Jefferson City — Senators convened in the House chamber twice this week to listen to key addresses by the Missouri Supreme Court chief justice and the director of the Missouri Department of Transportation.
In her State of the Judiciary speech on Tuesday (2/5), the chief justice pledged to open up to the public the judicial selection process, a highly contested issue in this year’s legislative session. Beginning this month, court officials will be required to post notice of any meetings related to judicial selections. However, the sessions will remain closed and the applicants’ names kept a secret, but their race and gender will be revealed to the public. The applications of the three finalists will be released as well.
The Missouri Plan, adopted in 1940, was designed to select judges for the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals and circuit courts in St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas in a nonpartisan way. Commissions consisting of judges, lawyers and citizens meet in an undisclosed time and location to select three finalists for each vacancy, and then the governor chooses the candidate from among the three. Approximately one year later, voters then decide whether to retain the judge for a full term.
Those who seek to reform the Missouri Plan, argue that the current system relies too heavily on the opinion of too few, without any oversight from the rest of the state. Proponents of the plan insist that it is the least political way to select judges because it protects the process from partisan campaigns.
Legislation has been introduced in the Senate that requires judicial selection commissions to comply with Missouri’s open meeting laws. Senate Bill 968, sponsored by Sen. Charlie Shields (R-St. Joseph) mandates these commissions to further open up their judicial selection process to the public. The bill is scheduled to be heard in the Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee next week (2/11).
On Wednesday (2/6), the director of MoDOT addressed the General Assembly in his fifth and final speech to lawmakers. The law mandating the yearly address by the director sunsets this year and because of the legislature’s overall satisfaction with the department’s progress, the law will likely not be reinstated.
The director spoke of the vast reductions in Missouri’s traffic fatalities. Missouri led the way in lives saved in 2006, where of the 868 fewer deaths on the nation’s roads, Missouri accounted for 161. He also discussed the funding crisis MoDOT will face in 2010 if the state does not find new ways to pay for highway construction. The department has identified $37 billion in transportation projects over the next 20 years, but expects to generate only $19 billion during that time with the majority of the revenue coming from the state’s 17-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline. Several bills are on the docket to help avoid the looming budget crisis MoDOT would likely face in the next two decades.
With committee work well underway, a number of bills have been approved for debate by the full Senate. Bills reported to the floor this week include SB 711 (Gibbons, R-Kirkwood), which changes provisions related to property taxes; SB 724 (Scott, R-Lowry City), a bill that gives advanced practice registered nurses the authority to prescribe medications; SB 720 (Coleman, D-St. Louis), which prohibits utility providers to disconnect service to residential customers on extraordinarily hot days; and SB 718 (Kennedy, D-St. Louis), which extends the sunset on job retention project tax credits under the Missouri Quality Jobs Act.
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 Senate district, or listen to streaming audio of legislative debate as it happens.
The Missouri Senate will reconvene at 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 11. The Second Regular Session of the 94th Missouri General Assembly will run through Friday, May 16.
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