he’s either been there or owns it and so but anyway Buchanan County used to be um heavily Democratic right guy would you agree with that absolutely and what is it now Tony very heavily Republican I mean in fact it’s funny you see kind of the reverse of what’s happening in Platte County where you know Platte County may be the demographic and political Trends are shifting a little bit further to the left in Buchanan County they’re shifting to the right and pretty dramatically I mean every single election cycle Republicans are are winning the county by you know two three more points every time we have an election uh to the point now where um I mean you you really it’s it’s almost inconceivable that a Democrat would be able to win an election Buchanan but don’t you think the parties have changed and and one I watched a just stumbled on one time I was down in Columbia they were playing an old tape of Jerry Liden the the you know famed he died on Election night Chillicothe legislator or U.S representative I guess and you listen to Democrats from back in the in the 70s and 80s and maybe even early 90s the um the agenda sounds very similar to what you hear come from Republican candidates today I mean it’s just I feel like there’s been a real shift in the ideology of the of the parties as well I mean that maybe it’s created some of that you see you see that yeah first of all number one I agree with that I mean people you know frequently commented you know if Harry Truman you know were alive and in politics today that he would probably be a republican not a Democrat um and and I hear that from constituents a lot of times you know I’ll have constituents who I’ll talk to who will say you know I was a lifelong Democrat but then you know the the Democratic party left me they went too far to the left and they went too quickly and uh you know they consider themselves to be you know in 1960s you know JFK Blue Dog Democrat and they said that’s not the modern democratic party in the United States today and many of them have become Republicans because of that and I think I think local uh remains different than National I mean I I I just I don’t think there’s um you know it’s getting closer than it used to be but I still think there’s a difference between National Democrats and National Republicans and and local I I think there’s an ideology difference uh from from time to time it’s it’s it’s becoming more polarized over the last 10 years but um up and down the line hey everybody you’re watching Landmark live it’s a production of the Platte County Landmark newspaper which is America’s favorite newspaper and I have America’s favorite um Ponder the thought columnist to my far left and in the center I have the Platte and Buchanan County state senator Tony lutkemeyer and Tony’s been nice enough to join us for some political discussion tonight we appreciate that and he’s also uh talking like at some point we can go down to the state capitol if if we can pass the background checks and get in down there and we’ll do a show yeah good point that’s fair point you brought up there let’s talk about roads a little bit and this is interesting because I talked to the city administrator of Platte City uh yesterday I think it was and uh they would like to get Highway 92 east of I-29 widened at some point and they’re going to try to reach out to various Partners including a developer and and maybe some Mark funds I can’t remember Mark might have been in on this I’m not sure uh and they’d like some State money to help with that cause so Tony can you help the city of Platte City get some money to widen Highway 92. first of all let me say this this number one I serve on the Senate Appropriations Committee and I will always do anything I can to help my constituents in my district so if if there was a city that is looking for more money for infrastructure projects we have a governor right now that loves infrastructure and uh if there’s anything I can do to be helpful if they’re listening right now call my office and we will do everything we can to help I will say that you know the state is investing at historic levels in infrastructure right now whether it was the federal dollars that we received from the Federal Highway bill you know whether it’s the increased Revenue that’s coming you know from from the gas tax whether it’s the 350 million dollars that was approved my first year in the senate for bonding to to replace and repair 250 Bridges throughout the state two of which are here in Platte County um you know we’ve we’ve been making historic strides uh when it comes to focusing on infrastructure in the state of Missouri yeah so I’m assuming the city of Platte City they have your phone number so they’ve got it yeah the mayor’s I know the mayor’s got it all right well let’s let’s get something rolling on that guy Speckman you’re familiar with the with some of the projects that are supposedly going in east of I-29 or Platt city is going to be getting a you know that project over in Clay County and uh the Facebook or the data center they’re working day and night they’ve got lights up over there and there’s dump trucks rolling through night and day I mean that’s a huge project I mean have you have you have you seen I have not been over there and been seen inside it’s something else there’s going to be a lot of traffic generated from that thing yeah it really is yeah hey everybody again you’re watching Landmark live and we’re we’re absolutely grilling Tony lukemeyer he seems very he seems very uncomfortable here doesn’t he but anyway we want to move on again Tony uh Sunshine laws there’s been some talk by the governor I think that he’d like to kind of water down in my opinion it would be watering down the Sunshine Law and uh you’re familiar I’m sure you live in Parkville there was a huge battle over Sunshine Law issues and open records requests that that cost the city of Parkville probably close to 500 000 between legal fees and a record settlement of 190 000 to a citizen that lived just outside of town over over these open records requests and so which by the way that citizen did a fine job representing himself in court I watched those hearing so anyway he ended up getting 190 000 settlement but the point is we don’t need to be watering down the Sunshine Law your thoughts Tony lukemeyer on Missouri Sunshine Law and the future of it well I agree with you I mean we need to have transparency in government we need to make sure that that citizens um you know through the media are able to you know see what what elected representatives are working on what they’re doing um you know we have had many attempts to to in my view either gut or significantly you know reduce the effectiveness of the Sunshine Law uh in the three or four years that I’ve been in the Senate and I’ve opposed all those efforts um you know I’ve worked you know very closely with the Missouri press Association to fight some of those issues in committee uh as well as doing away with Public Notices you know they’ve tried to do that too they’ve tried to get ready thank you for protecting us we really need you to protect Public Notices thank you yes the that is part of the problem here and and I haven’t mentioned this I think a couple weeks ago to me is the Missouri municipal League uh who rep who’s a private organization that represents public organizations um you know they they actively work and promote ways to get ways to to avoid the Sunshine Law and that’s that seems unfortunate to me that that we we would have that situation and does that ever come up in a state discussion or does it you know it’s funny um and all the discussions that have ever been had about um you know curtailing or or cutting back on the Sunshine Law I’ve never known the municipal League to come out and testify in support of any of that they’ve never appeared in front of a committee uh you know you know talking about that so um you know most of these have been you know one of my one of my former colleagues who I’m actually very fond of he’s now uh since passed away Ed Emery he would always file a bill that would push back against the Sunshine Law and try to curtail it and and you know my attitude was well just don’t put anything stupid in writing like it’s pretty simple just you know don’t don’t put texting yeah don’t put stupid stuff yeah in writing it’s an email just don’t don’t do it if you don’t want it on the front page of a newspapers elected official then don’t you know don’t write something down so anyway um I mean I just think the use of good common sense um you know there’s really no reason to mess with the Sunshine Law so yeah so where’s that push coming from to kind of water it down who’s who’s pushing that deal you know I don’t know like I said I mean every year that I’ve been in the Senate it’s always come from an individual you know Senator that’s that’s had a bill and there’s never been been like a group or an association that has been pushing it usually when that those types of bills get presented the Bill’s sponsor will testify in favor of the legislation and then we’ll have the Missouri press Association testify in opposition and that’s pretty much it that’s that that’s how the hearing goes you know you don’t have you don’t have any proponents other than the bill sponsor and then the only opponent you have is is the state press Association yeah interesting stuff guy you got anything more on that no guy owned the Savannah reporter up there did you have any battles in Savannah up there when you absolutely and I mean it always became it came to a matter of money and if you don’t have the time it’s time or money and I remember a case where um we had a school board president that was worked for the Department of Conservation and had gotten in a lot of trouble I spent maybe thousand two thousand bucks on lawyers to just getting information it was public information you know at some point you like this isn’t worth it this is not worth it to us and that’s what that’s information that should have been readily available to us and should have been provided with just a simple email or a phone call and that’s um that’s what’s happening all the time now I mean it’s happening from and and it’s not a like it’s not a conspiracy it’s it’s inside these fiefdoms of local public organizations that just misunderstand how transparent they’re supposed to be I think I mean that’s I mean when you say that people aren’t breaking down the door to to change the Sunshine Law it tells me that it’s just it’s a local it’s a local issue yeah let’s talk about uh I remember one time the governor said that while he is Governor the Missouri will not build any more prisons your thoughts on Missouri does a does Missouri have enough prison space you know I have not looked at the numbers with the Department of Corrections recently to be able to really give an intelligent answer to that what I would what I would say just generally speaking is this is that we need to be smart on crime and what that means is really two things number one we do not need to be locking up non-violent offenders uh who are people that should be in drug treatment courts or something like that and our prosecutor Eric zond and our our Sheriff Mark Owen has done a great job here in Platte County drawing that delineation on the other hand um when we have dangerous offenders people that commit violent crimes they need to be locked up there needs to be a place for them that is another thing that in Platte County we have done a good job we’ve got you know a a sheriff’s department and local Municipal Police who will arrest people when they commit violent offenses we have a prosecuting attorney’s office that will prosecute them we have a jail that will hold them and we have judges that will throw the book at them in appropriate cases you look South the river in Kansas City and you see the crime down there other than and the the police department which does a fine job of getting and apprehending people you have a justice system that totally fails um you know we see you scarcely see a homicide uh that you read about in the city of Kansas City South the river where the person does not have a long rap sheet where they’ve committed multiple dangerous felony offenses and yet for some reason either the prosecutor refused to prosecute entered into some type of plea deal that was very favorable the defendant where they didn’t spend any time in prison or a judge that refuses to uh you know enforce the wall and then these people are back out on the street and then they kill somebody and it’s somehow this huge surprise that happens it’s like well no they they they tried on multiple different occasions to rob somebody at gunpoint those were attempted unsuccessful homicides that did not turn violent just but for the grace of God and then when those people are back out on the streets and and they realize there are no consequences to their actions um they go back and they do it again and eventually the trigger gets pulled and somebody dies and that is and in my opinion the the catch and release of dangerous felons is one of the things that is driving a lot of our crime statistics south of the river in Kansas City gotcha another thing go ahead though I just heard I saw an interview with the prosecutor Jackson County prosecutor uh just the other day where i’m paraphrasing but uh trying to that their efforts are to prevent crime and which kind of struck me as funny because I I think the prosecutor’s office is is not to prevent crime it’s to prosecute crime yeah and and it has a preventative effect though right I mean part of part of the criminal justice system if if it works properly is you know the police arrest prosecutors prosecute judges in four sentences and if the system works correctly people that are would-be criminals out in the community seeing their friends going off and having long prison terms that has a deterrent effect on them but every part of the justice system has to be doing its part and so when you have a prosecuting attorney like the one that we have in Jackson County or in the city of St Louis refusing to do their part of enforcing you know Justice then you see a breakdown and I think we’ve started to see that in in Kansas City you know I’ve had a lot of conversations with Kansas City police officers where they vent their frustration where they’ve picked up somebody who’s clearly dangerous they’re armed they’ve they’ve tried to commit a or have successfully committed a dangerous felony short of a homicide they go out and arrest this person risk their own lives as police officers and they arrest this person three four five times and they’re circled you know cycled in and out of the Jackson County Jail and then eventually the only time they’re held to account is when they finally pull the trigger and kill somebody that is a broken justice system and it does need to be fixed I think he said we’re building more jails yeah well let’s let’s hope not um marijuana legalization recreational marijuana is on the ballot your thoughts on that Amendment I’m against it um and and for a lot of different reasons um you know one they’ve got some some very weird expungement Provisions that are that are in the ballot language um you know basically be automatic expungement um you know I think that employers if they have a prospective employee that’s been convicted of a felony they should have the ability to find out something like that in making a decision of whether or not they want to hire somebody so there’s there’s a bunch of problems there uh the the language of the actual constitutional amendment I think is like over 40 pages long um when you have that that’s on the ballot coming up correct that’s on the ballot coming up now the ballot summary it would legalize it I mean all marijuana right okay right yeah and so um you know I think it’s a it’s it’s not the right approach and uh I I personally will be voting no on Amendment Three have you seen any polling on that one I’m asking a lot of polling questions you know um I’m trying to think I don’t know that I have seen polling uh what will the state’s reaction be if it passes will there be any uh is there an action that that is potential to be taken for those of you that don’t like that so you can kill it uh well so so I mean part part of the issue would be is if Amendment Three were to pass it’s of course an amendment to the Constitution so there’s nothing statutory we had just a few years ago that then they they flipped back around I can’t even remember which which issue that was but go ahead I I digress well well so what what you may be referring to is is clean so-called clean misery yeah so now clean Missouri was repealed by voters uh through a subsequent amendment that was placed on the ballot so so the only way that you can undo let’s say Amendment Three pass if the legislature were inclined to do something you could put an issue back on the ballot and have voters reverse course on it or alternatively there could be a competing group or organization that could collect signatures for an initiative petition and then put something on the ballot to try to reverse it to me that seems a little bit unlikely to happen but but that would be the only way you would be able to do it the legislature can’t come in and through statute purport to change the Constitution the Constitution has heightened status relative to a state law okay so Tony let’s get back to sports gambling yeah yes okay all right everything comes full circle I don’t know I don’t know if you’ve I don’t know if you’ve heard but Kansas has legalized Sports you’ve probably built a bridge to Kansas so that we could get there and gamble speaking of bridge uh I drive 435 to Hollywood Casino and you live in Parkville I’ll just stop there pick you up sometime honestly we’ll just have a good time doing some legalized Sports wages I’ll say hey Tony see how fun this is how many people are spending money you don’t even need a Lobby me I mean like I said I’ve been the I have been the sponsor of this bill the last four years I’ve been a senate I I want to see it passed um as much as Prosecutor’s own hates those machines yeah you know we could send him to Jeff City he can take what he took a track hoe to those yeah that’s what it was he jack a track code to him brought Dan Hageman down everybody stood in the parking lot they beat the hell up oh they assaulted him viciously next time the lobby for the video game people are there brand those guys down bring those are your Heavies guy’s an answer guy he’s got you know I mean hire him as my chief of staff actually you know we need some of that Common Sense down Jefferson we really do so what will be some of the important topics coming up in this next session you know in addition to sports wagering of course yeah I mean Sports wagering I you know I won’t be I will be filing a bill on that assuming everything goes well in November um you know I will be um you know working on Public Safety legislation um we’re working very closely right now with State Chamber uh one of the things that the Missouri Chamber of Commerce has realized is that you know we always talk about tax policy and a lot of other policies that are important for attracting or retaining businesses in Missouri but one of the things they realize is that when your city has the perception of being unsafe or actually is unsafe it’s a huge impediment to getting companies to want to relocate to your city or to your state and trying to keep companies to stay here because everybody wants their employees to feel safe whenever they come to work and so I’m going to be working closely with the Missouri Chamber um was the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee to hopefully get some good Public Safety legislation to the governor’s desk next session to make sure that we are making the state safer but also more economically viable do we have a backlog of judicial appointments to be made back look no we don’t no we don’t yeah so Missouri has the what’s known as the Missouri court plan where there are panels of Judges that are submitted to the governor and he’s required to pick I think within 60 or 90 days a vacancy for the court of appeals the Missouri Supreme Court and then certain County Circuit Courts Platte County for example is part of the Missouri plan and so there really is no ability to have a backlog for for judicial appointments because of those times just when you said you just Judiciary Committee I thought maybe that came before before no so we no so we don’t um we don’t uh in Missouri there is no Senate confirmation of Judges um you know judges stand for retention elections so for those of you that have gotten your sample ballots you’ll see that there are a bunch of Elections on there for Supreme Court court of appeals and then local circuit judges and it’s just a yes or no should the person be retained they’re not running against anybody but the retention election is the people’s check on the executive branch appointing judges in Missouri yeah so the what’s that got to do with gambling nothing nothing it has nothing to do with conflicts so uh how much time do you actually get to you’re you’re an attorney but how much time do you actually get to practice law while you’re state senator right yeah so it’s it gets complicated whenever we’re in legislative session so I my typical schedule is you know basically the the second week of January is is more or less when we go into legislative session and then we usually finish at the end of the second week of May and so during that roughly four and a half month period um we go into session uh late afternoon on Monday and so I usually drive down to Jeff City early Monday morning I will work down in Jefferson City on my job back here in Kansas City uh and then we’ll be in session you know Monday evening and then all day Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and then I come back and work in the office on Fridays so I essentially work part-time in my normal job when I’m not in the Senate during the four and a half months so I’m in-house corporate council with a company here in Kansas City so very good the Republican party some infighting or is everybody getting getting along explains this to me like I’ve I’ve read multiple articles with regard to the infighting and there’s a certain group of Republicans it’s all I can tell is one one group’s more Republican than the other it’s all I can kind of gather from it all and that you guys I mean well it’s kind of a constant battle to see who can get the the farthest to the right exactly well so we have we have a a group uh in the Senate that until recently referred to themselves as the conservative caucus and they had a kind of separate group that was sort of a subset of the broader Republican caucuses they recently disbanded um you know we’ll see we’ll see how how real that is we have some leadership elections coming up in the Senate um as I mentioned we’re the leader of that group there was kind of a there I mean there were several people I don’t know there’s necessarily an individual you know I know I was I was not I was not um and so the um you’re basically liberal you’re too liberal yeah you’re Tony too liberal I think I think they had me they had like a little score sheet I think I was the most conservative person who was not a member of the conservative caucus so I’m the most conservative non-conservative caucus member I’d put that on an ad that’s a resume right that’s a resume right there um you know but yeah there was a lot of um you know cantankerous stuff that was going on in the Senate um you know when when um that group first kind of came into existence again they’ve disbanded uh we’ll see if that lasts uh I am I’m scared is this just the spoils of riches when the fact that we have so many you have such a majority that the majority is split like this I mean it is is there a benefit if you get together if you guys can get together yeah for sure and you know one of the things that I’m doing you know this year is you know assuming everything goes well in November as I’m planning on running for a caucus chairman Dan Hageman had served for the last four years as the chairman of the caucus and did a fine job at it one of the things that I want to try to do is whenever we do have our caucus Retreat which we do in the second week of November after the election’s over is to go down there and say okay look everybody’s got certain priority issues that they want to get done maybe some are unique to their District um but but a lot of us have just broad policy goals that we want to get done as Republicans and why don’t we identify what those two or three issues are and then make a pact whenever we’re down at our caucus retreat in Branson and say for the first month of session we are going to get a B and C done so that way you know we spend our first month in session maybe not fighting each other but working towards common goals and getting them done so anyway that’s my um idealistic vision of what I would like to do if I was the caucus chairman is to help set that agenda for the Senate next legislative session so maybe we get off to a smoother start and we’re not fighting is a retreat like at Silver Dollar City I mean what do you guys do it’s not a steakhouse Bonanza no we we actually um we go to oh what’s the name of the place Big Cedar Lodge we got in the Big Cedar Lodge every year and so you know we’ll be there for three days and we’ll have meetings you know for for three straight days where we’ll go in and we’ll you know break and we’ll have lunch together and it’s kind of a you know part of a team building kind of camaraderie thing you know where we kind of spend time you know together you know with all 24 Republican members of the Senate um you know but the idea is is that we we go down there to do some agenda setting you know the governor will come and we’ll hear from his his office and his staff on what some of their legislative priorities are which will again help kind of inform what we want our agenda to be in the senate for that year you know we’ll get presentations from you know different state directors um you know so if there’s a particular budgetary issue on the horizon that we need to be aware of we’ll hear you know from the state budget director on something like that and so that that is our planning session for the year before we go down to gym have you ever been to a caucus retreat yeah it sounds it sounds fun I mean our Retreats are generally a little shorter at the Riverwoods I want an invite to the next one yeah right and then we’ll slide over to the sports book there at the Hollywood Casino he doesn’t go to Canada yeah yeah we we uh I I as a Mizzou guy I just there there’s I I have moral objections to spending money in Kansas have you been to the uh Casino yet guy over at Hollywood I have not okay the Sportsbook chairs are very uncomfortable I don’t understand that I mean they want really cheap money for those they weren’t really cheap on the furniture over there man oh I mean God step it up I mean if it was more comfortable for I’d stay longer but no man I got to get out it’s uh I’m an old man I can’t see it take a lawn chair or something let’s let’s uh and we appreciate your time you’ve been very generous with it so let’s get to know Tony a little bit better what what does Tony like to do in his spare time what do I like to do in my spare time when I’m not campaigning uh for office I love travel my wife and I love to travel um I love spending time outdoors with our dog our dog Truman named after the Mizzou mascot oh what kind of dog he’s a golden doodle cool yeah be seven years old in November and he’s he’s spoiled if you guys ever come down to the Capitol I bring bring him with me to the Capitol so he’ll be your greeter whenever whenever you come to Jefferson City and I have to say it’s funny whenever we have like the fourth grade tours that come through the state capitol I always have the teachers you know email me after they get back from the Jeff City trip and they’re like it’s funny and this is almost Universal you know kids got to go in the Dome of the Capitol they got to go in the Senate house floor they got to go to the governor’s office you know where this is headed the one thing the kids will not stop talking about is the guy who has the dog in his office so absolutely so you like sports though right I do big Kansas City Chiefs fan uh love the Chiefs you know I grew up on the Eastern side of the state and my wife grew up in Southwest Missouri and uh but immediately became a Chiefs convert whenever I came up here I just love the environment I mean it feels you know having gone to Mizzou for undergrad and having that environment where you’re outside and you’re tailgating before the game there’s just nothing there’s nothing like it and and it’s it’s um you know I and of course you know we’ve got homes now we’ve got Kelsey I mean it’s just it’s it’s awesome it’s awesome guys begman’s a big Mizzou fan you guys has probably been tailgating down there at Missoula at the same time probably uh but I’m in a I’m in a bad way on Mizzou right now I’m not in it you don’t want to talk to me about Missouri football right now I’m very concerned about our path and uh what about Tony if Tony gets gambling fixed then we’re going to probably have to ask him to work yes let’s go with the gambling first yes what is the feeling of the Mizzou football coach guy let’s let’s get off track a little bit here what uh you know I I had great hope yeah but this season’s got me a little bit on the rails here I’m a little little worried about whether I I think we’ve in the winds we’ve even not played very well and uh are the natives getting restless yet that’s what I’m absolutely I think things are getting restless wouldn’t you agree with that that they’re at least Restless yeah it’s gonna happen yeah you know I mean I I have such I had and still do have such high hopes for for drink wits you know I think he’s the real deal I’ve had a chance to meet him a few times down at the Capitol and he just seems like very engaged somebody the players would want to go play for um you know we’ve had some Heartbreakers this season you know whether it was the Auburn game um the Georgia game which you know I I actually got invited to the George game and it was my 20-year High School reunion and so I wasn’t able to go to the game and I thought you know no big deal because they’re gonna just get crushed right right and uh and they actually played Georgia you know number one team in the country really close yeah and sold my tickets at night yeah well I’m back at home you know uh watching the game on television and and I’m like oh my gosh I just made one of the biggest regrets in my life not going to this football game and then you know they ended up losing it at the end but yeah this has been one of those Seasons where you know whether it was the Auburn game or the Florida game which could have turned out very different the Georgia game could have turned out very different um if they had picked up some of those wins yeah it would be a very different season probably a little you’d be singing a different tune I’d be singing a difference that’s true that’s true and I’m jealous let’s be honest I’m watching Kansas across there and I’m I’m and I watched Tennessee with a guy that was our offensive coordinator and I see what’s happening and I know different places different deal but you start looking over there and you get a little you start looking at the other girls and go man maybe we missed out there yeah you know where I was when the uh when Mizzou was playing Georgia at the winery I was at the Hollywood Casino okay that was such an obvious I mean everything comes back full circle yes you know actually the you should be hired as a casino lobbyist because you’re very persistent you’re so persistent on the sports betting issue you know they should be asking us to come over there and do a show guy they really should you know if we if we had sports betting in Missouri we would hook up immediately with like The Argosy Sportsbook or something so Argosy there you go when when Tony gets sports betting legalized we’re going to do a landmark live down at the Argosy from the sports book aren’t we guy absolutely okay all right well Tony we appreciate you coming on it’s been a lot of fun we’ve learned a lot and uh I hope we didn’t beat you over that too much with sports betting but we are actually thrilled to know that you’re a big supporter of the idea I am and so big supporter and and like I said four-year straight sponsor of the bill and and have every intention if if things go to plan in November to to sponsor the bill again this upcoming legislative session yeah very good hey and I got a little breaking news too uh I spoke with a former Chief by the name of Neil Smith on two Monday or Tuesday of this week Neil Smith an upcoming guest on Landmark live so we will talk we’ll see if Neil likes sports betting I bet he does I bet he does we’ll send him to see Tony yeah yeah all right well Tony thank you sir yeah it’s been fun hey thanks for having me we’ll do it again everybody thanks for tuning in to Landmark live we will see you again and watch the printed edition of The Landmark when we get Neil Smith scheduled we’ll announce that date and we’ll also announce it on our social media on Platte County Landmark on Facebook and on my Twitter account and on guys beckman’s Twitter account what is your Twitter account guys g-spec at g-spec at G specs okay at G specs start following him now until next time thanks for tuning in