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The Week of April 29, 2024

On the Floor

This week brought a lengthy filibuster against Senate Bill 748, which renews the Federal Reimbursement Allowance (FRA), before it was eventually granted first round approval early Thursday morning. The FRA was created during the Ashcroft administration in the Missouri Department of Social Services to establish a voluntary tax on hospitals that is then used to draw down federal funds for Missouri’s Medicaid Program, MO HealthNet. In the currently proposed state budget, the FRA is expected to bring in $1.5 Billion to draw down an additional $2.8 Billion in federal funds. Essentially, if the sunset on the Federal Reimbursement Allowance is not extended or eliminated, the General Assembly would have to cut $1.5 billion in General Revenue to other programs. Since Medicaid, like Medicare, is an “entitlement program,” if you qualify, and your state continues to receive Medicaid funding, you must be covered. 

A small group of senators stood against the passage of SB 748 because they wanted to see the governor sign House Bill 2634 into law first. This legislation specifies that no public funds will be given to any abortion facility or any affiliated facilities, including for MO HealthNet reimbursement. The Senate faced a similar issue when the FRA was up for renewal three years ago. Several senators were adamant that language defunding abortion facilities and their affiliates, like Planned Parenthood, be completely defunded. However, making this change could have caused the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to deny Missouri’s FRA, which would have forced Missouri to operate under the funding cap included in the Affordable Care Act, increasing the cost to the state.

The Senate third read and passed the following bills:

Bills and Committees

Judiciary Committee:

The committee heard three Missouri House of Representative bills this week: 

Commerce Committee:

House Bill 2599 would allow the use of a secure identity verification system utilizing an electronic scan to determine if an individual purchasing alcohol is 21 years of age or older, but retailers will not be required to use such a system.

Other News

Senior Property Tax Freeze Credit

The application for the City of St. Louis Senior Property Tax Credit is now open. This tax credit was passed as a part of Senate Bill 190 during last year’s legislative session and signed into law by the governor. It allows the city to provide senior citizens with fixed city property tax rates while protecting other tax rates such as public schools, the public library, the St. Louis Zoo, museums, etc., from revenue reductions. Eligible seniors can apply for this credit online, via paper form or in-person at the assessor's office. Applications are due by June 30, and individuals can learn more about eligibility and necessary documents at the link above.

High court orders revote on KC unfunded mandate exception

In an unprecedented move, the Missouri Supreme Court on April 30 invalidated the 2022 ratification of a state constitutional amendment temporarily empowering lawmakers to impose unfunded mandates involving police funding on Kansas City’s municipal government. On a split 4-3 decision that also ordered a new vote to be held at the upcoming Nov. 5 general election, the court ruled the fiscal summary that appeared on the prior ballot materially misled voters.

Although the court’s precedent allows post-election challenges to the ratification of constitutional amendments, this case marks the first time the court has found sufficient cause to overturn an election and order a new one. The court ordered the proposal to go on the fall ballot as Amendment 4, the same designation it carried when voters approved it in November 2022, and with a new fiscal summary prepared by the court.

Missouri’s tax-limiting Hancock Amendment generally prohibits the legislature from imposing unfunded mandates on local governments, but Amendment 4 carves out a loophole that allows lawmakers to order cities with a state-controlled police department to allocate more funding for their department, without regard to the city’s other spending needs. Amendment 4’s unfunded mandate exception is slated to run through the end of 2026, at which time the Hancock Amendment’s normal prohibition would again apply.

At present, the Kansas City Police Department is the only Missouri police force under state control, although bills are pending in the Legislature to put the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department under state authority as well. Even though 61.4% of Kansas City voters opposed Amendment 4 in 2022, it won ratification anyway with 63.2% statewide support.

The Kansas City mayor challenged the validity of the fiscal summary for Amendment 4, saying it misled voters by falsely stating local governments “estimate no additional costs or savings” from its passage. Although the full fiscal note then-State Auditor Nicole Galloway’s office prepared for Amendment 4 included Kansas City’s estimate that the measure would cost city taxpayers $38 million per year, that information isn’t mentioned in the one-sentence summary that appeared on the ballot.

The court’s majority opinion said this omission was “an ‘irregularity’ of sufficient magnitude to cast doubt on the validity of the 2022 general election regarding Amendment No. 4” and that a new election was the only available remedy.

“(T)he fiscal note summary in this case failed in its principal object to concisely and accurately advise voters of the fiscal impact of the proposal as set forth in the fiscal note,” the opinion continued. “Worse, the fiscal note summary actually misled voters by suggesting Amendment No. 4 would have no fiscal impact when the fiscal note identified a sizeable one.”

Two judges partially dissented, agreeing with the majority that the court had jurisdiction to hear the case but disagreeing that the mayor had met the high legal burden for overturning an election. A third fully dissented, saying the court’s precedent allowing it to hear post-election challenges is wrong and should be overturned. The case is Quinton Lucas v. John Ashcroft and Scott Fitzpatrick.

Committee dismisses ethics complaint against speaker

The House Ethics Committee on April 29 voted to dismiss a complaint filed against the House Speaker after blocking an attempt by the panel’s chair to tie the dismissal to a statement saying the speaker and his subordinates obstructed its investigation and engaged in witness intimidation. The dismissal came on a 7-2 vote, with one lawmaker voting “present.”

The original dismissal motion made by the committee chair sought to say the case was being dropped due to “the inability of the committee to finish the investigation as a direct result of obstruction of the process and the intimidation of witnesses.” Over the chair’s objections, the committee amended the motion to merely state it was dismissing the case.

In a news conference following the vote, the speaker falsely claimed the committee had exonerated him. However, the committee issued no report and made no findings clearing him of the allegations and instead simply closed the case without comment.

The vote to end the case came two weeks after the committee voted 6-2 against adopting a draft report accusing the speaker of obstruction and witness intimidation but recommending he receive only a minor sanction relating to the underlying allegations in the complaint.

The complaint was filed against the speaker last fall after news reports on a series of controversies involving the speaker. One allegation involved documentation showing the speaker sought and received taxpayer reimbursements over several years for $4,509 in travel expenses already paid for by his campaign committee – money he repaid only after the Missouri Independent filed an open records request for his expense reports. Another allegation involved the speaker’s unsuccessful efforts to secure a lucrative no-bid contract for a constituent management service that the chamber’s non-partisan administrator said was unnecessary, duplicative and cost prohibitive.

Prior to the dismissal vote, the Ethics Committee chair attempted to read from a March 5 email written by the House human resources director documenting alleged actions by the speaker’s chief of staff that the director said put House employees in “fear of being retaliated against or even wrongfully terminated.” Although the committee voted to block the letter from being read, the letter nonetheless became public following the meeting.

“In my over 21 years of state government service, I have never witnessed or even been involved in such a hostile work environment that is so horrible that I am living in fear every day of losing my job,” the human resources director wrote. “I cannot idly sit by and hope that the Speaker’s Office will stop harassing myself and other staff members.”

Backers of higher minimum wage submit initiative signatures

Supporters of increasing the state minimum wage to $15 an hour and guaranteeing paid sick leave for workers submitted an initiative petition to the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office on May 1 seeking to put the issue before voters. Election officials must now verify the petition has enough valid signatures to qualify for the on the Nov. 5 statewide ballot, a process that typically takes about three months.

Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, the group sponsoring the petition, said it collected more than 200,000 signatures from registered voters, about double the minimum of roughly 107,000 signatures required to put a statutory initiative on the ballot.

Missouri’s standard minimum wage currently is $12.30 an hour, while the federal minimum wage stands at just $7.25 an hour. The initiative proposal would bump the state minimum to $13.75 an hour on Jan. 1, 2025, and hike it again to $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2026. As with existing state law, the minimum wage would then be adjusted annually based on changes in the Consumer Price Index. The proposal also would guarantee workers receive one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.

The initiative process allows voters to bypass the General Assembly to independently propose and enact legislation. Missouri voters have twice approved initiative measures raising the state minimum wage – a 2006 proposal that passed with 76% support and a 2018 measure that received 62.3% of the vote.

Senator resigns to join State Tax Commission

Former State Sen. Greg Razer resigned his legislative seat on April 25 shortly after his Senate colleagues voted to confirm his appointment to the State Tax Commission, which supervises property tax assessment and equalization practices in Missouri. With Razer’s departure, minority Senate members will be d2328own to nine members during the final weeks of the 2024 legislative session, which ends May 17.
 

The governor nominated Razer for the commission on April 12. He was first elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 2016 and served a pair of two-year terms before shifting to the Senate in 2020. In March, Razer filed to run for a second four-year Senate term this year but withdrew his candidacy on April 30. Because Razer was the incumbent, candidate filing for in his heavily Democratic district reopened for five days.

Because Razer’s Senate seat is already on the ballot this year, the governor is not expected to call a special election to choose someone to serve out the final months on his current Senate term, which ends in January.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Thank you for your interest in the legislative process. I look forward to hearing from you on the issues that are important to you this legislative session. If there is anything my office can do for you, please do not hesitate to contact my office at 573-751-3599.