Here is your comprehensive resource for the Utility Omnibus bill SB 4 that has passed both chambers of the Missouri Legislature. The videos and articles below should provide you with everything you need to know to determine if this was the best alternative for Missouri.
Final Votes:
Senate:
House:
Freedom Caucus Members:
Freedom Caucus Member Representative Brian Seitz
Representative Don Mayhew during the House Floor Debate on SC2 for SB4
View the entire House Floor Debate on SB 4. The discussion of SB 4 starts at 11:49.
We the People of Johnson County (March 17, 2025)
Rick Brattin, Missouri state senator, and Geoff Marke, chief economist from the Office of the Public Counsel, met with Johnson County residents to explain the details about SB4 and how it will impact Missourians. They spoke at the Johnson County We the People meeting Monday, March 17, 2025 at the fairgrounds.
Shield Maidens of Missouri
No one has done more research into SB 4 than the Shield Maidens. Below is the video of their roundtable discussion of the current legislative session, with in-depth coverage of SB 4.
Below is a link to the Shield Maiden’s substack, which includes their latest podcast and all the documents they refer to in both the podcast and the roundtable.
The Changing Opinion of SB4 by Geoff Marke and the Office of Public Counsel
How much faith can we put in the Office of Public Counsel (OPC) to protect the consumer in future rate increase hearings before the Missouri Public Services Commission? Just how bad the effects of this bill passing on the consumers and small businesses of Missouri depends in part on how the Missouri PSC uses the provisions in the bill to rule on future rate increases. Given the board’s current makeup (the chair’s husband is a lobbyist who has lobbied on behalf of American Water and Ranger Power, among others) and their history of favoring the Utilities in their rulings, there shouldn’t be much expectation that they will have the consumers back. Then you have the Office of Public Counsel; they are supposed to be the consumer’s advocate in these hearings. They were, in fact, very firmly against SB 4 in early versions of the bill. Those early versions contained all the provisions we were most concerned about, including CWIP and Future Test Year Modeling.
So, what changed in the final version of SB 4? Well, not until the final Perfected version of SB 4 was Section 386.720 on pages 26-27 added, which allows the Office of Public Counsel to assess utilities up to 0.057% of their gross intrastate operating revenues to fund their operations. This could mean millions in additional funding for the OPC, and even more concerning, the higher the rates, the more funding they will receive. This doesn’t guarantee bias, but it does make it hard for a reasonable observer to believe they can be trusted to truly be the consumers advacate.