Republican Governor Mike Parson, who was on a statewide political tour last week, stopped by Nucor Steel in Sedalia on Wednesday morning to conduct ceremonial signings of Senate Bills 3 and 5, and House Bill 3.

The ceremony took place in Nucor's administration building and was attended by several Nucor employees, Nucor General Manager Ron Kessel, FFA students from Smithton and legislators State Sen. Sandy Crawford, R-Buffalo, State Rep. Brad Pollitt, R-Sedalia, State Rep. Rodger Reedy, R-Windsor.

Parson, R-Bolivar, said that the occasion was kind of like Homecoming for him, as he represented Pettis County as state representative from 2005 to 2011, the Missouri Senate from 2011 to 2017, and took over as governor in 2017 after the departure of former Governor Eric Greitens.

“Sedalia's always been really good to me, and my family, It's always been a great community to represent,” Parson said.

“And what can you say about Nucor Steel? About what it did for this community? And the good jobs that are here. And every time I come here, I'm just more and more impressed with the way the setup is out here. And I still have a bit of a rain check to go out on the floor. I want to be able to do that at some point. I want to see you make rebar out there, and I want to be part of that,” Parson said.

The bills that the governor signed were done in special session.

“The right thing to do was to stick up for agriculture, it's the number one industry in our state. And for us to not allow agriculture to have the safe tools in our tool boxes that companies, corporations, big cities, have, was not fair, and we needed to correct that. This ag bill … has to do with energy, soybeans, corn, wood products, meat processing plants, Parson said.”

Parson is a former sheriff of Polk County and a farmer near Boliver.

He told those seated at Nucor that his administration has lowered state taxes four times, overall an 18 percent reduction. “Why can we do that? Because our state's doing better than most other states,” Parson said. “By doing that, our economy's probably stronger than it has been in a long time on the state level, now I'm not talking about the federal level. I know inflation's out there. I know fuel prices, grocery prices, but for everyday Missourians, we've got people at work. We're at the lowest in the 50 years we've been keeping track of unemployment in Missouri, we're the lowest we've ever been at 2.4 percent,” Parson said.

The governor noted that Missouri had a surplus. “We had more than we needed … that's why we did the tax cut to give it back to you. $765 million dollars, roughly, is what it took to get this done,” Parson said. He credited Sen. Crawford and other legislators in getting the bill passed.

“We are doing everything we can to promote businesses in the state of Missouri,” Parson proclaimed, adding that a few weeks ago, about $800 million in new investments were announced in one week. “That's never happened before. That's because we're open for business … we want you to do well, and that's why we're giving money back to you.”

“I appreciate the governor coming and doing the ceremonial signing in my district. I was the sponsor of that ag bill. It's the first economic opportunities agriculture bill that the state's passed in seven or eight years. And like the governor said, it's real important to agribusinesses around the state, it's real important to smaller farms around the state, meat processors, it's got green fields in it, it's got credits for biodiesel and ethanol,” Pollitt said after the ceremony.

“Any time you vote on an ag bill, any time you vote on a tax credit bill for agriculture, it's good for everybody in the state, because agriculture affects everyone in this state, it's a huge part of the renevues of this state.

“I'm not against corporations at all, I'm just saying that if we want rural Missouri small family farms to stay in business, then we have to try and make a level playing field.

"This was truly a bi-partisan bill, this was supported by Democrats and Republicans down in Jeff City, and that doesn't happen very often,” Pollitt said.

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