Gov. Parson: 'We made decisions on facts'

After speaking with Mark and Scott Rhodes Thursday morning at Plaza Tire in Cape Girardeau, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson was greeted by a customer who said he appreciated Parson's performance on the job.

"And I'm not even a Republican," the man quipped. The governor, press gaggle and handful of community leaders behind him, chuckled. It was lighter moment in what's clearly been a stressful period of time for Missouri's 57th governor.

There's been no shortage of decisions for Parson.

One of the last governors in the country to issue a statewide stay-at-home order, Parson was optimistic about how Missouri has reopened.

"You're pretty positive, you know," Parson told me at the first of two stops I joined him for in Cape Girardeau. "Just like today you're seeing a lot of people out in the communities and still realizing that they gotta maintain a little bit of social distancing. We still got to understand that virus is out there, but it's really doable."

Do we still have a testing issue?

"Well, we still would like to have more testing every day, but you know that's much better than what it was. I think one of the most important things about the testing side of it is the demand for testing is going down. You know that everyday people are not gonna want to be tested like they were two months ago, but you're gonna see the capability. We got the capability right now, doing about 50,000 to 60,000 tests, you know, per week."

He said the state is now using a "boxing strategy" in response to areas where an outbreak may be occurring, such as nursing homes or the meat packing plant in St. Joseph, Missouri. Targeting hot spots with testing is much improved from where the state was 60 days ago, he said.

On mandated mask-wearing, Parson said he did not feel that was the role of government. He said if people want to wear a mask, then wear a mask. But he added that infectious disease doctors have said if you're not wearing a mask properly, it's probably not doing much good.

Several states chose not to issue stay-at-home orders. I asked the governor if he ever considered not issuing one.

"No, first of all, early on we made the order for everybody to stay, you know, social distance, 10 feet apart. No more than 10 people out of business. So we never did ever shut down a business, period, through this whole cycle. Again what we did is we evaluated real information. And again I wasn't making my judgment calls [based on] whether it was social media or what was on the national level. I was really taking a look at what was happening in Missouri. What's the facts in this state. And that's how I made decisions. The way I did that was just with like the mayor being here. We were in constant communication with them, with the faith-based community across the state, with mayors, with councilmen, with law enforcement. Just on and on we were on a weekly basis trying to figure out what's going on in your communities and your part of the state. We made decisions on facts."

On his second stop at the Cape Girardeau Police Station, the governor was greeted by Cape Girardeau police chief Wes Blair and county sheriff Ruth Ann Dickerson.

Blair and Dickerson both said they've largely been able to avoid issues with COVID-19, though access to masks early on was a challenge. Blair said he received a phone call one Saturday while at home from a local manufacturer who wanted to donate masks. Blair quickly accepted the offer and drove to the manufacturer to pick up the masks.

The governor echoed the sentiment about how many people in the state stepped up during this time of need, particularly when it came to masks.

Parson said from a state government perspective we have to be more prepared in the future, relying less on other states or foreign countries when it comes to manufacturing the type of gear needed to deal with a pandemic.

The governor said he received a call from the White House this week following up on Missouri's involvement in Google Marketplace, a process where health care entities could purchase personal protective equipment from Missouri manufacturers. Parson said the next opportunity is for this to expand to the federal government and other states, allowing Missouri manufactures to compete for future PPE contracts.

Parson, a former sheriff, referenced some of the mental health and drug abuse challenges that have spiked because of the pandemic. He's concerned about the drop in child abuse calls, noting it may be an issue with people not being able to call and report abuse.

He did not commit to calling a special session for the Missouri General Assembly on Wayfair, legislation that would address the collection of sales tax on out-of-state and online purchases by Missouri residents.

"There'll be lots of options on the table this year to see how we move forward," he said. "One, we got to see where we are financially in the state. We know we've got some issues on the financial and the budget side of the state. We're a long way from being whole on that. [It] depends on what the federal government does as far as whether there's another CARES Act or not. But the reality of it is, I mean, people need to prepare that the budget revenues are not going to be good in the state of Missouri. We're deeply concerned about that. And trying to balance a budget like the legislators just did, what they're doing, they're trying their best to do, but the reality of that all these numbers are a long way from being whole. So just what the mayor said, you can just imagine that from the state level. There's some tough decisions to be made from the governor's office, but at the end of the day I've got to balance the budget."

He added that shoppers need to make sure they're buying locally, even if that means shopping online from local retailers.

Parson's administration has suspended 527 rules during the pandemic and said some of these could be made permanent.

"Yeah, you know what we'd like is to go back and reevaluate that whole process. There's a lot of things that we have on the books that we probably need to figure out a better way to do business, and that being one of them. You know, if you look at it from my point of view as the governor, we went through this and it's just regulation after regulation after policy after policy that's been on the books for years that just become burdensome. And then just in a way, and we've been able to waive a lot of them to get people to help the medical community to help the business community. Yeah, we definitely need to go back reevaluate all of that and see what really needs to be there. And what we can eliminate, you know, and get the heck out of the way of everyday people in businesses in our state. Let them go through and do what they do best."

With a granddaughter scheduled to graduate this spring, Parson said he's hopeful schools will be able to find ways to hold commencement ceremonies. But he's not "going to get in the middle of that," instead leaving the decisions to individual schools. Small schools, he said, may have an easier time holding ceremonies in compliance with social distancing guidance.

"But No. 1, you've got to be safe," he said.

Lucas Presson is assistant publisher of the Southeast Missourian.