Legislative Column for the Week of July 23, 2015

The governor’s deadline to sign or veto bills passed last week, meaning all bills passed by the legislature in the 2015 session were either vetoed or will go into effect August 28, 2015. The governor vetoed 13 House Bills and six Senate Bills, while 104 bills were signed or allowed to become law without his signature. Any bill vetoed by the governor can be considered for an override by the legislature during the September veto session.

Since the last report, the governor took action on several bills I sponsored. Senate Bill 18 was signed this year, after being vetoed by the governor last year. This piece of legislation will require the Department of Revenue to notify business owners when there is a change in the sales tax law or interpretation that will require them to collect additional sales tax. This new law is an important fix that will protect business owners and job creators from notification by audit, creating exorbitant back taxes for the business.

Senate Bill 20 is the only bill I sponsored vetoed by the governor. The bill would have reapplied a sales tax exemption to commercial laundries that held the exemption for years, but was recently reinterpreted by a court ruling. The courts’ interpretation, which I believe is wrong and unfair, creates a system of double taxation on certain products. The bill would have superseded the court ruling and reinstated commercial laundries to their previous tax status.

Senate Bill 104 was also signed into law, and is designed to help local election authorities, as well as save taxpayer money. The law changes the deadline for courts to decide challenges to initiative petition ballot language from six weeks prior to the election to eight weeks prior to the election. This small change will prevent costly ballot reprinting similar to a case in 2014 that cost the state nearly $700,000 in reprinting costs.

Senate Bill 254 is the final bill I sponsored that was signed by the governor. The new law modifies several provisions relating to vehicles, including how ignition locks are used to treat DWI offenses, where a license plate must be displayed on a trailer, and switches the proceeds of a specialty license plate sale from a WWII memorial to the WWI memorial in Kansas City, Missouri. 

The complete list of actions taken by the governor can be found at http://governor.mo.gov/news/legislative-actions.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns at any time. We look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions, and will try to answer any questions you may have. You can reach us by phone at 573-751-1464, or e-mail at will.kraus@senate.mo.gov.