Scott leads charge to keep Wal-Mart out of banking

The proposed move of Wal-Mart into the banking industry is being headed off in Missouri via a bill, sponsored by Sen. Delbert Scott, R-Lowry City, which would bar the company and other nonfinancial companies from banking here. The legislation passed the Senate Thursday and is headed to the House.
In an Associated Press article, Scott said, "I'm not anti-Wal-Mart, but they're a retail institution, and historically we have not mixed the two. This is a whole sea change in the way banking and commerce is done if we allow this to happen."
Allowing it to happen would also disappoint the powerful banking industry, which contributed nearly $10,000 to Scott, chairman of the Financial, Governmental Organizations and Elections Committee during the final three months of 2005, according to the January quarterly report filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission.
If the $3,325 donated by political committees during that period is removed from the total, Scott received more than half, $9,285, of the remaining $17,255.50 from banks and financial institutions.
The total includes $4,000 from the Missouri Bankers Association. That amount is $3,400 more than the $600 maximum, but the MBA long ago figured out a way to get around petty limitations.
Scott received the maximum $600 each from MBA State PAC, MBA River Heritage Region PAC, MBA Gateway Region PAC, MBA Truman Region PAC, MBA Mark Twain Region PAC and MBA Pony Express Region PAC and $400 from the MBA Ozark Region PAC.
Among Scott's remaining contributions were:
Rob J. Linderer, banking, Lenexa, Kan., $200; Premier Bank, Jefferson City, $100; Farmers Bank of Lincoln, $100; David Turner, banking, Jefferson City, $50; Central Bank of Kansas City, $100; The Citizens-Farmers Bank, Cole Camp, $100; Bank of St. Elizabeth, $100; United Bank of Chamois, $50; County Bank, Brunswick, $75; Bank of Odessa, $100; Sherwood Community Bank, Creighton, $50; St. Clair County State Bank, Osceola, $100; Rockwood Bank, Eureka, $100; Community Bank of Shell Knob, $100; Elaine Paxton, banking, Clinton, $100; Farmers and Merchants Bank, St. Clair, $100; US Bank, Lewistown, $50; First State Bank, St. Robert, $100; First Community Bank of the Ozarks, Branson, $100; Regional Missouri Bank, Marceline, $50; People's Bank of Wyaconda, Kahoka, $50; Scott Page, banking, $50; First state Bank, Monett, $100; CBC Bank, Bowling Green, $50; Excel Bank, Sedalia, $100; Midwest Bank Centre, St. Louis, $100; Bank of Belton, $100; Chillicothe State Bank, $50; Bank of Urbana, $100; Farmers & Commercial Bank, Holden, $50; Osage Valley Bank, Warsaw, $50; Scott Orr, banking, Columbia, $100; Citizens Bank, New Haven, $50; William Breedlove, banking, Springfield, $50; Glen Williams, banking, Eminence, $50.
All of the contributions listed above, including those made by the Missouri Bankers Association were made Dec. 13, according to Ethics Commission records.
Not to say that there is anything necessarily wrong with keeping Wal-Mart out of the banking industry, but it sure looks like all of those donors got their money's worth.