Bills and Committees

Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee:

Last week, committee hearings continued, and the Senate Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee heard three bills.

Senate Bill 22 modifies parole eligibility. Current law states that individuals younger than 18 sentenced to 15 years or more are eligible for parole after serving 15 years, unless that person was found guilty of murder in the first degree. This legislation states that individuals under the age of 18 who are found guilty of murder in the second degree will also be ineligible for parole.

Senate Bill 72 establishes the “Judicial Privacy Act,” which would prohibit any government agency, person or business from disclosing the personal information of a judicial officer. This legislation is similar to a federal law that protects federal judges and would extend that same protection to state judges.

Senate Bill 117 changes the time period for which personal injury actions may be brought from within five years from the time the injury occurred to within two years from the time the injury occurred. This legislation also states that private contractors when acting within the scope of a government contract will have the same sovereign or governmental tort immunity as a public entity.

Other News

House committee endorses modifying the initiative process

On straight party-line votes, the House Elections and Elected Officials Committee on Jan. 26 voted to advance four proposed constitutional amendments that seek to make the initiative petition process to amend the Missouri Constitution more difficult.

The initiative petition process empowers Missourians to propose and enact legislation independently of the legislature. In recent years, it successfully has been used to enact several issues the General Assembly did not enact, including Medicaid expansion, legislative ethics reform and legalizing the use of medical and adult recreational marijuana.

While some measures would raise the minimum number of signatures required for an initiative to qualify for the ballot, most would impose some kind of supermajority requirement for ratifying constitutional amendments, thus allowing a minority of voters to thwart the will of the majority.

The more straightforward of the proposals would require a two-thirds supermajority of votes cast for ratification. One requires the support of both a simple majority of the statewide vote and majority approval in at least 82 of Missouri’s 163 House Districts to effectively create a rural veto. Two proposals would require amendments to receive support from a simple majority of registered voters, rather than of votes cast, which would set a high ratification threshold.

Most of the supermajority requirements would apply only to amendments proposed by the initiative process, while those the legislature put on the ballot could still pass with a simple majority of votes cast. Any of the measures that clear the legislature automatically would go on the November 2024 ballot for voter ratification using the existing simple-majority threshold.

Bills targeting transgender children and drag shows receive hearing

During a 10-hour hearing that stretched into the early morning hours of Jan. 25, the House General Laws Committee considered six bills tightly restricting medical care for transgender children and limiting their participation in youth sports, along with two bills to criminalize drag performances.

Three of the bills seek to ban transgender children from participating in girls’ sports, while another three would prohibit transgender children from receiving gender-affirming medical care. While the bill’s sponsors said the legislation is necessary to protect children, opponents said the legislation would interfere with the ability of transgender children to live their lives as who they are, potentially jeopardizing both their physical and mental well-being. The remaining two bills would make it a crime for someone to perform in front of children dressed as a member of the opposite sex.

The committee took no immediate action on any of the bills.

Senate committee considers eliminating corporate income tax

On Jan. 24, the Senate Economic Development and Tax Policy Committee heard legislation to completely eliminate the state’s corporate income tax. Missouri first enacted its corporate income tax, along with the state’s individual income tax, in 1917. The corporate rate topped out at 6.25% in 1993 and remained at that level until a series of reductions over the last decade dropped it to the current rate of 4%. Starting in 2024, Senate Bill 93 would reduce the corporate rate by one percentage point each year until the tax is completely eliminated in 2027.

The committee also considered a proposed constitutional amendment, Senate Joint Resolution 3, to authorize the Legislature to levy sales taxes on digital services, licenses and subscriptions. Such taxes may currently be prohibited under an earlier constitutional amendment Missouri voters ratified in 2016 with 57% support, so this legislation seeks to clear up that language. The committee took no immediate action on either SJR 3 or SB 93.

Committee advances bills banning the teaching of CRT

The Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee on Jan. 24 approved Senate Bills 4, 42 and 89, which would require schools to teach “the principles of American civics and patriotism,” while banning K-12 schools from teaching “critical race theory,” a concept taught in some law schools that examines racism’s impact on institutions.

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.