Author: Mike Lear

House Unanimously Supports Banning NDAs in Child Sex Abuse Cases

      The Missouri House has voted to take away one of the tools sexual predators use to protect themselves, and to be able to find and abuse new victims.  House Bill 709, which was sent to the Senate this week, would bar the enforcement of non-disclosure agreements in cases of child sexual abuse. 

Representative Brian Seitz (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Such legal contracts sometimes come into play in abuse cases, particularly when parents or guardians accept a settlement with an abuser.  These contracts have left victims unable to talk about what they experienced, and their abusers have been enabled to change locations or jobs without anyone knowing what they had done, allowing them to continue their transgressions in new places and against new victims.

      “It’s an injustice and a wrong that we can make right, now,” Representative Brian Seitz (R-Branson) told his colleagues. 

      Seitz is the sponsor of HB 709, the latest version of a proposal he has offered for several years now.  He urged his colleagues to again advance it after other forms of the measure have already received broadly supportive votes across multiple legislative sessions. 

      In this latest bid, Seitz told his fellow legislators, “Through no fault of their own, children and/or the medically disabled who may have been abused in the past are being abused again by the misuse of NDAs in civil settlement agreements.”

“These are legal mechanisms that were created to protect trade secrets, not trauma secrets.  Again I state:  NDAs are wholly appropriate if you’re dealing with manufacturing trade secrets, but they can kill trauma victims,” said Seitz, referring to the fact that some victims have chosen to end their own lives, after an inability to speak out multiplied their anguish.

      Other House members offered strong support.  Columbia Representative David Tyson Smith (D), an attorney for two decades, said to silence a child is one of the worst things a person can do, especially when they have been abused and are too young to make for themselves the decision to agree not to speak about it.

“Non-disclosure agreements, when you deal with children, are basically unethical.  It silences them.  They need the ability to tell their story to heal, and often times when families have their children sign them or they sign them, these predators are allowed to continue operating around the state and nobody can talk about it, so this is a way to stop those Predators from continuing to abuse people and it allows the victims to heal and to tell their stories,” Smith said.

      Representative Rudy Veit (R-Wardsville), another practicing lawyer, told his fellows he has dealt with abuse survivors and seen firsthand the courage it takes for them to acknowledge what they have experienced, even to themselves. 

Representative David Tyson Smith (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      “[It adds] insult to injury, then, to tell them when the case is settled that they have to keep a secret and they live the rest of their lives with that secret, while the pedophiles continue to go about their business and start up somewhere else.  More importantly is at that moment, they may agree to [sign] and keep a non-disclosure, but then what happens is the time goes on they start to think, ‘Could I have done more to prevent others [from being abused],’ and so now they’re living the rest of their life with another guilt feeling that they didn’t do more, and just eliminate that process.”

      Representative Raychel Proudie (D-Ferguson), who focuses much of her legislative efforts on protecting children, also stressed the importance of adding this language to Missouri law.

      “Typically, non-disclosure agreements or NDAs are put forth to protect business interests.  No one should be in the business of hurting children,” Proudie said.  “We should not be protecting the business interests or behaviors of perverts and people who hurt children.”

      709 reaches the Senate with only three weeks remaining in the legislative session, but versions of the proposal are moving in several other forms and on several other bills.  Seitz expressed optimism during the debate, noting that in the Senate as in the House, the bill has received “total, bipartisan support.”

      “I’m advocating for these victims to be able to at least have their voices heard after their innocence has been taken through the criminal actions of others.  This legislation will help them heal, to share their stories, and attempt to come to terms with what happened to them as children,” Seitz said. 

“While 709 cannot fix the horrific events leading up to signing an NDA, it can prevent the silencing of child crime victims in the future and would certainly make Missouri safer for all.”

      HB 709 was advanced to the Senate 148-0.

House Votes to Stem Penalties when Tax Credits Meet Caps

      Many Missourians are already not a fan of tax filing day, which came this week.  As Representative Becky Laubinger (R-Park Hills) explains, some of them have been surprised with additional reasons to be aggravated, in past years.

Representative Becky Laubinger (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

“How much worse would it be if, after you file your taxes, feeling like you’ve paid it in full, and then you get hit with a penalty and interest?  My bill deals with that penalty and interest for tax credits that the tax filer qualified for in every way.”

      The issue Laubinger’s bill deals with is that when there are enough claims against a state tax credit for it to reach its annual cap, some claimants, even though they met all qualifications, will get a bill from the Department of Revenue for the amount they claimed, plus interest and penalties.  This is in spite of the fact that there is no way for them to know that cap would been reached.

      House Bill 828, “would remove the penalties and interest for someone who qualified for a tax credit but the state hit the cap.  They would still have to pay their taxes in full within 60 days or they would receive penalties and interest,” Laubinger told her colleagues.

      Those bills from the Department of Revenue put some Missourians off claiming tax credits, many of which benefit benevolent organizations such as food banks, children’s crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, and other charities that serve those most at need in their communities.

      “It discourages neighbors helping neighbors, it discourages people from giving to their local organizations, and often even gives a bad reputation in the community for those help organizations,” said Laubinger. 

      Arnold representative Phil Amato (R) for many years was the president of his local food pantry.  He has sponsored similar legislation, having experienced firsthand what happens when these bills are sent out.

“Sometimes it takes you two to three years to talk somebody that has the wherewithal to write a check, and you tell them that it’s a 50 percent tax credit, that they’re going to get half their money back, and then they get a letter from the Department of Revenue that some of their donation has been disqualified, and then adding insult to injury is they’re charging them penalty and interest,” Amato explained.  “Then the person is really upset because you’ve convinced them, ‘It’ll make you feel good to write this check to the local food pantry and help people that are hungry.’”

      Laubinger’s bill enjoys broad bipartisan support, with no votes being cast against it as went through two House committees and was advanced to the Senate, 151-0.

Representative Del Taylor (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Representative Del Taylor (D-St. Louis), the top Democrat on the House’s Ways and Means committee, through which the legislation was passed, urged those in his party to support the proposal.

      “Fundamentally, if you made charitable donations and that donation’s tax credits were oversubscribed, you don’t necessarily get the full discount on your taxes, and what the lady is doing here is saying, ‘You didn’t get the full discount on your taxes, but you shouldn’t also be subject to penalties and interest.”

      Amato said he would like to know whether the state is even making back the money that it spends on collecting these taxes and penalties.

      “The Department of Revenue has to figure out they’ve exceeded the cap, then somebody has to sit down and write the letter.  I bet you we’d be shocked at how much that letter costs, leaving the Department of Revenue and getting it to its end result, and then if it’s somebody who’s never got one before, then there’s letters going back and forth, then the person’s making a phone call to the Department of Revenue.”

      “This thing is an expensive bookkeeping error for the Department of Revenue to do, so we need to get this thing wiped out,” Amato said.

Representative Kemp Strickler (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      It’s now up to the state’s Senate to consider Laubinger’s proposal, but the House will have another chance to act.  The Senate version of her bill is awaiting action in a House committee.

      Either way, Representative Kemp Strickler (D-Lee’s Summit) is one of the many who hopes it will reach the desk of Governor Mike Kehoe (R).

      “This is such a good bill.  We should not be penalizing folks who are doing their best to give to charitable groups and then, because the cap has been hit because people like it so much, we should not be charging interest and penalties on this.”

Other provisions in the bill would add to the income tax deduction for the sale or lease of farmland to beginning farmers a definition of “taxpayer;” and would stipulate that filing day for Missouri taxes must always coincide with the federal tax filing day.