The Montage interviews Rep. Peter Merideth
BY: MARY WILSON
Opinions Editor
Elected representatives in the Missouri legislature are faced with some of the most important issues affecting the state. This session, the representatives in the Missouri legislatures have introduced a plethora of bills, about everything from Medicaid to gambling to the Second Amendment.
Rep. Peter Merideth (D) of the 80th District, St. Louis City, shared what he thinks are the most important issues for the general public to care about, and what college students can do to be more involved about the issues they’re passionate about.
“I would say that the first and biggest thing that all Missourians should pay attention to is the money,” said Merideth. “The state really does pay for a lot of the things we depend on, and the things that we’ll need to depend on for the coming centuries, things like Broadband across the state, so that everyone has access to high speed internet.”
Merideth continued, “When areas of our cities and areas of rural Missouri don’t have any access to high-speed internet, that keeps them from participating in the modern economy, and it holds us back as a state.”
Meredith also said he recognizes that tax cuts have affected the state.
“For the last decade, we’ve had a whole lot of cuts to taxes, mostly for wealthy Missourians and corporations,” Merideth said. That means that there’s less money to pay for things like “roads and bridges, and education, and healthcare.” Merideth said that although the state had to borrow money last year to pay for maintenance of roads and bridges, maintenance is still not where it should be.
“For the first time in our history,” Merideth said, “Our money (for roads and bridges) is coming not just from taxes, but from general revenue.”
That means things like paying for the maintenance and safety of roads and bridges–something everybody across the state benefits from–comes from the same budget that is used to fund schools and healthcare.
Merideth said that because there’s not enough money to go around, transportation to school is suffering. Merideth said some school districts in Missouri are “having to drop to four day weeks, because they can’t afford to get their kids to school.”
Another hot button issue is Medicaid expansion.
“The voters passed Medicaid expansion…and now we have to see it get implemented,” Merideth explained. “Some people are trying to make changes to Medicaid and who’s eligible, putting in things called “Work Requirements”, that really create another layer of bureaucracy to kick people off. We saw 100,000 kids (in the state of Missouri) kicked off (Medicaid) last year that shouldn’t have been kicked off.”
Merideth also said that there is a budget issue.
“We’re trying to make sure we have the initial money we need in order to bring in the federal dollars that will actually save us money in the long run, but we have to find that money right away,” he said.
What can people–including college students–do if they want to get involved?
For one, taking political science classes can help students learn the basics of how our government works.
“Find out who your rep (representative) is, and be in touch with them,” Merideth said. “Ask them if they want to get coffee and talk about the things that they’re working on, because honestly most of us are excited when we hear from a constituent that takes an interest in what we’re doing. We’d love to sit down and talk about what you care about.”
Meredith also said using social media to reach out to legislature members is a solid practice.
“Aside from those direct meetings… following people on Facebook that are active, on Twitter that are active,” Merideth said. “Emails are good. In- person meetings are always best, phone calls are next, but…you’d be surprised at how few emails we get as state legislators. On the federal level, people know to email their senator. But a lot of times, people don’t even know who their state rep is.”
Merideth said that although personal emails are best, even the form emails located on government websites make a difference.
“If we get 10 emails on a subject, we can tell that that subject has a lot of interest from people, because that’s more than what we usually get,” he said.
