The Missouri Legislature convened this week for the 2014 session. As is usual for the first week, most of the activities centered on housekeeping duties such as exchanging resolutions with the House of Representatives noting that we have convened, filing bills, and assigning prefiled bills to committees.

I filed two bills this week that will be beneficial to our area. One would remove the sales tax on automobiles that are more than 10 years old, and the other creates a mechanism for counties that have voted in favor of having a full time prosecutor to go back to part time if they need to do so.

As the economy continues to improve but remains sluggish, many people simply do not have the option of purchasing a new vehicle. Sales of used automobiles are at record high levels and look to remain there for some time. By the time a vehicle is 10 years old, sales tax has most likely been paid on several times. For the state to continue to collect sales tax on the same vehicle over and over is a disservice to the consumer. By exempting these vehicles more people will be able to purchase the automobile they need to get to a job, get their kids to school, and raise their overall quality of life.

In many of our rural counties, citizens have the opportunity to decide whether they wanted their local prosecuting attorney to operate in a full time capacity. Some counties voted in favor of going this direction. There is no provision contained in current law that would allow for a county to vote to return to a part time prosecutor.

Because of statutes tying prosecutors’ salaries to those of state judges, and the salaries of state judges being tied to federal judges, several rural counties are looking at being obligated to pay their local prosecutor an annual salary well in excess of $130,000. While in larger counties and cities this may not seem unreasonable, in rural counties where the average income is in the teens, their budget simply cannot sustain this type of increase. Also, it doesn’t seem right that although county prosecutors are considered county employees, the state is mandating what they should be paid.  My legislation will allow counties to put the question of whether they want a full or part-time prosecutor due to budget constraints to a vote if needed.

Once the governor gives his annual State of the State Address, work on the state budget will begin in earnest. Revenue growth has been solid if not spectacular, so there will be substantial debate on where best to invest the new money. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee I am looking forward to beginning these discussions.