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JEFFERSON CITY — Senators gave first-round approval to a measure this week to prevent partial birth abortions this week. The Missouri Senate also discussed several major issues, including tax credit reform and changes to the school funding formula.
Senate Bill 65, sponsored by Senate Leader Robert N. Mayer, R-Dexter, would change the laws relating to abortion in the state in respect to viability.
The legislation would, with the exception of a medical emergency, require a physician to determine the gestational age of the unborn child before performing an abortion. If the doctor determines the baby is 20 weeks or more, the physician would test for viability. If viable, no abortion could be performed unless it is necessary to preserve the life of the woman.
If the physician determines that the gestational age of the unborn child is 20 weeks or more, finds that the unborn child is not viable, and performs or induces an abortion, the physician would be required to report his or her reasons to the health care facility in which the abortion is performed and to the State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts. Findings would also need to be submitted in an individual abortion report submitted to the Department of Health and Senior Services.
The bill specifies that a doctor who does proceed with an abortion on a viable pregnancy would need to receive a second opinion from another physician that the abortion is necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant woman. The secondary physician would not have any legal or financial affiliation or relationship with the physician performing or inducing the abortion. An amendment added on the floor by Sen. Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City, would make sure that a second physician signing off on the procedure could be a physician at the same hospital.
Any person found in violation of the provisions of the bill would be guilty of a class C felony. Any physician who pleads guilty to or is convicted of performing or inducing an abortion of an unborn child in violation of the provisions of the legislation would be subject to suspension or revocation of his or her license to practice medicine by the State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts. If a hospital or ambulatory surgical center violates the provisions in the bill, its license could be suspended or revoked.
Senate Bill 65 would also change the definition of abortion to make the term more encompassing to cover new technologies.
Click here to listen to audio and video clips posted on March 30 featuring Sen. Mayer, Sen. Justus, and others discussing Senate Bill 65 on the floor of the Senate.
Senate Bill 247, sponsored by Sen. David Pearce, R-Warrensburg, was discussed by the Senate. The legislation would make several changes to the state’s K-12 school funding formula. The formula, passed by the Legislature in 2005, includes a seven-year phase-in formula for increased school funding. Budget shortfalls have led to the necessity to modify the phase-in.
Senate Bill 247 would eliminate the portion of the payment that comes from the SB 380 formula, passed in 1993. Instead, all payments would be based on the SB 287 formula, passed in 2005, with a proration method to accommodate available appropriations. In any year in which appropriations do not equal the amount necessary to fully fund the formula, payments would be modified to accommodate available appropriations.
Click here to listen to the March 29 program “The Senate Minute,” which features floor discussion on Senate Bill 247. Click here to listen to audio and video clips posted on March 29 featuring Senate floor debate on Senate Bill 247.
A comprehensive measure relating to tax credits was also discussed by the body this week. Senate Bill 280, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Purgason, R- Caulfield, would make changes to many of the state’s 61 tax credit programs. Supporters of the measure point to the need for reform in light of budget shortfalls facing Missouri. Many of the provisions in the legislation are based on recommendations made in the Missouri Tax Credit Review Commission Report. The measure would create sunset provisions for 13 tax credit programs and repeal four programs.
The legislation would also create the Compete Missouri Program, which would combine six existing business incentive programs and provide tax incentives for job creation, job retention, and capital investment. The Compete Missouri Job Training Program would be established, combining three existing job training programs and providing funding for job training
No action was taken on SB 280 or SB 247.
On Thursday, the Senate gave final approval to several additional measures including:
- Senate Bill 226, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, would make several changes to the laws affecting ambulance districts including provisions to allow ambulance board members to be recalled, similar to the process available for recalling members of school, hospital, and other local boards. The bill would also allow new ambulance districts the option of asking voters to approve a sales tax or property tax when the district is established. Currently newly founded ambulance districts have to begin with a property tax and must then get additional voter approval to convert to a sales tax.
- Senate Bill 57, sponsored by Senate Minority Floor Leader Victor Callahan, D-Independence, which would require courts to transfer certain cases, upon the request of the public administrator.
- Senate Bill 282, sponsored by Sen. Engler, which would move the state’s presidential primary to seven days after the primary is conducted in the state of New Hampshire. The legislation is in response to requests by the national political parties that several states move the date of their primary.
- Senate Bill 62, sponsored by Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, which would allow a health care provider to charge a fee to cover the costs of copying, postage, and notary services when furnishing of medical records. Fees could also be applied to cover the cost of retrieval if the records have been stored off-site. The maximum fees allowed are included in the legislation.
These bills were sent to the House for similar consideration.
While Senate members are spending more time debating measures on the floor of the Senate, committees continue to meet to discuss legislation. The Senate Education Committee met on March 30. The committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 99, sponsored by Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City. The bill would make changes to several laws regarding elementary and secondary education, particularly in relation to superintendent compensation.
Senate Bill 99 would require the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to develop an evaluation method to review the performance of superintendents in the state by June 30, 2012. A school board would have the ability to reduce the compensation of its superintendent of schools if the board finds that district's students have underperformed as compared to similar students in a comparable district. The provision would only apply to unaccredited or provisionally accredited school districts or districts that, for any three-year period, have obtained a score on their annual performance review consistent with a classification of unaccredited or provisionally accredited.
The legislation would also set a limit on compensation the board of education could provide for certain district personnel. Any superintendent, assistant superintendent, administrator, or central office personnel would not be able to make more than two and a half times the salary of tenured teachers. In addition, the average administrator salary could not exceed two times the district’s average salary for tenured teachers. Violating the provisions of the bill would result in the district losing one percent of their foundation formula school funding.
Click here to listen to audio and video clips posted on March 30 featuring committee testimony on Senate Bill 99.
The House completed work on the budget this week, sending the 13 bills that make up the state's budget to the Senate. They will now be reviewed and amended by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The Senate will reconvene next week at 4 p.m. on Monday, April 4. The Senate is expected to discuss SB 81, SB 54, SB 322, SB 29, SB 118, SB 177, SB 59, SB 60, SB 165, SB 116, and SB 9 during the week of April 4. The First Regular Session of the 96th General Assembly runs through Friday, May 13, 2011.
This update is written once a week throughout the legislative session. To follow these and other issues facing the Missouri Senate, visit www.senate.mo.gov . Visitors can track legislation as it passes through the General Assembly, learn more about their district, or, when the Legislature is in session, listen to streaming audio of legislative debate as it happens. For more legislative news, please visit the Senate Newsroom . There you will find various audio and video programs and other services, such as:
- Missouri Legislative Update (MLU) – A video program produced periodically throughout the year that provides an overview of the news in the Missouri Senate and House of Representatives. The program features news interviews with lawmakers and stories on issues concerning Missourians.
- Capital Dialogue – Missourinet's Bob Priddy hosts this monthly half-hour roundtable program bringing legislators together from the Missouri Senate and House of Representatives from different political parties to discuss their positions on specific issues and legislation.
- This Week in the Missouri Senate – A weekly five-minute audio program that wraps up the week’s news in the Missouri Senate. Programs are posted online every Friday in .mp3 format.
- Senate Minute – A condensed, one-minute audio report of current Senate news. Programs are posted in .mp3 format and are available through podcast.
- Daily Audio / Video Clips – Throughout the year, the Senate Newsroom posts broadcast-quality audio and video highlights from Senate committee hearings, floor debate, press conferences and other legislative events.
- Daily News Clips – The Senate Newsroom compiles daily news clips from various print and online publications that cover issues relating to the Legislature and state government. An archive of past clips is maintained online and is offered as a subscription service.
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