To the editor:
The money we pay in taxes pays the salary for Bennie Cook. According to the Missouri Accountability Portal, Bennie was paid $41,315.63 for one half year of work, 127 days.
One of the first things Bennie did when he got to Jeff City in 2025 was vote to overturn the will of the people. Bennie took away the right for women to make an informed decision about their health care and stopped hardworking people working at minimum wage from earning one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours they work. In the special session, Bennie voted to change the district boundaries in our state to eliminate fair representation.
In that salary for 2025, Bennie receives $68 per day for food allowance, which has no restrictions on what Bennie can eat and requires no receipts, so there is no accountability.
Yet Bennie supports more stringent SNAP restrictions for the 20% of his constituents who are children, people with disabilities, seniors living on a fixed income and families working full time at minimum wage. The new restrictions were set to take effect Oct. 1, though the governor recently postponed the rollout to Feb. 2027 to give grocers more time to prepare. Then Bennie voted to eliminate $2 million in funding for Double Up Food Bucks, allowing SNAP recipients to buy double the number of fruits and vegetables.
In addition to his wages, Bennie receives 65.5 cents mileage reimbursement going to and from “work” in Jeff City. Being in a rural area, many of his constituents have to drive many miles to get to and from work and, as of late May, were paying $4.18 for a gallon of gas with no reimbursement.
Bennie is not representing the majority of constituents of District 143.
Maxine Horgan
Mtn. View
