On May 22, Joplin gets blasted by an EF-5 tornado that rips out a third of our town. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and a host of other state officials are on the ground here day after day. Assurances are made, money is promised, and the governor steps it up like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
On June 27, State Auditor Tom Schweich, a Republican, begins an audit of the Democratic governor’s office. He tells the Globe that he finds $172 million in state withholdings made by Nixon that were backed by “no rhyme nor reason.”
Those withholdings account for the amount of money Nixon withheld to pay for disaster relief. A large part of it is going to Joplin. Nixon says his actions are necessary because Missouri’s constitution requires a balanced budget. Schweich says the way Nixon went about getting funding for Joplin is not constitutional.
On Aug. 19, Schweich sends a formal letter to Nixon challenging his constitutional authority to withhold the funds appropriated by lawmakers.
On Aug. 26, Schweich files a lawsuit in Cole County alleging Nixon has violated the constitution.
In between the time Schweich sent out his letter and filed the lawsuit, Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who is making a bid for governor, was cast in the spotlight after a photograph surfaced of him and a former Penthouse pet. Kinder said he had encountered her recently when he stopped to use the restroom at a bar where she worked. He said he agreed to her request for the picture, which then showed up accompanying a story about Kinder frequenting a club where she was an exotic dancer in the 1990s when he was serving in the Missouri Senate. Kinder said he visited the bar about 10 times before deciding the practice ran counter to his beliefs.
Schweich, in an interview Tuesday with the Globe, brought up Kinder before we did. He said the lawsuit has absolutely nothing to do with Kinder or politics. Asked if he would have filed the lawsuit had he been working with a Republican governor, Schweich was emphatic with his answer.
“Absolutely. I sent Nixon a letter about the audit findings and he’s blown me off. I would have done the same thing if that type of response had come from a Republican governor.”
Schweich, who has investigated organized crime in Afghanistan, the conduct of the U.S. government in connection with the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, and has served as chief of staff to three U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations, had to know the backlash he would face when he filed the lawsuit.
He told the Globe that his lawsuit will not hurt Joplin. He said the money is there and available through other avenues. In fact, he doesn’t think withholding money for other needs in the state will even be necessary.
Now it will be up to the courts to decide if Nixon has overstepped the authority that comes with being governor.
We doubt the people who lived in the 7,000 homes destroyed by the tornado are going to care. We doubt the 545 business owners who are trying to get up and running are going to care.
It may turn out that Schweich is right about the process the governor used to find money to pay for Joplin’s disaster relief.
But his timing couldn’t be more wrong.
Opinion
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Discussion
Our View: Timing is everything
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