JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The cost of 30 manhole covers that got sucked away: $5,800. A new concession stand at the destroyed high school: $228,600. Shelter and care for more than 1,300 homeless pets: $372,000.
The tornado that tore through Joplin a year ago already ranks as the deadliest twister in six decades. Now it carries another distinction — the costliest since at least 1950.
Insurance policies are expected to cover most of the $2.8 billion in damage. But taxpayers could supply about $500 million in the form of federal and state disaster aid, low-interest loans and local bonds backed by higher taxes, according to records obtained by The Associated Press and interviews with federal, state and local officials.
Almost one-fifth of that money was paid to contractors who hauled off debris. Tens of millions more dollars went to individuals for temporary housing and other living expenses in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Additional money could help subsidize construction of a new hospital to replace one that was irreparably damaged.
All told, about two dozen school districts, emergency agencies, public housing authorities, religious groups and other nonprofits could receive taxpayer money through a program run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The outpouring of assistance is nowhere near the scale of Hurricane Katrina, which swamped New Orleans and damaged property along a wide swath of the Gulf Coast in 2005. Yet the Joplin tornado raises questions anew about the government’s role in disasters.
For Joplin families still on the long road to recovery, the taxpayer aid generally is appreciated.
The twister killed Danielle Robertson’s mother and destroyed the duplex she shared with her teenage daughter and two dogs. After several months of temporary living arrangements, Robertson eventually got one of the FEMA trailers for tornado survivors. No rent or utility payments were required.
“There are just thousands of people who would not have recovered at all had that aid not been there. I mean there’s no way,” said Robertson, who finally moved into a rebuilt rental home about three weeks ago. “I like to consider myself a survivalist, but there was nothing to survive with.”
The Joplin tornado, which killed 161 people, was one of 99 major disasters declared by President Barack Obama in 2011. Other included blizzards, wildfires and hurricanes. Congress responded in December by authorizing an extra $8.6 billion in disaster aid.
Missouri has a rainy day fund with about $500 million that was created for costly emergencies. But the fund hasn’t been tapped for Joplin because Gov. Jay Nixon and some lawmakers are reluctant to trigger a constitutional mandate that the borrowed money be replenished within three years.
Some critics of federal disaster aid point to Missouri’s rainy day fund as a prime example of how states pass the buck to the federal government for local tragedies.
“It seems to me this indicates the bad incentive problem that comes with federal involvement — that states would rather tap federal taxpayers before they have to tap their own taxpayers,” said Chris Edwards, an economist and editor of downsizinggovernment.org, a website run by the Washington-based Cato Institute, a group that promotes free markets.
FEMA Director Craig Fugate said it takes an especially destructive tornado to trigger federal aid. What made the Joplin tornado so unusual was the intensity of the devastation in such a concentrated area, he said.
“We’re talking thousands of families impacted, hundreds of deaths, the trauma to the community alone was overwhelming,” Fugate said. “The likelihood of Joplin being able to recover successfully without federal assistance … warranted the president declaring it” a disaster zone.
Some of the taxpayer-subsidized projects, such as rebuilding St. John’s Regional Medical Center, will benefit people well beyond Joplin. The hospital served patients from a wide region extending into southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma.
Hospital administrators estimate their total cost from the tornado at $950 million, including demolishing the old building, creating temporary facilities and constructing a permanent replacement.
The hospital expects to get more than $345 million from insurance. It’s submitted more than $88 million of expenses to FEMA, of which the federal government could pay for 75 percent. The rest will be covered by private donations and the resources of the Sisters of Mercy Health System, which runs the hospital.
“We do hope to get some money from FEMA, but we’re not counting on that,” said Shelly Hunter, the chief financial officer for Mercy Health of Joplin.
The cost of replacing damaged school buildings will be covered largely by insurance, too. But voters recently approved the largest bond issue in Joplin history — $62 million — to help rebuild or repair 10 school buildings. The resulting property tax increase is estimated at $65 a year for the owner of a $100,000 home — roughly a 10 percent hike.
The Joplin school district has sought disaster aid for dozens of costs not covered by insurance, such as a truck and trailer used to shuttle band equipment between makeshift school buildings, as well as the concession stand, bleachers, flagpoles, fences, outdoor basketball hoops and new mulch for playgrounds. The cost to remove and replace the mulch at just three sites: $7,100.
The city has its own share of tornado costs, like the manhole covers. The tornado also destroyed two sirens that warn people of dangerous storms. Taxpayers paid more than $41,000 for temporary and permanent replacements, according to disaster-aid records.
During the cleanup, 14 fire hydrants and curbs and gutters at 111 locations were damaged by heavy equipment. And tires were punctured on about 125 vehicles, costing almost $57,300.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it spent $1.2 million providing shelter and veterinary care for 1,300 homeless pets after the tornado. The city of Joplin agreed to cover $351,000 of those costs and now is seeking reimbursement from FEMA. It’s seeking an additional $21,000 for costs incurred by Joplin Human Society.
Federal disaster aid rules also reward local entities for the charitable work and donations of others. Joplin expects to receive $1 million through FEMA as a partial credit for an estimated $17.7 million worth of volunteer labor and donated supplies and services. That money can be used to offset the city’s own expenses for debris cleanup and emergency response.
“The fact that we can basically break even from a tornado of this magnitude is astonishing, and it’s in large part due to the donated resources,” city Finance Director Leslie Jones said. “Not only did it help us financially, they helped us clean up our community. I don’t even have words to describe it.”
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The states of Missouri and Kansas are divided only by the yellow stripe of State Line Road. It’s a single community, but the division is sharp when it comes to the cutthroat business of economic development.
The two states have burned through hundreds of millions of dollars to lure businesses to one side of that stripe or another in the pursuit of jobs. Yet sometimes, those jobs merely have shifted to different buildings across the border with little real growth for the region’s economy.
Amid ramped-up competition nationwide for “job creation,” Missouri and Kansas have committed more than $750 million of tax incentives and bonds in the past five years for nearly 200 businesses to locate or expand in the Kansas City area, according to state records obtained by The Associated Press. The cross-town battle, among the most intense anywhere, also has drawn in millions more dollars in incentives from cities and suburbs.
The two states sacrificed revenue and incurred debt even during tough budget times that forced cuts to public school districts, universities and social services. Kansas and Missouri each had projected budget shortfalls of around $500 million last year.
Calls for a truce in the business border war have been growing from local business leaders, some lawmakers and even from former officials who once doled out the incentives.
“You get to a point where you have to say we are wasting taxpayer money,” said Greg Steinhoff, who served as Missouri’s economic development director from 2005 to 2008. He added: “At a time when you need to value ever dollar, it’s silly.”
Yet a truce appears unlikely anytime soon — in part because the states are still scrambling for every job.
“Politically, it sounds good — can’t we call get along? — but competition’s competition,” said Gary Sherrer, who served as Kansas lieutenant governor and commerce secretary about a decade ago.
About three-fourths of the $750 million of tax breaks and bonding approved in the past five years has come from Kansas, though Missouri has given incentives — in smaller amounts — to about twice as many businesses to keep them from leaving or to attract new firms. Some of the companies are new to the Kansas City area.
In part because of the glimmer of its big-ticket projects, Kansas appears to be winning the business border battle.
The spoils of success are highly visible in the sprawling Village West district at the junction of Interstates 70 and 435. Anchoring the development is the Kansas Speedway, the NASCAR track the state landed more than a decade ago with a $150 million package of bonds, tax breaks and infrastructure aid after Missouri’s $42 million incentive package failed in the Legislature. The Kansas incentives included bonds with a 30-year repayment life.
Nearby is a new 18,500-seat stadium for the Major League Soccer team Sporting Kansas City, built with $145 million of bonds after Kansas lured the franchise away from Kansas City, Mo. Also in the neighborhood is a new office complex for Cerner Corp., a medical computer systems firm that employs about 5,500 people on the Missouri side and planned to expand. Missouri and Kansas offered nearly equal incentives of about $85 million for Cerner’s expansion, which is projected to employ an additional 4,000.
Kansas’ willingness to issue bonds backed by tax revenues, which Missouri couldn’t match, helped cinch the deal, said Marc Naughton, Cerner’s executive vice president and chief financial officer.
“From our standpoint, we’re a public company. We’ve got obligations to our shareholders to find the best opportunity to build a new campus,” he said.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, was unapologetic about so freely giving away public revenue that otherwise would go for schools, police and public services. Last year, Kansas cut basic aid to public schools by nearly 6 percent.
“You’ve got to go out to compete and hustle,” Brownback said after a recent ground-breaking ceremony for Cerner’s office complex.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, appears only slightly more open to a truce. In the past two years, he has cut funding for public colleges and universities by more than 12 percent.
“I’m going to compete for jobs for our state, I’m not backing up on that,” Nixon said. “But I think that the real long-term solution is how do we get more out of the region as far as joint economic impact?”
States with border cities have been struggling with that question for decades. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut compete in the nation’s largest metropolitan area. In a southeastern rivalry, Continental Tire moved in 2009 from Charlotte, N.C., to adjoining Lancaster County, S.C., which South Carolina scored as a gain of 300 jobs.
In Kansas City, the most recent cross-town defection came in April, when Teva Neuroscience Inc. announced that it would move its headquarters — and 400 jobs — from Kansas City, Mo., to a site about 4 miles away in suburban Overland Park, Kan. Records provided to the AP show that Missouri offered $11 million of incentives to try to keep Teva. Kansas did not disclose how much it offered, but the Kansas City Star reported the package totaled nearly $31 million.
Some firms have bounced back and forth across the state line. Restaurant chain Applebee’s International moved its headquarters from Kansas City, Mo., to a Kansas suburb in 1993. Last year, it was lured back to the Missouri side with nearly $10 million of state incentives plus additional local aid. But Missouri’s victory was short-lived. A few months later, movie-theater operator AMC Entertainment Inc. announced it was moving to the suburb of Leawood, Kan. Missouri offered $4.2 million of incentives to keep the company, according to state records. Kansas declined to disclose its incentives, but media reports have valued the total aid at $47 million.
The recent business shifts may result in less in overall taxes without any overall employment boost for the Kansas City region. The winning state hopes to gain temporary construction jobs, some sales taxes from employees dining during their lunch breaks and the long-term potential for more income taxes.
But the defections of Teva and AMC are projected to cost Kansas City about $800,000 in employee earnings taxes — equivalent to the annual cost of two pumper truck crews for the city fire department, which already has been hit by $7.6 million in budget cuts this year, said Danny Rotert, a spokesman for Kansas City Mayor Sly James. Add to that losses in local sales, property and corporate profit taxes and the blemish of two vacant office spaces.
“Empty buildings obviously do not produce much revenue, and they’re just not good — that’s the added pain to Kansas City for this to happen,” Rotert said.
A group of 17 Kansas City area business owners— from both sides of the state line— sent a letter to the governors of Kansas and Missouri decrying the “economic arms race” and urging them to concentrate on attracting businesses from outside the Kansas City area.
“Money has been given to companies that would’ve stayed here anyway,” Robert Regnier, president of the Bank of Blue Valley in Overland Park, Kan., said in an interview. “We’re almost defaulting to an environment where everyone is expecting something, and that’s not the way it’s supposed to work.”
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Associated Press writer Wes Duplantier contributed to this report from Jefferson City, Mo. Lieb also reported from Jefferson City.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians on Monday during a secretive ceremony in the state Capitol as police stood guard to keep out any uninvited political opponents of the sometimes divisive radio show host.
Limbaugh, a native of Cape Girardeau in southeast Missouri, addressed a crowd of more than 100 Republicans during a closed-door event in the Missouri House chamber. Speaking from the chamber’s dais, he thanked his family for their support throughout his career, denounced liberals and Democrats as “deranged,” then helped lift a black curtain off a bronze bust of himself, which he hugged — head to head — for photographs.
The timing of the ceremony was kept secret until shortly before it occurred, and then only Republican lawmakers, other invited guests and the media were allowed into the chamber to watch — an attempt to avoid any public disruption after Limbaugh’s selection was criticized by Democrats, some women’s groups and other political foes.
Limbaugh, 61, arranged for a guest host to handle his radio show Monday so he could be at the Missouri Capitol. He repeatedly declared how humbled he was by the honor.
“I’m stunned. I’m not speechless, but close to it,” Limbaugh said to the laughter of the friendly crowd. “I’m literally quite unable to comprehend what’s happening to me today.”
The talk show host was selected for the Hall of Famous Missourians by term-limited House Speaker Steven Tilley, a Republican who like Limbaugh is from southeast Missouri. Tilley wants to display Limbaugh’s bust in the Capitol alongside other members of the Hall of Famous Missourians, including President Harry Truman, Mark Twain and Walt Disney — but that plan has already faced controversy.
Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s administration released a memo Monday indicating that a state board — not the House speaker — has the authority to determine what items are displayed in the third floor Capitol Rotunda where the busts are located. House Minority Leader Mike Talboy, D-Kansas City, also asserted that Tilley has no legal authority to order Limbaugh’s bust to be placed in the Capitol Rotunda.
“The secrecy and exclusion of the public demonstrates that even Republicans are embarrassed at honoring someone who recently called a female college student with whom he disagreed a ‘slut’ and a ‘prostitute,’” Talboy said.
Limbaugh’s selection for the Missouri honor was made public in early March, shortly after he made those comments about a female law school student after she testified before Democrats in Congress about health insurance for contraception. Limbaugh later apologized for his language, telling his radio listeners: “It was wrong.”
Although Limbaugh but did not reference the incident Monday, Tilley alluded to Limbaugh’s controversial comments while introducing him during the Capitol ceremony. In the past couple months, protesters have wheeled 600 rolls of toilet paper into the middle of Tilley’s Capitol office encouraging him to “Flush Rush!” and have delivered about 35,000 petition signatures against Limbaugh’s induction.
“He may say things that strike a nerve,” Tilley said. “But that doesn’t undo everything he’s accomplished in his career, and it doesn’t provide a reasonable excuse why he shouldn’t be honored by his home state for his many accomplishments.”
Limbaugh nearly let the occasion pass by without delivering a fresh political shot at his opponents.
After Limbaugh again expressed thanks for the honor, the Republican crowd applauded and he appeared to be done speaking. But then he praised Tilley — whom he said had “been under assault for wanting to do this” — and said of his critics: “They’re deranged. They’re literally deranged.”
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Mitt Romney is seeking to assure gun-rights activists that he’s squarely on their side. .
The presidential contender headlines a who’s who of prominent Republicans scheduled to speak Friday at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention. And he perhaps has the most to prove.
As a candidate for the Senate in Massachusetts, Romney once assured voters that he didn’t line up with the NRA. He has since signed up for a lifetime NRA membership and promotes himself as a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights.
The NRA has set a goal of ousting Democratic President Barack Obama in this year’s elections. As Obama’s likely opponent, Romney hopes to reap the rewards of the NRA’s network of more than 4 million members.
TOWN AND COUNTRY, Mo. (AP) — Rick Santorum was mining suburban St. Louis for last minute support Saturday, as Missouri Republicans began gathering in local caucuses that will help determine who gets the state’s 52 presidential delegates that are up for grabs.
Santorum won the state’s nonbinding primary last month and was the only one of the four Republican presidential candidates visiting caucus sites Saturday. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Rep. Ron Paul also campaigned in Missouri earlier in the week. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich skipped the state.
No winner will be declared from the nearly 140 local caucus meetings Saturday. That’s because the state party rules do not require local delegates to be bound to any candidate, and no straw poll is being conducted. Saturday’s meetings will elect 2,123 people to advance to congressional district conventions on April 21 and a state convention on June 2. It’s at those meetings that most of Missouri’s 52 delegates will be bound to presidential candidates.
Santorum, Romney and Paul were nonetheless urging supporters to attend the local caucuses, hoping to advance a slate of backers to the district conventions.
The former Pennsylvania senator started Saturday at a rally of about 100 people in a Christian school gymnasium, where he spoke less than four minutes, shook hands for 10 more, then headed out to the next caucus site, a supermarket in a wealthy St. Louis suburb. He arrived about an hour early and spoke ahead of schedule to the 150 people present. Those who showed up closer to his scheduled time were told he had already gone.
Steve Mosbacher, a 53-year-old business owner from St. Louis County, was among the early birds who caught Santorum’s speech. Mosbacher said he likes Santorum but wonders if he can win.
“I worry because he lost his Senate bid,” said Mosbacher, who said he is backing Ron Paul.
Acknowledging there would be no winner Saturday, Santorum told a reporter that Missouri’s caucuses still were important.
“Delegates. It’s as simple as that. They matter,” Santorum said.
Romney leads Santorum in delegates nationwide 492 to 257, according to the latest count by The Associated Press. In his caucus-site speech, Santorum noted he was being outspent by Romney but said he can overcome that.
“We don’t have the money,” Santorum said at the Wildwood grocery store. “We have you, and I’ll tell you what — I’ll take you over the money any day of the week.”
At Westminster Christian Academy, Santorum was greeted by supporters as well as dozens of people with Romney signs planning to challenge local Republican leaders trying to elect a slate of Santorum delegates.
“I don’t believe Santorum has enough real-life experience with business,” said Carrie Jardine, 45, a chiropractor from Chesterfield, one of the Romney supporters who shook Santorum’s hand. “I believe Romney is a proven hard-hitter — he knows what to do and he knows when to do it.”
Norman Baxter, 77, a retired corporate communications officer who is the Republican committeeman for the local township, is pushing the Santorum slate.
“I’m a conservative — a strong conservative — and I think Santorum represents a lot of the values that I think are very, very important to the survival of this country,” Baxter said.
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Associated Press writers Jim Salter and Brian Bakst in Wildwood, Mo., contributed to this report.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Sen. Claire McCaskill was so disturbed by Rush Limbaugh’s description of a law school student as a “slut” and “prostitute” that she decided to repeat his rhetoric, featuring it in a fundraising appeal sent to thousands of supporters around the country. The tactic has paid off nicely for the Democrat’s re-election campaign.
McCaskill is one of several female Democratic candidates facing competitive races who are seeking to capitalize on the conservative radio host’s comments to fuel their quests for the U.S. Senate or House. Their message: You can help fight Limbaugh — and, by extension, Republicans or tea party activists — by financing candidates who will stand up for women’s rights.
It’s not clear exactly how much the Democratic candidates have raised from their turn-the-tables fundraising appeals. But McCaskill’s campaign said she exceeded the goal spelled out in last weekend’s Limbaugh-themed email blast to raise $10,000 in a day.
“It’s been one of our top fundraising emails for Claire,” said McCaskill campaign manager Adrianne Marsh.
Limbaugh has apologized for his comments about Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student who testified to congressional Democrats in support of their national health care policy that would compel her Jesuit college’s health plan to cover her birth control. But the apology hasn’t deterred some Democrats from continuing to repeat Limbaugh’s remarks.
On Tuesday, for example, Minnesota congressional candidate Tarryl Clark sent an email fundraising appeal with the subject line “Apology not Accepted.” Clark asked for “$25, $50 or more” to send a message “that publically degrading women is not going to fly anymore.”
Clark is the only woman in a three-way Democratic race for the right to challenge freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack. The fundraising email has generated several thousand dollars — a quicker response than is typical for such pleas, said Clark campaign manager Brandon Pinette.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Janice Hahn, who because of redistricting faces a primary against a fellow Democrat, Rep. Laura Richardson in Los Angeles, also sent a fundraising email Tuesday highlighting how “a right wing extremist used his radio show to hurl derogatory slurs at a young woman.” Hahn asked for donations of $20 to $40.
The president of the National Federation of Republican Women said Wednesday that Limbaugh’s words were inappropriate and diverted the health care debate away from the Republican assertion that the insurance mandate for contraception infringes on First Amendment freedom of religion protections.
“I think it’s unfortunate that this has come about, and it wasn’t just with McCaskill,” said Rae Lynne Chornenky, president of the Republican women’s group. “We need to get the debate back on track on the issues.”
But McCaskill, the senior senator from Limbaugh’s childhood home of Missouri, seems intent on highlighting his comments, and she has the added element of being personally criticized by the radio host. Last week, Limbaugh aired a McCaskill audio clip in which the senator bemoaned the loss of moderate lawmakers in Washington and noted that a lot of Missouri voters “want me to be stubbornly independent.”
Limbaugh quipped: “It sounds to me, Claire, like they don’t want you to be a commie babe liberal.”
On Monday, McCaskill launched an online poll on whether Limbaugh should be included in the Hall of Famous Missourians, as he is scheduled to be. In over 24 hours, the survey generated more than 10,000 email addresses for McCaskill’s campaign, Marsh said. On Tuesday, McCaskill sent out another Limbaugh-related fundraising email — this time from her 83-year-old mother with the subject line of “Who are you calling a ‘slut’ or a ‘babe’?”
In this April 24, 2012, photo Cliff Illig, left, co-founder of Cerner Corp., and Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, 2nd from left, participate with other officials for the groundbreaking for Cerner's new office complex in Kansas City, Kan., after the state lured the franchise away from Missouri by topping its best offer. The states of Missouri and Kansas are divided here only by the yellow stripe of State Line Road. It may be a single metropolitan community, but one in which the two states have burned through hundreds of millions of dollars in the past five years to lure businesses from one side of that stripe to the other in the pursuit of jobs. (AP Photo/John Hanna)(Credit: AP) 
Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh poses with a bust in his likeness during a secretive ceremony inducting him into the Hall of Famous Missourians on Monday, May 14, 2012, in the state Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo. (AP Photo/Julie Smith)(Credit: AP) 
Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, speaks as supporters of fellow Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney holds up signs for their candidate at Westminster Christian Academy Saturday, March 17, 2012, in Town and Country, Mo. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)(Credit: AP) 