Good afternoon everyone during a briefing last week and many other times before I said the health and safety of Missourians is our first priority. This will always be true for me as governor and I also said that we must begin to increase our focus on economic recovery as we move forward when we developed our show me strong recovery plan we base this on four essential pillars to give us a benchmark going forward testing. PE the health care system, capacity and public health data reopen economy was especially dependent on health care system capacity, and we have met that pillar the other three pillars. We're also critical to reopening and we continue to monitor those on a daily basis, as I said yesterday, testing will continue to be a priority as we. Move forward, We will have the test we have the testing capacity and now we must find ways to use that capacity to test as many people as we can since March, the seventh we have tested over 154000 Missourians that have been tested for Coen 19 of these tests approximately 90 percent have tested negative A. Roughly 11000 positive cases, the vast majority have not been hospitalized and have recovered at home. Well, I think we're probably have a little over 700 people in hospitals in the entire state of Missouri within the next week. Our goal is to significantly increase our testing numbers by pouring 7500 tests per day again, it is critical to understand that the more test we do the more positive cases there will be by increasing testing. We can continue to slow the spread by identifying. Patience and isolating them as quickly as possible. The testing that we're doing today, it seems like every month. we're trying to catch our breath with something how we deal with Covid- 19, but it's more test we can do today also prepares us for this fall when the school systems open up when the universities open up when flu season gets here again, it's important that we do as much testing prior to that. So we're prepared for that when people go out and that season and try to figure out do I have the flu. I have the covid- 19 the more that we can do ahead of time the better off we are. So there's a short-term goal of getting those tests done on a daily basis, but the long-term goal is to prepare for the future of the state and for Missouri to move forward. and as we move forward testing, we will be critical to Missouri's full economic recovery and giving Missouri's more confidence to be out Once our testing numbers are up, we can really start to ramp up our focus on the economy. Along the lines of economic recovery, I'd like to talk about the budget today, Colvin, 19, is unlike anything we've ever faced before it has had devastating impacts not only on public health, but also the economy and state revenues As a result, we have to take a hard look at our budget and make some very difficult decisions. As we go to the budget process as we go to just the remainder of the year that there will be withholds that will be taking place in the next week to 10 days to get us through just this year, It's important that I get as much information out as I can to where we are financially in the state of Missouri. so people understand that the choices will be have to be made and the tough decisions that we have to be made in the near future. Yesterday I met with my own Cabinet members throughout the state. To tell them somewhat to expect and start to make an adjustments to that to start putting a plan in each Department of what we're gonna do is to cut expenses in state government and everything's on the table to be able to do that tomorrow, I will talk to the Cabinet member or to the universities Tosi to the community colleges across the state to explain where I believe the state is going and what we're gonna have to do to balance the budget in the upcoming days I do believe. On July, one with holds will take place throughout the state. I think that the exception to that is that the federal government comes in with more resources and for better terms and other cares act that comes in, but if that doesn't come in and we are a long way from having the money that we need to move in to 2021 and significant decisions will have to be made as we move forward and I think it's important that we understand that that's that we're the reality of it as of today, so people can prepare and we're gonna be talking about that in the next several. Days in a week, so we'll be on that we do have federal funds available and the Care Act, which will help, but there will still be challenges ahead as we work to recover the economy. as we work through this process, I want Missourians to know that we will be transparent as possible on April, the tenth I established an informal working group led by state treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick to help make recommendations on the best use of our federal funding the working groups. Meeting will take place on Thursday. Members of the public can watch a live stream of this meeting on the Treasure's Facebook page. The treasurer's office has also established a webpage to provide updates on the working group and the Cares Act funds. We hope that by providing this information and updating the public will reassure Missourians that we are working hard to make every dollar count for the people of this state. Earlier today I was on the. With a lot of County executives around the state of Missouri County Commissioners Weekly, we're on the phone call with mayors, making sure that these funds are getting out as soon as possible. They're getting a local levels and get distributed out there from that. that's important for us to get that done with the way things are in the state and we're gonna continue to push hard with that. We're gonna continue to make sure that the general public you the media know exactly when that money is coming exactly when it's going out the door because it is critical to get it out on a timely basis. Get up to the local levels and I wanna thank the state treasurer for the work. He's done to put this program together and to be able to make sure that the people out of the state of Missouri know exactly what we're doing with that Cares Act funding another Department that hasn't been up here. A lot of my directors have been up here early on today. directors is gonna be here to give us a little update with the Department of Revenue, some of the things that are going on in his agency. So I'd like to him to come forward and give us a little update director. Thank you Governor Good afternoon. I'm Ken Zeller, director of Missouri Department of Revenue. I want to start by Thanking Governor Parson his staff and Cabinet members for their steadfast leadership and constant advocacy on behalf of Missouri, Citizenss, businesses and communities. I also want to thank all state of Missouri team members for their unwavering dedication to public service throughout Covid- 19. Beginning the Department of Revenue has made every effort to adjust our policies and procedures in a way that allow us to continue serving the people of Missouri while ensuring everyone's health and safety. Two months ago, the Department announced changes related to tax motor vehicle and driver's licensing to help ease concerns and promote social distancing. We provide. Automatic special tax relief to individuals and corporations by extending several filing and payment deadlines, including those Associated with individual and corporate income tax to July fifteenth of 2020. We took steps to help alleviate congestion in local license offices as a part of these efforts, we granted an automatic 60 day extension from Missouri driver's licenses non driver's licenses. And instruction permits with the original expiration dates of March first 2020 through April thirtieth of 2020 vehicle owners with registrations or license plates expiring in March and April were granted and automatic two -month extension individuals with licensed plates that expired in March of 2020. We'll have until May 30 -first to renew their license plates without paying a late penalty at a licensed off. Similarly, those with license plates that expired in April of 2020 will have until June thirtieth to renew paying a late penalty. Although the automatic penalty waiver for title applications expired on April thirtieth contract license offices have been instructed to continue waving title penalties for applicants who are unable to tie their vehicle in March or April due to covid- 19, any customer who wasn't able to title their vehicle in March or April due to covid- 19, but was assessed a penalty after April thirtieth. May request a refund by filling out form four to six and submitting it to the Department of Revenue. now I'd like to share a bit about where we are currently in our recovery process. We are pleased to report that all but three of our more than 170 contract license offices across the state have reopened These offices are working hard to assist customers safely efficiently. That said we. There are a lot of Missourians trying to renew their license plates and driver's licenses at this time, We continue encouraging customers to renew their plates earlier in the month and consider using our online renewal system, which is fast and convenient way to experience the Department of Revenue from the comfort of your own home. Also pleased to share that four of the six tax assistance offices have reopened their doors to walk-in customers. These include the offices in Cape Girardeau, Jefferson City, Joplin and Springfield only the offices in Kansas City and Saint Louis remain closed to walk-in customers at this time. The Department considered factors such as County data and the local stay at home homeowners before deciding to reopen an office also on the. We have received and processed approximately two point Five million individual income tax returns. This is about 350 - eight thousand less than the same time last year, but we know this is largely due to the filing extension. Our team members continue working quickly to process returns and of course, get the refunds out the door throughout Covid- 19. The Department has never stopped looking for new ways to serve our customers. Just last week we. Piloting virtual lobbies in our motor vehicle and driver's licensing division offices in the Truman building and then in the Jefferson City Tax Assistance office with this new system, customers can be notified by text when it is their turn to be assisted, allowing them to hold their place in line while waiting in their car outside the building or just somewhere where they might feel a little bit more comfortable. We're also regularly working to expand the knowledge base of our 20 - 47. Chatbot Dora since launching on November the second Dora has provided more than 614000 responses to customers. We consistently see about 30 percent of those user sessions occurring during non-business hours, We have a variety of other online resources and services, which can all be found on our website at D O R dot Mo Gov and finally. And safety of our customers and team members remain the Department of Revenues top priorities. We will continue to be flexible adapt as necessary and use the data to guide our decisions as we move forward in the recovery phase. Thank you. Ken Thank you very much. thanks for what you're doing and your Department and thank all the employees to make sure they know that I appreciate what they're doing and we work through this whole entire time for what you did. I appreciate that very much on that. Let me let me just kinda conclude here and then Doctor Williams is here also for questions if you have but let me just finish up and saying there's no doubt there will be we'll still be challenges ahead, but I wanna share Missourians we are on the right track. We're headed in the right direction. Our economies is coming back and thank goodness. I'll say it again. We're better off than many States in the United States because of what we represent in the state because people are really trying to go out there and do the right thing and understand how important it is for people to go back to work. We've got a holiday weekend coming up. It's gonna be a big holiday weekend. It's our first one with since all this started everybody's eager to get outside, but again, I just wanna caution everybody to be careful Use Social distinct is a key. Of the future of this and it's a future to fight this virus. I know everybody's gonna wanna get together. you're gonna get with your families. Everybody's gonna wanna be outside but again just do it with caution and use common sense, which I know one thing in Missouri, we value very much and that's just personal responsibility and common sense cuz that's what we have to get through to get to this weekend. We got avoid things like large crowds. You gotta be careful about that over that and then just keep in mind. This is a critical time for state. This is gonna be the first weekend that we have Saint Louis just opened. Kansas City's open and back up our entire state is we do not need a setback right now, so everybody's got to do their part and you gotta know who's high risk and who's not and you gotta act accordingly to how you're gonna conduct yourselves and I have a confidence that Missouri will do that and they will stay the course and and move forward. So with that, let me just say thank you and God bless everybody. That's listening. Kelly. Good afternoon director we've we've heard from some of our viewers who said that when they have tried to now renew their license plates that they're being assessed that 50 - dollar late penalty the place that we're doing in April when they go online. Did you say that they can only renew them in person at this point to avoid that penalty? Yes. Thank you for the question. so the reason that it's only. in person is because the way the system is set up online is to automatically charge the late fee. so if they do show up to the office and they and they tell the office that they were not able to renew to covid- 19 that they will they will actually receive that refund right there at the office, They will not be charged at the office if they've paid it online. is there a way that they can get that late penalty back? Yes there is as I mentioned I believe it was called form 426 and all they have to do is go online. Get the form and when you fill it out at the bottom, there's a little notation at the bottom that ask for the reason there's like three or four reasons that are listed and the bottom reason says not listed above all you have to do is fill out the reason put on there and send it in and we will refund the money. Thank you Hi director. you mentioned that you're still working really hard to get tax refunds out to people. Are you experiencing any bigger delays than you usually would or is it kind of like business? Usual right now as far as we're concerned, it's business as usual, we have virtually no backlog. It's about 20 - four to 40 - eight hours to turn a a turn around. Of course, there are always those that require a little bit more attention to have to be done manually, but right now business as usual and do you expect that as like we get closer to the extended deadline, you expect any of that backlog to rise at all or you or you just continuing to see it stay pretty steady I expected to stay pretty steady. Not expect the backlog every year we process right around three point, One million returns and we're about two point two point five million this year. We have about 600000 to go. We receive anywhere from 40 to 50000 a week, and we can handle that. You mentioned that all but three of the contract license offices are open. where are those three. Those three are located in Cape Girardeau Olivet which is a little bit North of Saint Louis and New London, which is about halfway between Saint Louis and Iowa on the Mississippi River and are you seeing based on the data you have are people actually spreading out their appointments or or is this going to create more congestion that when they have a new deadline from what we've seen we try to be the model here in Jeff City. They are spreading out in order to prepare. You know we were big on making sure that we had a plan as the governor mentioned. It's a gradual reopening and to make sure that we are prepared and we are ready. We had a plan so we we did was we surveyed all 170 - three licence offices and ask them for their suggestions on how to best ensure the safety of both our employees and our customers. We put together a list of best practices and we sent that out to each location and we have we actually have people to check on those offices and from what we're seeing they are obeying the social distancing and the recommendations that we had. On the best practice list, thank you. What type of precautions are you guys taking inside the offices that are already open? Well, along with the best practices, we did have social distancing. we had we have by appointment only we have greeters now that meet you at the door that ask you if you're if you're there for motor vehicle if you're there for driver's license to make sure that people don't congregate in any one specific area here in Jeff City in Jeff City office in the building, we actually have a staging area and as I mentioned before we have the virtual lobby that we can use to make sure that people don't congregate and get too close together and we monitor the situation so along with the best practices, ensuring that we're practicing social distancing appointments. And just practicing in general overall good hygiene. I think that we're in good shape. Thanks Kelly one thing before any questions I do have a request for you. I was on the phone last night with the pediatricians in Missouri and also talked to the physicians every Saturday morning and they've just asked me to talk with you about the fact of how important we think it is to get back into preventive care and to not delay procedures especially the pediatricians mentioned immunizations. we would hate it that if because of covid- 19 that you didn't get that but because you delayed immunization it''s something could happen To your. So on behalf of them, I really want to encourage people to do their well child visits well, woman visits and for that matter everyone keep up with their physicals and so anything you could do to help get that message out would be greatly appreciated. So thank you. Good afternoon Doctor Williams Yes, some people are thinking about their summer vacations already and if they travel somewhere and then come back to Missouri. is there any sort of order in place that would require them to quarantine based on where they've traveled there is not at this point, although I've been told that about 13 States have something in effect like that, so I would just caution people before they travel to other States that they check out those situations. I mean you don't feel it that would be necessary here we do. At this point again, as you know, our numbers are trending down, We always ask that people know Airlines require you to wear a mask now and so we would just encourage people to use social distancing and hand sanitizer whether they're driving or flying or going by train or whatever. so the answer is no. Hi Doctor Williams We saw a there's 13 new cases at a Audra the facility or 13 cases that were linked to a hog farm. Yes and so first, my first question would be are is the state sending any additional resources or contact tracing kind of what is the state doing at that hog farm. Yeah. I just got off the phone with that you know. we do a lot of things well, but when we do particularly well as work very closely among the departments, we work well together so. Just got off the phone with Christian Who's Secretary of agriculture and we're aware of that there's 60 employees there. 13 have tested positive at this hog farm. You know it's just it shows how important this whole process is to our food chain. So yes, we're working on that now to work with them and and to contact them to see how we can help them with that area. That's not a true food processing plant. That's a farm, but it's all part of the. So we very much want to help with that and is this becoming more of an issue in rural areas like as we've seen large amounts of cases in the Saint Louis region and things like that is this now becoming a concern and rural areas. you know what as we look at that you take Celine County, which is a high ratio compared to the population When you look at that, they're very, they tend to be very closely affiliated with our food processor. and we can look at Buchanan and Monet and and Celine County, and so yes, and that trend is being repeated nationally and that's one reason the governor and all of us are so emphatic about increasing our testing cuz we think we have to get in to our about 15 food processing plants going forward and doing Sentinel testing and repeat testing and just very quickly try to identify cases there before they multiply into the 13. As you're saying at this hog farm and obviously the 400 plus cases you saw a triumph and Buchanan. So yes, with about 10 percent of cases are of tests being positive. is it a reasonable to extrapolate how many missourians have or have not had it yet? Or do we just not know that we don't know we're we're gonna we're gonna look at that. I'll give you some another reason testing is so important back to the very first point. I made the governor on a call on Saturday morning and as you know they're doing pre-op testing now with Covid- 19 for patients who are having non emergent surgery. And the governor on Saturday that at one hospital here at a 1200 people only one tested positive and so that information is very reassuring and as we hear that just people coming in completely unrelated to Cove in 19 that almost all of them are testing negative as we're doing our surveillance testing in our community wide testing, which we're getting ready to do a lot more of those numbers just give us a great degree of comfort to tell people that you need to reemerge in. Your health care that you need to go to the doctor you need to go get checked out because, in fact, when we check those people who are showing up the vast vast majority are negative, the number that we probably look at and this is not good numbers but around the country, I think the estimate is in areas that have any kind of prevalence that maybe one out of 20 people will ultimately be shown to have antibodies, but I don't wanna misrepresent that that's not Missouri unique data and that's certainly not. Data at this point. We're just talking about Sentinel testing how soon can you expect some of that to roll out across more of the population? What time is it? we are trying to get on that as quick as we possibly can right now, I just left a meeting of a hundred people I guess in state government in which we're rolling out. we have 50 long-term care facilities that have one case. they haven't finished their comprehensive testing and we're we'll be working through the day and tomorrow to get all that done for those we also Very much have a plan going forward for our Sentinel testing, which will be our long-term care facilities our state employees congregated facilities such as meat, packing plants and prisons and jails even summer camps and so I I I think will be executed by Monday or Tuesday. Thank you Kelly. You know, let me just make a quick comment on testing just kinda follow up the question you just ask Doctor William there. we're gonna do more testing my directors know how important that is. We have a lot of resources in place and we're gonna execute that and you're gonna see that happen. on that. Let me let me say one thing about this testing cuz we all get wrapped around the numbers all the time we're reporting so you can kinda spin the numbers. However, you wanna spend but the reality is of a hundred and 50 - 4000 people that we've tested since the beginning of this. Probably less than a half percent last one half percent isn't in the hospital about a hundred and 54000, so if you kinda put that in content, you know, I think it's important for people to know that sometimes it's important to know of the 1011 thousand people that have tested positive. You know we have less than a thousand people in the hospital that we have probably somewhere around 700, but it changes every day so you know as we do the balance and act to get the economy going and making sure we get to the confidence to the people out there. you need to understand the majority of people go home and get over this. They really do and I think it's important to know that as we move forward and you need to know again. I can't stress to you enough and we just say those numbers are out there. We never talk enough about the high risk people and you need to keep reminding them. I think I do you do as a media. you need to make sure the people that are high risk. You need to mention that that hey, you're the ones that really got to pay attention to here and we're gonna take that extra step to protect people. so I think it's important the numbers you know there's a lot of numbers out there a lot of spin on it, but hopefully we're trying to get that information to you and to the general public every day on where it stands the other thing I wanna say about testing Saint Louis has got. Out of attention, good bad and different they have because of the situation, but the reality of it is rural Missouri just because we're they set doesn't make them any less to have an outbreak of this virus. as we move forward, It's just smaller numbers and and one thing rural Missouri guy coming from that you're pretty well practiced social distance every day to a certain degree in those areas. But as soon as you start punching people up and punches, you can have the same problem than anywhere else can have on a public system or any other place. So everybody's got a. Attention cuz you're living in rural Missouri. there's a lot of cases out there yet. it doesn't you can totally relax and take everything's gonna be fine. Kurt. Speaking of bunch of people up are you considering cancelling the July Fourth fireworks at the Capitol, I think Holts Summit today announced yesterday announced that they were cancelling that something you've considered you know. I haven't talked to the mayor here in town. I mean it's not even on the radar yet I guess fireworks, you know the one thing I would say about fireworks displays on the fourth of July. I think that would give you an opportunity to to practice social distance and you can still have that do alternative ways to be able to see the fireworks so, but I haven't talked to the city of the mayor about that. Again right now, I'm trying to get the economy going back trying to fight and trying to move forward here in the next week or two, and then we'll we'll figure out those things on the withholds for the budget. Yes you said, you're gonna talk with education. officials tomorrow does that is that a signal that they're gonna take some of these cuts and certainly most certainly if we if we don't have the ability to back fill that in some way and right now, I don't believe that is the case under the circumstances. We're in. So I'm gonna tell them that they need to prepare and I would say have plan a and plan B, but look the the schools need to know where we're at in the state of Missouri simply because they got to start working on contracts, schools gonna be opening up and they need to start preparing for that to make decisions. So I think it's important quicker. I get that information to them so they can make those decisions, but I'm telling you under the current. And I know that the guidelines that we have to move forward about everything's gonna be on the table to have to do either with holes or to figure out how we're gonna balance budget. Hi governor I'm kind of going off of that. I I've spoken with some representatives that are they feel pretty confident that they're we're gonna get federal funding has that changed for you or do you have any idea like you know what I talk to the White House yesterday, the President of Vice President that was brought up and I was talking to all the governors across the United States. I've talked to the federal delegation and I just think there's a lot of uncertainty on where that's moving forward right now, you know, you know there's a lot of things. It comes to that that that cares act, you know there's a lot of things out there. you're gonna be out or we're not gonna bail out. Can you file bankruptcy? all this kind of stuff you know, but at the end of the day, my view from as a governor is the federal government to help us like they have with Coen 19, but I'm not asking the federal government to bail our state out. You know that that's that's not our their place. I think they can help in the fight Koga 19, but I wanna be real careful when I say that to realize I don't want some state over here. That's a bad manager and. Terrible job running the state to have an advantage over us that does it right and and you know comparison, A- one state yesterday in the in the media. it was out bonding and the bonds where they were paying like over five percent for bonds cuz the credit ratings are so terrible. you know we're in Missouri last year, we did our bridges. We did our infrastructure. We pay a little over one percent because we take care of our money and we take care of our obligations in the state and we're gonna continue to do that. Look. we can balance the budget, but if we get the economy going things are going better sooner. And that's just it, so you've gotta be able to do both, but we can't turn the economy around in the state of Missouri in 30 or 60 days, and it's gonna take a while to get us back there so not to be realistic about this and not tell people kind of the truth of where we're at you know we're kidding ourselves and it's just not the way we operate. I mean you know you gotta tell people we're you mentioned withholds within the next week to 10 days and then again on July first. so just to be clear. Are you talking more with holds for 2020 and then additional ones for 2020. - one correct yeah the. We'll be doing in the near future would be just to get us to the end of this year. Still, we still got a little bit of work to do there and then 20 - one. we're gonna be talking about the budget, which is just based on the scope of the conversations with the departments here outlining how would you characterize this cuz I know you're probably not prepared to have a number, but it is it more than what we've seen So far we're. More than we've seen so far is it withholds are in cuts well, either one I guess Well, Yeah, that's a little bit of a lengthy discussion, but then again, I would say what's real cuts and what's not real cuts. You know, so the bottom line is we're gonna have to look at real dollars real revenue compared to where we were revenue and it's a guessing game. Nobody knows what this revenue is gonna do you know. I'm optimistic that I think things in the state could possibly turn around late third quarter fourth quarter. I think I think it will. however, you know, I'm trying to figure that situation out. but right now, I have to prepare that we don't have the means to balance the budget. We don't have the funding to do that right now. so we're gonna have to make with holes and again. I wanna be upfront with people about that is that pretty much guarantee a special session on the budget at this point, right not necessarily not necessarily. I mean the legislators were just here. They did their part. what they thought was a balanced budget. they sent out to the governor's office and now I have to deal with that. and it's well that's. And if the money is not in there to be able to do then I gotta do with holes and at the end of the day. My job is to balance the budget regardless what anybody else does, and that's what I'm gonna do. Governor just wanted to follow up with with some people who continue to try to access unemployment and get your take on how things are going there. We've had some people say they still had trouble getting through on the phone or or being disconnected well, The phone's been an issue and we're getting better at that every day, but I think you also have to realize two weeks ago, probably about A hundred thousand claims a week and now we're down to less than 30000. you know so things are getting. On that and you know the only thing I can do is apologize for the people that went to that's been frustrated to get through that. But again, I can only tell you it's never happened before and it was overwhelming for a while. It's just a matter of getting to the system. I hated of people out there on the phone for three hours. some of the reports that I get to somebody sit there and they've got cut off and they've gotta go through the whole process. Again. We gotta do a better job in that. I mean that's that's not what we want people to do So I know the directors are over there and encourage people to go online to to make things to where they can file for their employment things that are quicker process. I know that's a lot better way to go but and on. We still get people calling in every day just asking questions. It's not about the claims. It's just trying to get through the system so it's been challenging. you know, I-I know sugarcoat. that's it's been challenging, but you know we gotta do better every day and that's what we're trying to do in the director's trying to do that too. Alright, Thanks everybody for being here today. Thank you.