Missouri Legislature hits final week with full plate

JEFFERSON CITY • The Republican-controlled Missouri Legislature has overridden a veto on a historic tax cut and sent a rewrite of the state’s criminal code to the governor this session, along with more than 90 other bills.

But with just one week left, several prominent issues remain unresolved, and the clock is ticking. Bills addressing the school transfer dilemma, updating the state’s ethics laws, overhauling tax credit programs and sending a sales tax hike for transportation to voters have not yet crossed the finish line.

Also on the Republican leaders’ agenda before the 6 p.m. Friday adjournment are hot topics such as abortion, labor union rules and photo IDs for voters.

“With one week left, we already have a long line of successes that are completed,” House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka, said. “We’ll be adding to that list next week.”

Both chambers have passed a version of a bill modifying the 1993 school transfer law requiring unaccredited school districts to pay tuition and provide transportation for students who want to attend an accredited school in the same or adjacent county.

After a Missouri Supreme Court ruling upheld the current law in June, about 2,000 students transferred from the unaccredited Normandy and Riverview Gardens districts to higher-performing schools throughout the St. Louis region.

Key questions before the Legislature include how much tuition the sending district should pay and whether a local vote should be required before local money is sent to private schools to pay for transfer students.

A joint House-Senate conference committee is working on a compromise bill. Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, was optimistic there would be agreement.

“We’re not far apart at all. I’d venture to say we’re 95 percent done. We’re going to pass a transfer bill with a private option — a local private option, not a voucher,” she said.

Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, agreed. He said opposing sides were working out compromises on the requirement for a local vote and tuition payments.

“They’re closing the gap on those issues,” he said.

SALES TAX IN DOUBT

The fate of other key bills is less certain.

A plan to ask voters to increase the state sales tax by three-fourths of a cent for transportation may run into trouble in the House.

Democrats provided the victory margin on an earlier plan passed by the House. But now, some are unhappy that a Republican income tax cut was enacted over Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto. The Democrats say the moves send a mixed message. They also fear a shift to greater reliance on sales taxes, which hit low-income people hardest.

Diehl said Thursday that the Democrats were being “crybabies” about the override of Nixon’s veto on the income tax cut and that he didn’t know if the House would have the votes to pass the bill.

The transportation bill’s sponsor, Rep. Dave Hinson, R-St. Clair, expressed confidence that a bill would pass, nonetheless. “To me, it’s hard to think they would possibly kill one of the largest union job bills that we could possibly pass,” he said.

Meanwhile, legislators have made no progress in reining in the state’s two largest tax credit programs that fund historic preservation and low-income housing development.

The House passed a tax credit overhaul, but the bill has stalled in the Senate. Majority Leader Ron Richard, R-Joplin, doesn’t expect that to change.

“I don’t see any tax credit issue happening this year,” he said. He said he had promised bill handler Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, that he would have time to debate the bill this week.

If no bill passes, developer Paul McKee’s NorthSide project will be out of luck in securing additional land assemblage tax credits for his massive redevelopment north of downtown St. Louis.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

There’s even less chance legislators will forge a last-minute deal on legislation adding 300,000 low-income adults to the Medicaid rolls, as envisioned by the federal Affordable Care Act.

“You’ve had several votes where the entire Republican Caucus (in the Senate) voted no,” said Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph. “Why would things change? Expanding welfare is the wrong thing to do.”

Senate Minority Leader Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City, said chances for Medicaid expansion were “slim, but you keep trying.”

Justus said Nixon had until midnight Tuesday to sign or veto the massive criminal code rewrite she sponsored, but she told the Associated Press on Friday that Nixon’s office had said he would not veto the bill.

“We’re very confident in the work product,” she said. A “safety net” in the bill allows for error corrections later.

Many lawmakers said this would be the year Missouri updated its campaign finance and ethics laws. But that issue hasn’t moved off dead-center, and with one week left, no one is predicting success.

The Senate has debated a bill that would impose a cooling-off period on legislators before they could become lobbyists. Democrats have tried to add campaign contribution limits to the bill, but Republicans oppose it. Richard said that stalemate was killing ethics legislation.

GOP PRIORITIES STUCK

Several House Republican leadership priorities are languishing in the Senate, as Democrats stand firm in their opposition to abortion restrictions, photo ID requirements for voters and limits on the ability of public sector unions to collect dues or fees by automatic paycheck deduction.

A measure to triple the waiting period before an abortion was brought up for debate twice, but Democrats stalled a vote.

Supporters contend the longer wait is needed so women can fully consider their decision. Opponents argue that extending the wait to 72 hours from 24 hours would place an undue burden on women, especially those who live farther away from St. Louis, where the state’s only remaining abortion clinic is situated.

Dempsey left open the possibility the Senate would take the rare step of shutting down debate to pass the measures. Known as moving the “previous question,” the procedure is regularly used in the House but hasn’t been used in the Senate since 2007.

“To not consider it is to give away some of the majority’s negotiating leverage,” he said.

Dempsey said the voter ID measure could be tied to a bill that would allow voters to cast their ballots before Election Day.

Democrats said the Republicans’ latest early voting proposal — which would allow six days for advance voting — is a weak bill aimed at sidelining a more expansive initiative petition proposal that could be on the Nov. 4 statewide ballot.

Democrats also strongly oppose a constitutional amendment allowing the state to require photo identification from voters at the polls. The enacting legislation would make Missouri one of the most restrictive states for voter ID, accepting only state or federal IDs and not allowing licenses from other states or student IDs.

Democratic filibusters also halted the paycheck deduction measure, requiring public employee unions to get written consent every year from workers to automatically deduct dues or fees from their paychecks.

Another union-targeted bill Jones touted as an important path to economic growth in Missouri does not seem to have any momentum going into the last week. Called “right to work” by supporters, it would bar employers from making employees pay union fees for representation or collective bargaining as a condition of employment.

The House gave it initial approval last month but fell short of the constitutionally required 82-vote majority for final approval. House Majority Leader John Diehl, R-Town and Country, said Thursday he was “not aware that there are 82 votes” to send it to the Senate.

Reinstating caps on non-economic damage awards in medical malpractice cases also is stalled. The Missouri Supreme Court threw them out in 2012. The House passed a new $350,000 cap in March but it was filibustered in the Senate last month.