House Republicans have advanced another piece of their labor reform agenda, sending to the Senate legislation they call “paycheck protection.” Democrats decry the bill as an attack on unions, calling it “paycheck deception.”
Representative Jered Taylor (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
House Bill 251 would bar the automatic deduction of union dues and fees from a public employee’s paycheck without that employee’s annual, written consent. It also specifies that information on how such deductions are used must be available to employees.
St. Louis Democrat Doug Beck said the bill is an attempt to take away the voice of middle class workers.
The legislation was sent to the Senate on a 95-60 vote.
House Speaker Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) said his supermajority will continue working on labor reform legislation that Republicans believe will improve Missouri’s business climate and bring more jobs to the state. The next such issue the House will debate will be project labor agreements.
The “primary focus” for the incoming Director of the Department of Corrections is dealing with reports of harassment and retaliation within the department. That’s what Ann Precythe said after talking to a House subcommittee created to review those reports.
Missouri’s Department of Corrections Director-designee Ann Precythe talks to the House Subcommittee on Corrections Workforce Environment and Conduct. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
A news article citing court documents said some Corrections employees had been the victims of harassment by other employees. Some were retaliated against after reporting incidents, and some cases led to lawsuits that have resulted in millions of dollars of legal settlements by the state, with more pending.
Precythe spoke to the House Subcommittee on Corrections Workforce Environment and Conduct about her plans for the department. After her presentation she told reporters there is a “phenomenal framework” in place for dealing with custody and control and prison operations.
Precythe previously served as the Director of Community Corrections in North Carolina before being appointed in Missouri by Governor Eric Greitens (R). She told the committee North Carolina’s corrections system had a “zero tolerance” policy regarding harassment.
Precythe said she is still gathering information about what has happened in the department. She told the committee, “I don’t have the answers for certainty about what’s not working or why, but I do know what can work and how to implement it.”
She said that means focusing on holding staff accountable, training and education, and making sure staff understands what professionalism in the workplace looks like.
Missouri’s entry-level corrections officers are the lowest paid in the nation. Some have asked whether that could contribute to harassment issues, by lessening morale and making the keeping of the best employees more difficult.
Representative Jim Hansen chairs the House Subcommittee on Corrections Workforce Environment and Conduct. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The subcommittee’s chairman, Representative Jim Hansen (R-Frankford), said he was pleased with Precythe’s plans for a zero tolerance policy, and to focus on employee promotion and morale.
The state House is again considering a bill that would require certain employers to display posters with information about human trafficking.
Representative Cloria Brown presents House Bill 261 that would require the creation and placement of posters offering help to human trafficking victims. In front of her are examples of posters from some of the 28 other states that have passed a similar law. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
House Bill 261 is based on one of the recommendations made by the House Task Force on Human Trafficking. It’s sponsored by St. Louis Representative Cloria Brown (R).
28 other states have similar laws, and Brown developed her bill based on those.
The bill would require the Department of Public Safety to create the posters, and requires that it be displayed by hotels, motels, establishments “cited as a public nuisance for prostitution,” strip clubs or other “sexually oriented businesses,” airports, trains stations that serve passengers, emergency rooms, urgent care centers, women’s health centers, businesses that offer massages, bus stations, and privately owned facilities that offer food, fuel, showers, and overnight parking, such as truck stops.
The posters would have to be placed in or near the bathrooms or entraces of those businesses beginning March 1, 2018.
The signs must also be placed in businesses that offer “body work,” such as tattoo parlors. Ellen Alper with the National Council of Jewish Women in St. Louis said that is because victims are often forced to get tattoos.
The same proposal was part of a bill passed last year by the House that never came to a vote in the Senate. HB 261 was presented last week to the House Committee on Crime Prevention and Public Safety, which has not voted on it.
Governor Eric Greietens (R) has released his $27.6-billion proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2018. It has gone to the House of Representatives, which will now prepare its own spending plan starting with Greitens’.
Representative Scott Fitzpatrick became the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in the summer of 2016. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick (R) said he anticipated the governor would make significant cuts in spending, primarily to make room for growth in Medicaid and to deal with a drop in revenue.
Greitens did just that, proposing reductions including $159-million in state aid to the state’s colleges and universities, $52-million in aid for in-home care and nursing home care, and $31-million to K-12 schools’ transportation.
Fitzpatrick said he agrees, generally, with the governor’s budget approach, but will look to make some changes.
As for the governor’s proposed reductions to higher education, Fitzpatrick said those could have gone much deeper if the governor hadn’t spread reductions out across the budget as he did. He believes the governor still recommended, “a pretty sizable amount of money,” for those institutions.
Fitzpatrick said the legislature will look for places it can save some money that could be applied to other needs and priorities.
One would be the facilities maintenance reserve fund. The legislature is required under the Constitution to pump money into that to pay for maintenance and repair of state buildings.
He said House budget planners will also look closely at the state’s retirement plan, the Missouri State Employee’s Retirement System. MOSERS had requested an increase in the state contribution rate to the pension system. The legislature will consider whether that is necessary.
Fitzpatrick still wants to spend some time on two of his personal budget priorities. He told House Communications after he was named budget chair that he wants to fully fund the K-12 foundation formula, increase pay for state employees, and accelerate repayment of the state’s debt on bonds. He doesn’t expect, now, to address the latter of the three, but will give the other two consideration.
Fitzpatrick said it seems unlikely the House will find a way to pay for a proposed increase in pay for state employees, but said he would not take the issue, “off the table yet.”
He said he is pleased that Governor Greitens’ proposal would leave some money available for expenses that come up during the fiscal year and are often paid for in what is called a, “supplemental budget.”
House appropriations committees have already been holding hearings and continue to do so. Fitzpatrick said he will soon meet with each of those committees’ chairpersons to see what their recommendations are.
He is confident the delay in receiving Governor Greitens’ budget proposal, compared to when the legislature received a governor’s proposal in recent years, will not keep the legislature from preparing its budget proposal by the May 5 deadline.
The House is considering a bill meant to stop illegal herbicide use that in 2016 cost 150 or more farmers part of their crops.
Representative Don Rone (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Kevin Bradley with the University of Missouri told the House Committee on Agriculture Policy those farmers lost an average of 35-percent of their crops, when neighboring farmers used an outdated dicamba product. Wind and temperature changes caused that product to spread onto nearby fields. Because the product was drifting onto fields not planted with seeds resistant to it, those crops were damaged.
Bradley said some farmers did not want to answer its questions, so more than 150 might have been impacted.
Portageville Republican Don Rone has sponsored House Bill 662, which would fine a farmer a civil penalty of $1,000 for every acre on which a product is spread illegally. The current fine is a flat $1,000, which Rone says is not enough.
That per-acre fine would be doubled for farmers who repeatedly violate the new law. The money collected in fines would go to the local school district.
The bill would also give the Department of Agriculture additional powers to investigate claims of illegal uses. Farmers penalized for illegal use would be liable to the Department for its expenses and for personal property affected.
It would also require the makers of dicamba or other volatile compounds to train those using them, and require those wishing to use them to complete that training before they can buy it.
Farmers who sustain losses would not receive compensation under the bill, and would still have to seek it by taking those responsible to court.
Rone’s bill includes an emergency clause, which would make it effective immediately upon being signed by the governor. He said without that, the law would take effect in August; that’s too late to impact the 2017 planting season.
He wants to see it become law before legislators go on their spring break next month.
HB 662 has the support of the Missouri Soybean Association, the Missouri Corn Growers Association, and the Missouri Farm Bureau. No one testified against it in the hearing.
The committee is anticipated to vote on Rone’s bill on Tuesday.
The Missouri House has sent Governor Eric Greitens a bill that would make Missouri the 28th right-to-work state.
Representative Holly Rehder also sponsored the House’s version of a right-to-work bill, HB 91, which was sent to the Senate in January. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Senate Bill 19 would bar union membership or the paying of union dues from being a condition of employment. It would make violators of that prohibition guilty of a Class “C” misdemeanor and would require county prosecutors and the state Attorney General to investigate complaints or violations.
It also includes a “grandfather” clause, which would allow existing contracts between unions and companies to remain in place until they are changed or expire.
The House voted 100-59 to send the bill to the governor, who, it is anticipated, will sign it into law.
Republicans say right-to-work is an issue of worker freedom that will allow workers to decide how their money is used and who will represent them. They say some companies have not come to Missouri because it is not a right-to-work state, and say the bill’s passage will lead to more jobs and perhaps an increase in union membership.
Sikeston Republican Holly Rehder carried SB 19 in the House. She said it felt great and humbling to be carrying the bill that appears set to finally make law a long-time Republican priority.
Democrats, as they did when the House debated its right-to-work bill (HB 91), proposed sending the issue to Missouri voters rather than the governor. That was rejected on a Republican-led vote. Democrats said the issue is one that should be decided by the people. Republicans said they proposed sending right-to-work to voters two years ago and Democrats opposed it then, and accused Democrats of favoring a vote now only because the governor is unlikely to veto the bill.
Proposals were also rejected that would have put a sunset on the bill, making it no longer law after five years unless renewed by the legislature; and that would have made it not apply to existing union-company contracts until their renewal, as opposed to when they are changed.
House lawmakers continue to lay out a slate of proposed ethics reforms they believe would help restore the public’s trust in Missouri’s elected officials.
Representative Kip Kendrick (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Columbia Democrat Kip Kendrick presented to the House Committee on General Laws, House Bill 217, an omnibus bill encompassing a series of measures offered by other members of his caucus. He said each proposed reform is based on promises made by candidates during the recent campaign cycle – promises that he says were endorsed by voters based on which candidates made those promises and won.
Two key provisions would build on work already done by the House toward ethics reform that House Democrats say they want to take farther than earlier proposals. One aims to ban gifts and monetary donations from lobbyists to elected officials.
Kirkwood Democrat Deb Lavender is carrying the Democrats’ version of a proposed gift ban, House Bill 212. She told lawmakers her bill would be tougher than House Bill 60, passed two weeks ago by the House.
Kirkwood Democrat Deb Lavender is carrying the Democrats’ version of a proposed gift ban, House Bill 212. She told lawmakers under House Bill 60, passed two weeks ago by the House, organizations could exploit a provision that lets them provide meals for legislators at events as long as all members of the General Assembly and all state lawmakers are invited.
The other provision proposes extending the prohibition on elected or appointed officials or legislators becoming lobbyists from six months to five years after their term has ended, and would apply that to certain legislative staff. It is also found in House Bill 213, sponsored by Representative Joe Adams (D-University City).
Other provisions in HB 217 propose prohibiting any candidates’ committees from transferring their funds to their candidate’s family members; requiring former candidates to dissolve their candidate committees; and letting the Missouri Ethics Commission prosecute criminal cases and initiate civil cases if the state Attorney General declines to pursue either regarding an alleged ethics violation. Those provisions are found in House Bill 214 (Tracy McCreery), House Bill 215 (Mark Ellebracht), House Bill 216 (Crystal Quade), respectively.
Representative Shamed Dogan (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Republicans have their own proposals to further reform Missouri ethics laws. Ballwin Representative Shamed Dogan wants to ban gifts from lobbyists to local government officials.
Dogan said such officials are held to a much lower standard than legislators.
Republican Tom Hurst (Meta) presented House Bill 150, which would exempt individuals not paid to lobby from having to register or report as a lobbyist.
Hurst said he wants members of the public to know that they can talk to elected officials about issues that concern them without having to file as a lobbyist, and without fear of being prosecuted for failing to file.
The committee has not voted on any of those bills.
House Speaker Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) and other legislative leaders have said ethics reforms would continue to be a priority in the 2017 session.
State House members are doing groundwork on the Fiscal Year 2018 budget, ahead of the release by Governor Eric Greitens of his proposed spending plan. Mike Lear sat down with the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, Michael Butler (St. Louis), to talk about his thoughts in facing what lawmakers say will be a difficult budget year.
Representative Michael Butler is the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
ML: Let’s talk about the causes in a moment because I do want to get to that, but let’s start with where we are in the budget, and I think everybody agrees that there is a hole, that there is a – I don’t know if I’ve heard the word “crisis” yet – but it’s certainly a dire budget year. How do you deal with the situation that we’re in this year?
MB: “I think it’s first important to note how we got here. How we got to this budget hole and what I could call a budget ‘crisis’ is we are currently about $450-million dollars that we have to cut out of the budget for this year, and that is not because of the past governor and the past administration. It’s because of the legislature who controls the budget process. We’ve been hearing that the past administration is to blame but we have to include Republican majorities in both the House and Senate that actually create the budget.
“They have cut revenue for years and revenue is down. Expenses are barely up – are generally up for how they normally are, but because we aren’t taking in as much revenue because of plenty of tax cuts for the rich, and for businesses, and for specific special interests, are the reason why we don’t have enough money to provide services to people.
“We want to be a part of the solution. We’re going to help, but we’re in the minority. We didn’t cause the problem. We’ve spoken against the problem in many cases, and we can’t take the blame for something we did not do.”
ML: Since we’re talking about cause, we are going to hear a lot about Medicaid and the need to reform Medicaid, and that a lot of the costs [to the budget] are driven by Medicaid. What is the answer there? Is it a question of Medicaid reform?
MB: “Well, with a brand new governor who is just learning the budget and is late on giving us his idea of the budget – much later than any other governor in recent history – we have to remind him and other folks around the state how we got here. Part of how we got here, especially with Medicaid; when many members of the majority, the Republican party and the governor says that Medicaid spending is out of control, they made it out of control. They have cut Medicaid spending so much that it creates a system for poor people, Medicaid recipients, that can’t get to good care. They can’t get to their primary care doctors, which cost the system much less.
“In fact when primary care doctors have a choice to decide whether to take these patients, Medicaid patients, when they decide not to those folks are forced to take emergency room care which is much, much, much more expensive. And as we cut more – if we just say we’re going to cut more – we’re going to create more of that system. We’re going to create where folks either can’t get care, or can’t get care that the state can afford, and in the end folks are going to suffer, and many of the folks in poor rural areas that they represent.
“On the Democratic side we’re going to be sure we’re continuing to take care of people, putting people first and not special interests, and put people first, not just numbers on a budget. We believe that we should continue to make sure that folks can get good care and they can take care of their children as well, as Medicaid recipients.”
ML: We have a new administration in Washington D.C. Is now the time to pursue Medicaid expansion if this state is going to do it, when we could be seeing changes or a repeal of Obamacare?
MB: “Now is the time. The time was three years ago when the federal government was going to reimburse us at 100-percent. Now is still the time because we believe that President Obama, and the facts show that President Obama had it right.
“In states where Medicaid was expanded Obamacare premium healthcare costs have decreased. We’ve seen premium healthcare costs once again decrease in states that expanded Medicaid. We’ve heard the governor and the new federal administration, new president, say that healthcare premiums are increasing, but they’re only increasing in states that didn’t expand Medicaid.
“So, we’re going to talk a little bit more about expansion of Medicaid and we know that we have facts on our side, and we have statistics on our side that show that if we expand Medicaid not only will poor folks and working class folks benefit, so will people that have premium healthcare.”
ML: What is the path forward, then, on this budget year, when we do get the budget from Governor Greitens and start to go through that … as you said $450-million I think is the figure that’s going to have to come out of it. How do you approach this?
MB: “We can’t raise taxes. We can’t take more from Missourians. What we can do are find ways as we will continue to do where government can work better, where we can use more technology. We are unfortunately going to have to make tough cuts to services that may be a benefit to a small amount of people or a benefit to a small amount of special interests. Unfortunately that may be just an extra service that government has done.
“As Democrats we’re not trying to raise taxes. We don’t have the power to. But we want to make sure we’re finding waste, fraud, and abuse, and we’re finding if there’s money that we’re not using in the state budget, that we’re being good stewards of the people’s money.”
ML: Do you think there are a lot of places in the budget like that?
MB: “I think there are very few. Democrats have been working very hard over the years to fix those things in the budget already and we’ve been successful, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
A state House committee has advanced the Senate’s version of right-to-work legislation.
Senator Dan Brown is the sponsor of SB 19, a right-to-work bill now making its way through the Missouri House. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Senate Bill 19 is largely similar to House Bill 91, the right to work bill passed by the House earlier this month. The major difference between the bill sponsored by Rolla Republican Senator Dan Brown and HB 91 is that it includes a grandfather clause. That will allow contracts between employers and unions that exist at the time it becomes law to remain in place until they expire or are altered.
Republicans supporting SB 19 say right-to-work would give workers more freedom in being able to choose whether to be members of a union. Lake Ozark Republican Rocky Miller said he wants more union jobs in Missouri, and he believes right-to-work will increase union membership.
Democrats note a recent article that said Missouri union membership has increased to 9.7-percent.
Representative Doug Beck (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications
Democrats say right-to-work is an attack on unions that would drive down wages in Missouri. Representative Rory Rowland (D-Independence) suggested that right-to-work should not be a priority compared to other issues Missouri is facing.
SB 19 was passed out of the House Committee on Economic Development 7-2. It next goes to the House Rules Committee before reaching the House floor. If it is passed by the House with no changes, it would go on to Governor Eric Greitens, who has said he supports right-to-work.
The bill will be carried in the House by Sikeston Republican Holly Rehder, who sponsored HB 91.
A bill has been filed that aims to keep guns out of the hands of those with a history of domestic violence.
Representative Donna Lichtenegger (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Missourians found guilty of a domestic violence misdemeanor or who were the subject of an order of protection were denied concealed carry permits until the legislature last year overturned the veto of SB 565. That allowed anyone who can legally carry a gun to carry one concealed even without a permit. Domestic violence advocates said that meant the one protection victims had from their abusers having a gun had been removed.
Cape Girardeau Republican Donna Lichtenegger’s legislation, House Bill 766, would mirror Missouri law to a 1997 federal law. It would expand the crime of unlawful possession of a firearm to include those who have been convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors or who have orders of protection against them.
Colleen Coble is the Chief Executive Officer of the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. Her organization was one of those concerned about what current Missouri gun law might mean for victims. She said HB 766 is the fix that law needs.
Lichtenegger said she felt strongly about filing such a bill because of domestic violence committed by her father when she was a child against her, her mother and her brother.
According to the Highway Patrol, 74-percent of the 30 domestic violence related homicides in Missouri in 2015 involved a firearm. In 2011 it was 74-percent of 54 such homicides. The American Journal of Public Health said when a gun is present in a case of domestic violence, there is a 500-percent greater chance of an intimate partner killing his or her partner.
HB 766 includes prohibitions against gun possession by anyone who is in the United States illegally; has been dishonorably discharged from the military; or has renounced United States citizenship.
