Missouri House speaker plans to stay despite calls to resign

Rep. Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres, the speaker of the Missouri House, said he would "absolutely not" resign from his leadership post despite calls by fellow Republicans to step down.

“I look forward to leading the House to produce good conservative legislation such as property tax cuts, personal property tax reform,” Plocher said. “There’s a lot of good things to do.”

Plocher allegedly used campaign money to pay for conferences, flights and hotels and then asked for those costs to be reimbursed by the House, according to media reports. Amid inquiries from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Missouri Independent, Plocher has started paying back nearly $4,000, according to the reports.

Read more from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.