| On the Floor
Our hard work continued in Jefferson City this week with late nights filled with debate and discussion. On Monday, arguments about Senate Bill 41 carried late into the night. If passed, this bill would allow “alternatives-to-abortion” agencies to provide incorrect and biased information under the guise of religious freedom and right to free speech to those seeking their services. After SB 41 was laid over, Senate Bill 67 was discussed on the floor on Tuesday. This bill would prohibit the donations of fetal material. The use of this material has many positive health outcomes, including saving 5,000 unborn babies yearly. I pledge to continue to tirelessly fight for women’s rights, especially when it comes to a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body. Senate Bill 451 is expected to be heard on the Senate floor next week. This bill would make the Sheriff of the City of St. Louis and his deputies, as law enforcement officials, eligible for training by the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission. I plan to speak on the Senate floor about the importance of properly training all who have been tasked with protecting the city of St. Louis. Bills and Committees Senate Bill 498 – On Thursday, April 6, SB 498 passed through the Transportation, Infrastructure, and Public Safety Committee. This bill would establish a partnership between nonprofit organizations, the city of St. Louis, and the St. Louis school district, allowing students who are picked up by law enforcement for skipping school to be taken to a nonprofit organization where they can receive counseling and other resources. Senate Bill 341 – After the Judiciary Committee heard SB 341, the bill awaits a vote. This bill would prohibit the state from charging any individual under the age of eighteen with prostitution. It would also raise the felony for those soliciting sex from minors and would require them to register as sex offenders. “This bill is one of the many sex trafficking initiatives that I and others planned and proposed for this session. I am hopeful that the Committee will approve SB 341, and help another sex trafficking initiative move forward,” said Sen. Nasheed. Senate Bill 287 – On Thursday, April 6, the Judiciary Committee heard SB 287. This bill would prohibit law enforcement agencies from engaging in bias policing, or policing in which an officer’s or agency’s actions are based on the perceived race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, gender, English language proficiency, disability or national origin of a person. “This week, I met with law enforcement officials and members of the Judiciary Committee to discuss SB 287. My top priority is to pass a bill that will be effective in identifying bias policing and holding all officers accountable,” Sen. Nasheed noted. Appropriations House Bill 14 – On Tuesday, the Appropriations Committee heard and passed HB 14, a bill that would appropriate money for supplemental purposes to various departments and offices in our state government. On Thursday, the Senate unanimously passed HB 14 and reported the bill to the House with a Senate Committee Substitute. Next week, the Committee will be hearing and working on budget bills as the end of session approaches. Other News House Approves $27.75 Billion State Budget for FY 2018 The Republican-controlled House of Representatives on April 6, passed a state spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year. The plan provides K-12 schools with their smallest increase in five years. Yet, its supporters claim to fully fund public education. In addition, the plan’s supporters call for deep funding cuts for colleges and universities. The plan would also eliminate an important tax break for low-income elderly and disabled Missourians. The $27.75 billion state operating budget for the 2018 fiscal year now moves to the Senate. Because the new governor was several weeks late in submitting his budget proposal, the process is far behind schedule. With a May 5 constitutional deadline to complete the budget, the Legislature has just four weeks for the Senate to approve its version of the state’s spending plan and both chambers to resolve differences before final votes can be taken to send the budget measures to the governor. If lawmakers fail to meet the budgetary deadline, they would be prohibited under the Missouri Constitution from taking further action on the appropriations bills during the final week of the legislative session, which ends May 12. As a result, the governor would likely call a special session to start the budgetary process over in order to pass a spending plan before the FY 2018 fiscal year begins on July 1. The House budget calls for a $48 million increase in basic state funding for local school districts — by far the smallest increase in education funding since FY 2013. In the intervening four years, FY 2014 through FY 2017, annual increases in K-12 appropriations have averaged nearly $88 million. But last year, the majority party rewrote the state education funding law over the minority party’s objections. By rewriting the law, the majority party can claim that it fully funded public schools even with a $400 million reduction in education funding. As a result, a $48 million increase is sufficient to fully fund public schools under the revised law, which members of the minority party argue merely creates the illusion of providing adequate education spending. While local public schools would receive a modest funding boost, higher education institutions would take a big hit to their state appropriations. Funding for most four-year schools and community colleges would be cut by 6.6 percent, while the University of Missouri System would take a 9 percent hit to its basic funding. However, the House plan levels that disparity by including funding for several stand-alone UM System initiatives that the governor had proposed eliminating. When the governor presented his proposed budget in February, he proposed saving about $52 million by eliminating nursing home and in-home care services for more than 20,000 disabled Missourians. Although the House budget rejects that plan, it backfills the revenue by eliminating the so-called circuit breaker tax credit for low-income elderly and disabled Missourians who rent their homes. Individual recipients receive an average credit of $535 a year. Lawmakers Send Messages with Budget Provisions While the purpose of appropriations bills is to provide state government the legal authority to spend money, it has become increasingly common for lawmakers to use the budget measures to send messages to state agencies about things they don’t want money spent on. However, these budgetary directives are largely non-binding and unenforceable. One such directive purports to block the Missouri Department of Transportation from spending money on toll roads. Another says that no funds can be used for DWI checkpoints. Two others separately bar universities from offering in-state tuition to Missouri students brought to this country illegally as children and seek to prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding for providing non-abortion women’s health services. None of these purported restrictions is legally binding, however, as they don’t appear in the statutory language of the budget bills. Instead, they are in the title clauses that summarizes what the bills do. The Missouri Supreme Court has said such clauses are not actually part of legislation. Net State Revenue Up 4.3 Percent so far in FY 2017 Net state general revenue collections for the first nine months of the 2017 fiscal year increased by 4.3 percent, going from $6.2 billion last year to $6.47 billion this year, compared to the same period in FY 2016. Net general revenue collections for March 2017 decreased by 0.2 percent, going from $757.1 million last year to $755.6 million this year, compared to those for March 2016. General revenue collections must grow by 7 percent to cover all of the spending authorized last spring by the Republican-controlled General Assembly. Because that is highly unlikely to happen, the current governor, a Republican, and his predecessor, Democrat Jay Nixon, implemented roughly $350 million in combined midyear spending cuts to keep the FY 2017 budget in balance. |