By Matthew Patane [Email: patane.mf@gmail.com, Cell: 314-239-1263) - Please remove contact info. if published.]
Missouri representatives approved a measure that would allow health care providers to refuse to participate in certain medical practices that violate their beliefs.
Supporters of the bill say it protects the religious freedoms of health care providers and physicians since it prohibits these providers from retribution if they do not provide certain medical services, such as contraception or abortions.
Opponents of the measure say, however, that the bill would restrict access to certain types of health care.
The measure also says health care providers and employers cannot be mandated to attain medical insurance to cover abortion or sterilization procedures and that pharmacies cannot be required to supply certain medications.
The House passed the measure with a 117-37 vote Wednesday and sent it back to the Senate for reconsideration.
By Matt Evans [Email: mletg2@mail.missouri.edu, Cell: 660-525-1313) - Please remove contact info. if published.]
One of the issues that contributed to the end of last year's special session has reared its head with only a couple days left in this session.
The Missouri Senate passed a bill that would put a cap on the amount of tax credits available for historic buildings.
Currently, around $110 million is issued by the state each year on historic preservation tax credits.
Under the measure the Senate passed 28-3, those credits would be capped at $75 million.
The bill would also allow additional tax credits to issued to attract more amateur sporting events in the state.
The tax credit issues were added on to the underlying bill that would put new requirements on companies seeking economic development incentives from the state.
The bill now moves to the House. The House can either accept the Senate's changes or send the bill to a conference between the chambers
Cell phone users would have a new tool against telemarketers under a measure the legislature sent the governor Tuesday, May 15.
The bill would allow cell phone numbers to be included in the "no-call" list maintained by the state attorney general.
With some exceptions, including political calls, telemarketers are prohibited from calling numbers on the no-call list unless there is a pre-existing business relationship with the phone subscriber.
The measure passed by the legislature also would expand the restrictions on telemarketers to include text messaging and FAXes.
Business phone lines, however, would continued to be excluded from the restrictions.
Ironically, the bill's sponsor said he had not been subjected to a telemarketing call on his cell phone until just about two hours after his bill had cleared the legislature.
"It demonstrates that this becoming more and more prevalent," said Rep. Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff. "The telemarketers are becoming more and more aggressive about looking for cell phone numbers and putting them into their databases."
Richardson said the attorney general's office was getting hundreds of complaints per week concerning telemarketing calls to cell phones.
Richardson's bill cleared the legislature without a single dissenting vote in either the House or Senate.
Previous efforts to expand the no-call law had encountered legislative resistance for including political robo calls.
Critics of those efforts argued restricting calls for political campaigns violated the U.S. Constitution's right of free speech.
Missouri's governor will have to decide whether to sign or veto a measure to expand competition to local public schools in sub-par districts.
The House sent the governor Tuesday a measure that would expand where independent charter schools can operate and who can sponsor them.
Charter schools receive some public school funds, but operate independently of many of the regulations governing public schools.
Currently, charter schools are limited to St. Louis and Kansas City.
The measure passed by the legislature would allow a charter school to operate in any school district that is unaccredited or provisionally accredited.
In addition, more organizations could sponsor charter schools including a local school district or a special state commission created by the law.
The measure also includes provisions for expanded government review of charter schools including the right of the state auditor to audit a charter school.
Supporters argued the state has a responsibility to provide students in failing school districts with an alternative.
"We need to do something to help these kids," said Rep. Rick Stream, R-St. Louis County. "And we don't need to wait until next year or the following year or five years or ten years down the road. We need to act now to give these kids a quality education."
But critics charged the bill did nothing to address the underlying problems facing the unaccredited districts of St. Louis and Kansas City.
"This is a distraction to continue to pull resources," said Rep. Genise Montecillo, D-St. Louis, during the final House debate Tuesday. "A lot of these kids these kids are homeless in St. Louis city public schools. The homeless rate is extremely high. We have to address those concerns."
Springfield Democrat Rep. Sara Lampe warned that the bill could open the door for profit-making, out-of-state charter school companies to undercut the financial base of a local district that ran into accreditation problems.
"The only thing that this bill is needed for is to create an opportunity for expansion of a business out into the state into your community, to draw profit off your community and and take away your local community school."
The measure now goes to Gov. Jay Nixon. In his January State of the State address, Nixon urged lawmakers to impose stronger quality controls over charter schools.
In a locked-door session of Missouri's House guarded by at least one dozen armed police officers, Rush Limbaugh's bust was unveiled for placement in the Missouri Capitol's Hall of Famous Missourians.
The ceremony was in a House chamber surrounded by armed Highway Patrol and Capitol Security police with public access blocked to the chamber.
Democrats were not invited and were given notice less than an hour before the ceremony began. The door to the Democrats' side of the chamber was locked and guarded by armed police.
House Speaker Steve Tilley, who selected Limbaugh for the honor, said he was the person who asked for the armed security.
He said Democrats were not invited because they had indicated earlier disagreement with Limbaugh's selection.
"With the controversy surrounding him, I thought it was acceptable to do an invitation-only event," Tilley said.
House Democrats had criticized the selection haver Limbaugh had used a sexual epithet to describe a woman who had sought to testify before a congressional committee on contraception.
In short remarks, Limbaugh made reference to the controversy, praising Tilley for resisting critics of the decision to honor Limbaugh.
"He was tough, he did not give him any quarter, laughed at them when they called his office, which is what you have to do because they're deranged," Limbaugh said to laughter. "Our friends, so called friends on the other side of the aisle are deranged."
House Democrats quickly issued blistering attacks.
"It is quite clear from their handling of the Limbaugh ceremony that Republicans were ashamed of what they were doing and wanted as few people as possible to witness it. When you take great steps to hide what you’re doing, it usually means that you know what you’re doing is wrong," said House Assistant Democratic Leader Tishaura Jones, D-St. Louis.
House Democratic Leader Mike Talboy, D-Kansas City, said he was considering asking the Gov. Jay Nixon why the Highway Patrol was used for the event. Talboy said he had reason to believe that Nixon's administration would not allow Limbaugh's bust to be placed in the Capitol rotunda, the location of the Hall of Famous Missourians.
The administration controls the rotunda, although the House has passed a measure to turn control of the third-floor rotunda over to the legislature.
The governor's office issued a four-page statement raising legal questions as to whether the House speaker has authority to place a bust of someone in the third-floor rotunda where the Hall of Famous Missourians is located.
The administration report that the Board of Public Buildings "has authority to determine what artifacts are placed in the Hall of Famous Missourians."
The board is composed of the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.
Friends,
As you'll notice, this week's issue of MPANews is a shorter than normal (although I've made up for that with a longer column). It's finals week at MU, so I had fewer journalism students.
But it's not all our fault. The filibuster this week in the Senate shut down its half of the legislative process. And, in response, the House worked at a relaxed pace often dealing with issues of no news significance.
As you might have noticed, we have begun pulling the various separate developments each day into a single legislative package. We'll continue that for the final week of the legislative session (it ends 6 p.m. Friday, May 18).
My column this week is on a subject some of you had urged me to address -- term limits.
Forgive the length. There are so many aspects to it that I couldn't stop writing. And even at this length, there's a lot more that I cut out -- topics for future columns, I suspect.
Next week will be my final column until the fall. It's going to be an overview of the legislative session that focuses on why so many key issues cited by state leaders at the start ultimately fell by the wayside.
Term limits are, of course, a factor. But there were a lot of others.
As always, call (573-353-7525) or email me (prb@mdn.org) if you've got any questions or suggestions.
Phill
By Jordan Shapiro [Email: jordanshapiro13@gmail.com, Cell: 314-406-9528) - Please remove contact info. if published.]
After days of gridlock, late-night filibusters and personal attacks, the Missouri House of Representatives and Senate sent the state's $24 billion budget to Gov. Jay Nixon's desk one day before deadline with higher education coming out as a big winner.
Despite starting the year with a $500 million budget shortfall, the budget holds flat funding for public universities and local school districts. Colleges were facing a 15 percent cut under Nixon's proposed budget, but House and Senate leaders said they made a policy decision to give higher education the same amount as this year.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, said the downward trend in higher education funding had to stop this year.
"I am glad we put that money back in, and that is not to imply this was not an extremely tough budget year," Schaefer said. "We simply had to set the priorities where we saw the priorities should be, and that is in education."
The top House Democrat on the budget committee, Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said she was glad the cuts were reversed but said the current funding trends could not continue.
"With our reductions in funding every year, college and university budgets are now so lean with more cuts they will be laying off teachers, professors and researchers," she said.
Schaefer said the ride to pass the budget was "bumpy" but that he was glad to have the budget passed without raising taxes. The Senate spent many late nights debating the budget with insults and personal attacks being leveled against Schaefer and Senate leadership.
As part of a complicated to end the Senate filibuster, the legislature sent the governor a measure designed to guarantee extra funds for veterans' homes. The measure would allocate about $35 million of gambling boat boarding fees to the Veterans Commission.
The measure also would prohibit any government agency from operating or funding a quality rating system for early childhood education. The current system operated by the state had been the subject of a Senate filibuster.
By Ruohan Xu [Email: rxn66@mail.missouri.edu, Cell: 573-777-2946) - Please remove contact info. if published.]
The House passed and put on the statewide ballot Thursday, May 10, a proposed state constitutional amendment that would reduce the role of judges in picking nominees for appeals court and Supreme Court judges.
The proposal would increase the number of individuals the governor nominates for vacancies in the Supreme Court or Court of Appeals from three to four and decrease the number of lawyers to three.The bill was handled in the House by its judiciary committee chairman, Rep. Stanley Cox, R-Sedalia. He said the bill would ensure Missourians are the source of power behind the selection of judges.
“The members of the Supreme Court should not choice their own colleagues,” Cox said.Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem, a lawyer, said he supported the bill because it would allow the people of Missouri to make the decision. Rep. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, said the bill appeals to be anti-lawyer. Rep. Rory Ellinger, D-St. Louis County, said it could a very dangerous law.
“I do not want any one person to have that kind of authority,” Ellinger said.
House members on Thursday, May 10, gave the proposal final approval with a close 84-71 vote. It passed the Senate last week.
The Senate sponsor -- Sen. Jim Lembke, R-St. Louis County -- has been a long-time critic of the nonpartisan court plan. In the House, he has proposed eliminating the plan and requiring Senate confirmation of persons the governor names for courts covered by the plan.
Lembke acknowledged that this year he had proposed a less drastic approach to get something passed to change the nonpartisan court selection process.
By Matthew Patane [Email: patane.mf@gmail.com, Cell: 314-239-1263) - Please remove contact info. if published.]
Missouri's representatives passed a measure Monday, May 7, that would defund the Sue Shear Institute for Women in Politics and bar any public institution from taking part in political activity.
The institute, which provides training for women interested in entering politics, is based out of the University of Missouri-St. Louis and is named after a former St. Louis representative who was first elected to the state House of Representatives in 1972.
The House approved the measure 93-59 after contentious debate between mostly Democratic and Republican women about the institute's importance. Although Democrats argued that the institute is a vital organization for women interested in joining the world of politics, Republicans said the organization participates in political activity, which they said should not be allowed.
Critics charge the institute has used government funds to assist Democratic, women politicans.
The measure was put forth by Rep. Sue Allen, R-St. Louis County, and was attached to a bill that had the original intention of modifying the duties of the Coordinating Board of Higher Education to include creating a listing of courses that could be transferred between all public universities.
Although the Shear Institute has been debated in the Senate, that chamber has taken no vote on the issue. There had been a committee-passed bill to kill off the institute as part of a broader budget plan. However, language about the Shear Institute was deleted in the final substitute presented. That version, which earmarks gambling boat money for veterans' homes, was passed and sent to the governor.
By Crystall Cho [Email: scjy74@mail.missouri.edu, Cell: 408-568-5141) - Please remove contact info. if published.]
Missouri will bring 35 new elk from a Kentucky capture site to Peck Ranch Conservation Area in southern Missouri to restore the state's elk population.
A spokesman for the Kentucky Conservation Department, Mark Marracini, said Missouri's tourism industry will shoot up as a result.
"Elk are a tremendous tool for tourism, and they're a great addition to the nature," Marracini said.
Chairman of the MU Anthropology Department, Lee Lyman, said he disagrees with Marracini.
"I'm concerned that traffic hazards will go up," Lyman said. "My understanding is that they're in a fenced area at the moment, but the plan is to remove the fence, and the elk will be able to go anywhere they want to go."
In past years, some legislators have proposed bills to require the Missouri Conservation Department to reimburse auto owners for damages caused by collisions with elk.
The new elk herd will arrive in Missouri on May 18.
By Matt Evans [Email: mletg2@mail.missouri.edu, Cell: 660-525-1313) - Please remove contact info. if published.]
Missouri voters in the St. Louis area might be asked to decide whether to raise the local sales tax to help fund improvements of the Gateway Arch grounds.
The Missouri House of Representatives gave final passage to the bill that would create the ballot issue and sent it to the governor's desk on Monday, May 7.
The bill would authorize a local election on a 3/16 percent sales tax. Part of the money would go to the Gateway Arch grounds and the other part to local parks.
Proponents said the sales tax would fund $120 million in bonds to put toward the $553 million plan to improve the grounds around the Arch.
By Phill Brooks
If you had to pick one factor to explain the difficulties encountered during the 2012 session of Missouri's legislature, it would have to be term limits. That's the consensus from almost every senior lobbyist and former legislator with whom I've discussed the session.
Missouri's General Assembly of today is a very different institution from what I had covered before members were limited to eight years in each chamber.
Because there has been so much attention on the negative aspects of term limits, I'll start with a couple of the positive changes.
A big winner has been local governments that have gained the service of term-limited legislators with a deep reservoir of knowledge about state government and public policy. Prior to term limits, it was rare that a state lawmaker would give up a legislative seat for local office.
St. Charles County got as its administration director Chuck Gross, who had been a skilled Senate Appropriations Committee chairman. Franklin County got as presiding commissioner John Griesheimer, who had been the Senate's top expert on local government.
Another positive effect is the reduction in the arrogance of power that developed among some legislators who had been in office for decades. I've watched two House speakers marched off to federal prison for corruption charges that reflected that arrogance. I've seen that arrogance displayed when long-term legislators belittled and humiliated agency officials in committee hearings.
As for the negative effects of term limits, they are far too numerous to cover them all in this column. Among the most significant that have been mentioned to me:
* Term limits have made the Senate a far more chaotic institution. Before term limits, there were constraints on legislators using the filibuster for minor or frivolous reasons.
A senator would be killing bills of colleagues with whom he or she expected to continue serving for years. Senate leaders making private threats, such as budget cuts or promises of future committee assignments, had more effect when the member expected to be around for years.
* Legislative leaders now exercise far more power. It's an obvious consequence of having so many new members unsure of how the process works or of their individual rights as members.
A colleague of mine, Prof. David Valentine at the Truman School of Public Administration, notes that closed-door party caucuses have become a more significant component in crafting legislative positions. At these private meetings, legislative leaders can educate members and influence priorities to a degree that was not seen in the years before term limits.
The caucuses are almost weekly now in the House, and there are calls for the Senate to adopt a similar approach.
It used to be that the order of bills on a chamber's calendar meant something. The sooner a bill got introduced and approved by a committee, the higher it was on the calendar and the greater the chances of ultimate passage.
As a result, respect for calendar placement gave members and committees significant influence in determining the order of the legislature's priorities. Now, however, legislative leaders are allowed to skip around a calendar without a peep of objection from their obedient colleagues.
* There has not been the influx of new ideas and perspectives that champions of term limits had predicted. Instead, what I've witnessed has been a legislature that's much more predictable in the issues it addresses and the approaches it takes.
There is more ideological rigidity today. We saw that this year, I think, with the time the legislature spent on nonbinding resolutions concerning a variety of national ideological and partisan issues.
* Missouri's term-limited legislature appears unable to undertake multi-year efforts to craft solutions to the more difficult and complex issues facing the state.
For example, the health dangers from rural sewage pollution at state parks and lakes that made front-page headlines just a few years ago remain unsolved and now appear abandoned by the legislature.
* Legislators are less able to craft their own bills and amendments. That's given lobbyists, special interests and legislative staff enhanced influence over the process because they're writing a lot more of the legislation.
* Some legislators complain that term limits have caused administration officials and bureaucrats to take them less seriously. "They don't show up, they don't answer our questions," complained Sen. Luann Ridgeway, R-Smithville, at a committee hearing earlier this year.
A similar complaint was voiced to the Senate by Sen. Ryan McKenna, D-Jefferson County, that bureaucrats "know we're going to be gone from here in a short time, that they don't have to listen to us anymore." McKenna speaks with a unique perspective: His dad, Bill McKenna, was the first sitting Senate president pro tem forced out of office because of term limits.
* With only a few years before being term limited out of office, it's created almost a perpetual campaign mode for some legislators who focus more attention on future political plans than on building a legislative record.
* Finally, I've seen term limits have a deleterious effect on a few legislators during their last year in office. Some get bitter at being forced out. Some seem to almost "check out" with a melancholy that the legislative skills and knowledge they've developed no longer will be of use. It's only a very few I've seen affected this way, but it costs Missouri the full attention of some of its most experienced legislators.
As always, let me know (at column@mdn.org) if you have any comments. If you would like your comments, or a portion of them, included in a future column, let me know and be sure to include your full name in your email.
Past columns are available at http://www.mdn.org/mpacol.]
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