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| On Wednesday, April 12, the governor appointed Senator Jamilah Nasheed to the Committee to End Homelessness. The committee was established to use public and private efforts to develop and employ strategies to prevent and end homelessness.
“I thank the governor for this appointment and his serious commitment to addressing homelessness in the state of Missouri,” said Sen. Nasheed. “I have been an aggressive advocate for giving the people of Missouri the tools and resources they need to get safe and affordable housing, and I look forward to working with the committee to strengthen efforts to end homelessness. To address the lack of affordable housing and the immediate effects of the St. Louis center closing, it’s going to take a collaboration of aggressive and proactive initiatives to combat homelessness.” On the Floor The week began with Senate Bill 313 being brought to the floor and granted first-round approval. The bill would authorize $25 million a year in tax credits for donations to organizations that provide scholarships for private school tuition. Senate Bill 313 requires a second vote to advance to the House of Representatives. Senator Nasheed was able to add an amendment that ended social promotion, promising to help with third-through-tenth-grade education. After an almost 8-hour filibuster, SB 313 was finalized and has been placed on the list of Third Reading bills. Senate Bill 313 would establish the Missouri Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Program. For all fiscal years beginning on or after July 1, 2018, a taxpayer may make a qualifying contribution to an educational assistance organization and claim a tax credit, as described in the act. The tax credit is for 100 percent of the amount of the contribution. Tax credits authorized under the program are refundable, but may not be transferred, sold or assigned. Critics of the bill said it amounted to a back-door private-school voucher system, since money that would otherwise go into the state treasury for various state services, including public schools, would be redirected to private schools. Senate Bill 313 also contains numerous provisions relating to education, including changes to an existing law that allows students in unaccredited school districts to transfer to better nearby schools and modifications to the State Board of Education’s powers to take over such districts. In addition to Senate Bill 313, the Senate also discussed House Bill 90. Missouri is currently the only U.S. state without a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP). The bill is seen as a way to fight the current crisis concerning opioid painkillers. Adjourning after 7 p.m., the Senate spent a significant amount of Thursday discussing some of the senators’ concerns, such as privacy and governmental intrusion, about HB 90. Most of the disagreement was intraparty — between members of the majority party. The Senate passed HB 90 by a vote of 22 to 9, with 9 Republicans voting against the bill. Bills and Committees SB 217 – On Wednesday, April 12, SB 217 was referred to the House Committee on General Laws and the committee will hold a hearing for the bill on April 18, at noon. SB 217 would add donations to soup kitchens or homeless shelters to the current tax credit for donations to food pantries. This bill is scheduled to be heard upon the House convening on Tuesday, April 18. SB 341 – On Wednesday, April 12, the Judiciary Committee moved SB 341 out of committee. The bill will be placed on the Senate floor calendar next week. If passed, SB 341 would prohibit minors from being charged with prostitution. It would also increase the class of felony for an individual soliciting sex from a minor. SB 498 – Last week, the Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee moved SB 498 out of committee. Senate Bill 498 will be placed on the Senate floor calendar next week. This bill would create a partnership between schools, law enforcement and nonprofits to provide resources to students who are skipping school. Appropriations This week, the Senate Appropriations Committee started the committee-amending process, in which it, as people in the Capitol say, “marked up” bills. Members of the committee were in deep negotiations throughout the week as they try to meet the constitutional budgetary deadline by May 5. Within the Senate Appropriations Committee mark-up hearing, there was also consideration given to the House’s final budget numbers. Unfortunately, that means that all the numbers at this point are still subject to change both on the Senate floor and, again, in conference committee. After long mornings and afternoons, the Senate Appropriations Committee finished negotiations during a late meeting on Wednesday night. Although the budget still has to go to conference and pass both chambers, Sen. Nasheed has successfully secured $2.65 billion in the 2018 Fiscal Year budget. Among the money secured for St. Louis is funding for truancy reform and proceedings, Harris-Stowe State University, UMSL and a Workforce Development Apprenticeship program. Other News Bill to weaken human rights act advances in House Legislation to severely weaken Missouri’s anti-discrimination law has cleared two House committees and is one vote away from being sent to the governor to be signed into law. The piece of legislation is sponsored by a state senator of the majority party who is currently being sued for alleged violations of that anti-discrimination law. Senate Bill 43 would make it significantly harder for victims of illegal workplace discrimination to successfully sue their employer under the Missouri Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, gender, disability or familial status. Its sponsor owns a nine-store chain in Southeast Missouri. In 2015, a former account manager at the company’s Sikeston location sued, alleging a white supervisor repeatedly targeted her with racial slurs and also prohibited renting to residents of Sikeston’s black neighborhood. The account manager, who is black, says she was fired for pretextual reasons after complaining. The case remains pending in Scott County Circuit Court. In a news conference on April 10, members of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus said the bill would weaken important civil rights protections and criticized the bill’s sponsor for using his elected position for personal benefit. The Senate approved SB 43 in March, and if no changes are made by the House, it will go straight to the governor, a Republican, to be signed into law. State auditor finds issues with taxing districts Transportation development districts throughout Missouri are engaging in questionable practices with little oversight or transparency according to a report the state auditor issued on April 10. The state auditor, a Democrat, urged the Republican-controlled General Assembly to overhaul the state’s TDD law to prohibit the “self-dealing and conflicts of interest” she says are currently common. “Insiders have rigged the system to take advantage of Missourians,” the state auditor said in a news release. “It is outrageous that taxpayers are on the hook for a billion dollars in debt without even realizing it.” Transportation development districts are special taxing districts — usually created by land developers — that authorize businesses within those districts to levy a sales tax; the proceeds of those taxes go to reimburse the developers for the cost of building and maintaining infrastructure in the districts. TDD taxes are imposed without local voter approval in apparent violation of the Missouri Constitution’s Hancock Amendment. The problems highlighted in the state auditor’s report include the inherent conflicts of interest of TDD boards, which are controlled by developers and property owners; collection of taxes in excess of a TDD’s legal authority; improper extension of the duration of taxes and failure to comply with various reporting requirements. Governor creates panel to study eliminating panels The governor on April 11, issued an executive order creating a governmental panel to study whether Missouri has too many governmental panels. The 12-member Boards and Commissions Task Force is charged with issuing a report no later than Oct. 31 with recommendations on whether some of the more than 200 state boards and commissions should be eliminated. The governor’s immediate predecessor, a Democrat, attempted a similar culling in 2010, targeting more than 30 boards and commissions for elimination — some of which hadn’t met in years. Legislation to eliminate some boards and commissions cleared the Senate, but died in the House of Representatives. However, the last governor unilaterally eliminated 13 boards and commissions by executive order. |