The state House has worked to answer Governor Eric Greitens’ (R) call to an extraordinary session on one of the two issues he set before it, but not the other.
Representative Jay Barnes (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
It sent to the Senate on Wednesday a bill that would let the Public Service Commission (PSC) consider lower rates for new facilities that use more than 50 megawatts of electricity per month. It was prompted by two companies – one looking to restart an aluminum smelter near Marston; the other saying it will build a new steel mill at New Madrid. Both are in Southeast Missouri where lawmakers agreed jobs are needed badly.
The House did not include language that would give utilities more leeway to set new rates ahead of new infrastructure investments. That was part of Greitens’ call, but the issue is considered controversial and lawmakers in the House thought including it would keep the rest of the legislation from passing in the Senate.
Some lawmakers, however, said the issue is one that needs to be discussed.
Barnes said the language that was originally in House Bill 1 was too broad, and instead supports legislation that would allow the PSC to consider increasing rates ahead of improvements to power grids and other infrastructure in order to pay for those improvements.
Richardson said the House in this week’s special session was focused on passing the other issue called for by the governor so those two companies would not pull out of plans to come to Missouri. Barnes noted grid modernization legislation in the past has been “stymied” in the Senate.
State lawmakers will return to Jefferson City next week for a special legislative session. Governor Eric Greitens (R) is calling them back to address an economic development issue in Southeast Missouri.
Representative Don Rone (at microphone) (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The legislature did not pass in its session that ended last week language that backers say could allow one company to proceed with plans to reopen the Noranda aluminum smelter at Marston; and another company to build a new steel mill at New Madrid, both in Southeast Missouri.
Both companies hope for lower utility rates that would allow those facilities to be profitable. To consider lower rates the Public Service Commission (PSC) says it needs the legislature’s approval.
Representative Don Rone (R-Portageville) attached that language to several bills in the final days of the session, but it did not become law. He said people in that region are in desperate need of jobs, especially after Noranda closed last year eliminating nearly 900 jobs. He said these two projects could create more than 500 new jobs.
Greitens wants legislators to come back and focus on that one issue.
The House voted for Rone’s language 148-2, and its support in that chamber is expected to remain high, but at least one senator who Rone said blocked it in that chamber – Senator Doug Libla (R-Poplar Bluff) – remains opposed to the proposal.
Rone said he believes the bill can get through both chambers and to Greitens.
Rone said the entities behind the two facilities are expected to decide soon whether to give up on progressing with their plans for those two sites. He said if the legislature can quickly pass his bill he is confident those companies will postpone their decisions until they can meet with the PSC.
The call for the special session comes one week after Rone called attention to the issue in a passionate floor speech in which he called out Libla and two other senators, saying they were, “heartless,” “selfish,” and “egotistical,” in rebuffing his proposal.
The House and Senate will begin the extraordinary session at 4 p.m. Monday.
Missouri legislative Republicans’ labor reform agenda took another step Thursday with the final passage of a bill barring project labor agreements (PLAs) for public projects.
Representative Rob Vescovo began proposing a ban on project labor agreements for public projects when he was first elected to the House for the 2015 session. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The House voted to send Senate Bill 182 to Governor Eric Greitens (R), who had called for the elimination of PLAs.
Under a PLA, a governing body requires non-union contractors to pay union dues to workers on a project. SB 182 would prohibit that, and would bar local governments from giving preferential treatment to union contractors. Governing bodies that violate the bill’s provisions would lose state funding and tax credits for two years.
Republicans said PLAs are unfair to non-union workers and contractors. Arnold representative Rob Vescovo (R) said PLAs discriminate against the largest segment of Missouri’s workforce.
Representative Bob Burns said project labor agreements are good tools for local governments, which the legislature should not move to take away. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Democrats called the legislation an attack on unions. Representative Bob Burns (D-St. Louis) said PLAs protect local governments by ensuring that they will have work done that is quality and completed on time by skilled workers. He said his time on a board of education in Affton provided evidence of that.
SB 182 was carried in the House by Vescovo, who began introducing such legislation as a freshman in 2015. It is expected Greitens will sign the bill into law.
The House’s passage of SB 182 follows other labor reforms it has proposed, including the passage of a right-to-work bill signed into law by Greitens earlier this year. That legislation prevents the collection of union dues or fees from workers as a condition of employment.
Legislators often say it is the one thing the General Assembly must do even if it does nothing else: pass a balanced state budget. This week the state House will take the latest step toward that end, when its members debate a budget proposal to be sent to the Senate for its consideration.
The Missouri House Budget Committee worked Tuesday to finalize the proposal it would send to the full chamber for debate that will happen this week. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Representative Scott Fitzpatrick’s (R-Shell Knob) top priority when he was named House Budget Committee Chairman was to fully fund the formula for K-12 school funding. This budget plan would do that.
The bills would also not appropriate all of the money projected to be available, so that some will be left for expenses that are unforeseen or are greater than projected. In recent years, the legislature and governor had to take care of such expenses in a mid-fiscal year, or supplemental, budget.
The budget proposal would also maintain at their current level in-home Medicaid services to seniors and people with disabilities, assuming that a House bill to end a tax break for low-income seniors and disabled becomes law. The money that bill would make available would go to the in-home care program.
House Democrats don’t like basing the support of the in-home care program on eliminating that tax break. The lead Democrat on the House Budget Committee, Michael Butler, said his party came up with other options, and one of those would be to dip into that money set in reserve.
Representative Deb Lavender (right) proposed taking $6.85-million from a fund in the Attorney General’s office and giving it to the state’s public defenders. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Democrats also want to preserve a change made to the budget proposal last week, when one of its members proposed shifting $6.85-million from the Attorney General’s Office to the state’s Public Defender System. The Attorney General’s Office didn’t have representative in the hearing, and the budget committee approved the change.
Butler said another priority for his party is to make sure Lincoln University gets enough money to maintain its land grant status. He said the federal government has said Lincoln must have more matching funds in order to keep that status.
Butler said there is support from both parties for making sure Lincoln University keeps its land grant status.
The budget proposal would also fund a Medicaid asset limit increase, add money to the state’s senior centers, and restore some – but not all – cuts to higher education.
House passage would be just the latest stop for a Fiscal Year 2018 state budget. From the House it would go to the Senate, which will likely propose changes to the House’s plan. Once the two chambers agree on a budget, their proposal will go to Governor Greitens for his action.
The House took another step in drafting a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, when the bills that make up that spending plan were filed.
House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Meanwhile, House appropriations committees continue taking testimony from state agencies and elected officials about how much they want or hope to receive in state money if Fiscal Year ’18.
He said lawmakers are looking at renegotiating managed care contracts to reschedule some expenses as the state switches to managed care in FY 18, and examining the funding request from the state employee retirement system to make sure it isn’t unnecessarily great.
Governor Eric Greitens (R) last week recommended changes to his own budget proposal that would see greater spending on public school transportation and on in-home services for low-income residents with disabilities.
Fitzpatrick said the problem is Greitens proposes funding those restorations with money from Missouri’s settlement with tobacco companies. Greitens based his latest proposal on a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that would let Missouri get $52-million in settlement money.
The appropriations committees will begin this week preparing their recommendations for spending in the areas they respectively deal with. In two weeks the main budget committee will prepare its spending proposal with Fitzpatrick’s input, creating a spending plan that will be debated by the full House.
Recent news articles have questioned whether the legislature, in this tight budget year, will fund Missouri’s new voter photo ID law, approved by voters in November. Fitzpatrick said it would be supported.
The bills Fitzpatrick filed last week don’t represent his budget recommendation, but that of Governor Greitens. He said he took that action with a mind for history.
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 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.”
The Missouri House Budget Committee was given a wake-up call in its first hearing. First-year chairman Scott Fitzpatrick (R-Shell Knob) explained to its members the challenges they will face in crafting the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Fitzpatrick has said that budget could need to be trimmed by $500-million. Former Governor Jay Nixon (D) already restricted $201-million from the current budget, and Governor Eric Greitens (R) is expected to make further restrictions in it. Fitzpatrick said the items for which funding in the current budget is blocked likely won’t be appropriated in the Fiscal Year 2018 plan.
Fitzpatrick said some are describing the current budget situation as the worst since 1981.
In explaining how the state got here, Fitzpatrick said it began with a June marked by a drop in state revenue collections coupled with increased tax refunds to Missourians.
Fitzpatrick said that is combined with continuing growth in Medicaid and costs in the Department of Corrections, including a growing likelihood that Missouri will need a new prison. He said those and other factors lead him to believe Missouri’s problem is with growing expenses more than it is with a lack of revenue.
The message, then, to members of the legislature – especially those on the budget committee – has been that there will be very little if any new spending in the Fiscal Year ’18 budget.
Another challenge is that the legislature will be starting the budget process differently than it has in recent years, in large part because Governor Greitens will not deliver his proposed spending plan as part of his State of the State Address next week. Unlike recent history, when governors have delivered their budget proposals with that address, Greitens’ plan will be released closer to February 1.
Fitzpatrick believes the fact that Greitens is building his administration from scratch combined with the gravity and complexity of the budget situation is behind the delay.
House and Senate budget makers base their proposed spending plans on that of the governor. Fitzpatrick said the delay could cause the House to change how it does some things, but he remains confident the legislature will pass a balanced budget by the Constitutional deadline of May 5.
