By DAVID A. LIEB , Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri House Speaker Todd Richardson will be leaving the Legislature early to become director of the state’s Medicaid health care program and one of its highest paid public employees.
The appointment announced Monday by Republican Gov. Mike Parson will take effect Nov. 1, about two months before Richardson’s term in the House was to end.
Richardson, 41, is a Republican attorney from Poplar Bluff who first was elected in 2010 and was prohibited by term limits from running again in the November elections.
He will earn $225,000 annually as director of the MO HealthNet Division. That’s almost six times his $38,415 salary as House speaker and well more than the $133,821 paid to Parson or the $181,677 to Chief Justice Zel Fischer, according to the official state manual. University of Missouri system President Mun Choi receives a salary of $530,000 annually.
Missouri’s $10.6 billion Medicaid program has been without a permanent director since the end of 2016, which marked the conclusion of Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s administration.
The MO HealthNet Division functioned with acting directors after Republican Gov. Eric Greitens took office in 2017. Parson, who had been lieutenant governor, took over as chief executive June 1 when Greitens resigned while facing allegations of sexual and political misconduct.
Richardson had appointed a special House panel to investigate Greteins after media reports about Greitens’ extramarital affair in 2015 and his use of a charity donor list for his gubernatorial campaign. Under Richardson’s leadership, the Legislature had convened a special session for the House to consider whether to impeach Greitens in a quest to oust him from office.
Richardson was elevated from Republican majority leader to House speaker in May 2015 after then-Speaker John Diehl Jr. resigned while admitting to sending sexually suggestive text messages to a college student serving as a House intern. Richardson then led an update of the House’s sexual harassment policy.
