Update from the Senate Side
Dear Friends and Neighbors:

As promised, you can now access my report: “What I Did on My Spring Break Vacation!” Being a member of the Trade Mission delegation to Europe was an experience I will not soon forget. My fifteen page personal account that accompanies a vast amount of briefing materials is not, in its entirety, “ready for prime time.” Instead, included in the above link are some highlights from the Mission. 

Meantime, with about four weeks left in the legislative session, we are at the point where all the prep work through committee hearings and floor debate is replaced with a more frenzied pace. 

Thank you to those who call, email and visit with your priorities and concerns. Your input is heard and it matters. Know that my staff and I work hard to ensure that the votes I make are thoughtful and informed on behalf of the people of our district and state.

With gratitude for the opportunity to serve, 

Jill Schupp 

Our Budget Reflects Our Priorities
The legislature has a constitutional duty to formulate and pass a state budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget is made up of 13 different bills organized by department or broad category. We vote on each of those bills separately.
Today we sent this $26 billion state budget to the Governor. As is often the case, the versions created by the Governor’s office, the House, and the Senate all differed and conference committees met into the early hours on Wednesday night to resolve the differences.
A few of the areas of interest/contention this year with regard to the budget include:
K-12 education is currently underfunded by about $468 million. The Senate has increased the amount of money over the House’s appropriation for K-12 largely because of legislation passed last year that made budget shortfalls disproportionately impact “formula” versus “hold harmless” districts. This amount, around $84 million increase over last year, keeps from shortchanging one type of district more than another. Despite this increase we are still not meeting our commitment to fully fund the education funding formula. I will continue to fight to boost funding for our schools.
While the budget is not to be used as a way to legislate, this year’s HB 3 does just that. This higher education funding bill includes language that requires “dreamers,” those students who came to the United States, often at a very young age, who have lived and gone to school here, but who lack citizenship, to pay international tuition rates to go to Missouri’s public colleges and universities. These rates are about three times the resident tuition rates. These students, who want an education and brighter future, have parents who have worked and paid taxes. These students may even have younger siblings who were born here and are, therefore, citizens. Yet, this bill puts a tremendous hurdle before these children of undocumented immigrants. Does it make sense to deny them an opportunity to receive an affordable college education? Don’t we want these young people to receive an education and become tomorrow’s skilled employees or business owners and entrepreneurs? Our public policy has long term ramifications. Even though this is a clear example of legislating through the budget process, my attempt to remove this language from the budget on the Senate floor was unsuccessful.
The final version of the budget also included significant cuts to social services, including a $30 million cut from our General Revenue to Medicaid, which could amount to a $70 million cut when federal matching funds are taken into account. These cuts will impact the health care services for some of the most vulnerable populations in our state.  There were more severe cuts of $300 million that were proposed by the Senate to the Departments of Health, Mental Health and Social Services - fortunately most of these were finally rolled back. We heard from a great deal of constituents in opposition to those proposed draconian cuts and it is doubtless due to the loud public outcry that the final budget eliminated most of these devastating cuts.
The current FY 2015 budget can be found Here.

Legalizing Discrimination
Indiana suffered broad coverage and negative financial ramifications when it passed a bill legalizing discrimination, under the guise of religious freedom. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) allows individuals and businesses to discriminate based on “sincerely held religious beliefs.” We are concerned that this type of legislation will permit legal discrimination against individuals.
In Missouri, the city of Springfield recently voted to repeal its anti-discrimination ordinance. As a result, the city will no longer provide protection for its citizens seeking housing, employment and public accommodations should access be denied due to sexual orientation and gender identity.
In the midst of these efforts that deny civil rights to people based on sexual orientation and gender identity, it should provide some comfort that last week the Missouri Non-Discrimination Act (MONA) was passed by our Missouri Senate’s Progress and Development Committee. This bill prohibits discrimination in employment, lending, public accommodations and housing based on sexual orientation and gender identity. While it will not likely move further this legislative session, each year it inches forward a bit more. I am hopeful it will not be too long before all Missourians are treated with equality and justice under the law.
Before a bill can be sent to the Governor and become law, it undergoes an extensive legislative process.  So far this session, only a handful of bills have been “Truly Agreed To and Finally Passed” (TAFP, a legal description of final legislative passage.) Those are subject to the Governor’s signing, veto, or “pocket” passage--where the bill passes after a specified number of  days without the Governor’s signature.  Below is a brief summary of some of the TAFP bills. At this time of year, the list of bills grows each day.  

Bills going to the Governor’s Desk
SB 12 - Omnibus Agriculture bill that includes subsidies for milk farmers, scholarships for students who are interested in dairy agriculture, and a provision increasing the weight limit of farm vehicles transporting specific agricultural products.
SB 149 - Establishes a tax exemption for new and existing data storage facilities in Missouri.
SB 24 - Downsizes the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.  The bill lowers the lifetime limit for receiving temporary assistance from 60 months to 45 months.  It also imposes sanctions on the entire family when parents do not meet the TANF work requirements, meaning children can lose benefits if their parents fail to meet the requirement. When enacted, it will kick at least 9,465 people, of whom 6,310 are children, off the TANF program due to the reduced lifetime time limit.   
HB 16 - Supplemental appropriations bill for the current year budget that allows for additional federal funds to be appropriated by the State Emergency Management Agency so local communities can be reimbursed for disaster recovery costs.
HB 63 - Relates to people seeking public office.  It specifically prohibits a former district superintendent from serving on that district’s school board.  It was initially vetoed by the Governor, but that veto was later overridden by the General Assembly.
HB 384 - Tax Amnesty Bill.  Allows those with unpaid taxes from before December 31, 2014, to apply for amnesty and pay their taxes to the state between September 30, 2015, and November 30, 2015, without penalty.  It is estimated that this bill will generate $60 million in state revenue.
HB 150 - Relates to unemployment compensation. This bill lowers the number of weeks an individual is eligible for unemployment compensation from 20 weeks to a scale based on the Missouri unemployment rate. A substantially similar bill, Senate Substitute SB 673, was vetoed by the Governor in 2014.  It is likely that the Governor will veto this bill as well and it will be returned to the General Assembly where the legislature could bring it up for an override vote. 

For future use, a complete list of bills and resolutions passed by the General Assembly can be found Here.

Updates on My Legislation
A brief note about the realities of being a minority member of the General Assembly:  I am grateful for the movement of the bills I have detailed below.  You will be able to view my other filed legislation here.  From ethics bills on transparency in campaign contributions, expansion of Medicaid, anti-discrimination legislation, ban on texting while driving, primary seat belt law, domestic violence legislation, flu vaccines and more, none have begun to move, nor will they make it through the legislative process this year.     
SB 328: Youth Suicide Prevention
The youth suicide and prevention awareness bill has moved forward in both chambers of the General Assembly. Representative Jeanie Lauer (R-Blue Springs) has graciously carried the companion bill HB 1293, which has been heard and passed in the House.  With a House hearing on Senate Bill 328 early next week, the bill is moving through the multi-stepped process and does have a chance of becoming law. We filed a House and Senate version with the hope of having at least one reach final passage. With hope of saving kids’ lives, we will keep you posted on the bills.     
SB 446: Purple Heart License Plates
This small savings in fees for license plates to Veterans who have earned the Purple Heart, is more about honor and tribute than the approximately $585 total dollars it will save all of the Purple Heart Veterans combined who use the plates.  Senate Bill 446 removes the $15 re-issuance fee associated with specialized license plates for Purple Heart Veterans. We present to another House committee Thursday and are hopeful the bill will also make it through the process.  Representative Charlie Davis (R-Webb City) is handling the bill on the House Floor, and has filed the companion House bill, HB 1004.    

Opportunities to Offer Legislation
On SB 524, I offered a Payday Loan amendment
Senate bill 524 was a bill that would outlaw the inclusion of a bank’s fee as part of an interest rate for calculating the total amount of interest a bank charged.  With the subject of banks and fees before the Senate, I took the opportunity to offer an amendment that would cap interest rates Payday lenders and other predatory lenders charge for what are supposed to be short term loans. Capping the loans at 36%, as we do for members of the military, seemed an appropriate way to honor our military and the people of Missouri for whom those military members serve and fight.  Currently, many low income Missourians find themselves trapped in a cycle of debt caused by outrageous rates that end up at 400% or even more. Often, borrowers end up owing more in interest than the amount they originally borrowed.
I was given the opportunity to talk about my amendment and concerns.  That is the part of the reason I am so grateful to be in the Senate.  As anticipated, the amendment was ruled to be out of order, so no further action was taken.  

Conference Committees
I am serving on some conference committees which are created to work out the differences between House and Senate versions of the bills in an attempt to find compromise.  Thus far, I have found these opportunities to be very rewarding. In this role, I have been able to make what I consider to be positive changes in the TANF legislation and to have input into an elections bill.  While compromise was indeed made for which I am grateful, I still cannot support either of these bills (SB 24 and SB 104.) 

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Office Contact information:

Office phone number: (573) 751-9762
Office address: State Capitol, 201 W. Capitol Ave., Rm 425, Jefferson City, Mo. 65101