Industrial farms could be major legislative topic

Industrial farms, which have been a major topic in Neosho due to the Moark expansion, could be a major topic on the 2006 legislative agenda, according to an article in the Dec. 30 Kansas City Star.
You will remember that the state legislature, by a narrow margin last year, managed to thwart legislation that would have limited what local governments could do about these operations. The same legislation will be making its way through the General Assembly this year.
The industrial farms and their lobbyists are willing to spread a little money out among legislators to increase the lawmakers' sympathy for this type of legislation.
That happened with the Moark battle. As noted in the Nov. 17 Turner Report, on the same day that more than 300 people filed into the Neosho Municipal Auditorium to discuss the impact of Moark's proposed expansion of its Neosho facilities, company official Jerry Wells, Joplin, contributed the maximum $1,200 to Governor Matt Blunt's campaign committee.
The Nov. 17 post continues, "Only a month earlier, the Wells family had contributed $600 to the campaign fund of Rep. Ron Richard, R-Joplin (the maximum $300 for both individual contributors). On July 26, Wells put $1,000 into the Friends of Roy Blunt campaign for the Seventh District Congressman. He had contributed $2,000 to Blunt earlier in the year.
"Missouri Ethics Commission records also indicate that he contributed the maximum $300 to the campaign fund of Rep. Marilyn Ruestman on Sept. 27.
"Wells did not just begin his largesse to coincide with the Neosho expansion. Federal Election Commission records indicate, he wrote out a $2,000 check to the Seventh District Republican Committee on March 11, 2004, and another $2,000 check to Friends of Roy Blunt on April 14, 2004. He contributed $2,000 to Congressman Blunt's campaign in February 2003."