Tag: Peter Merideth

House budget committee votes to continue barring state funding for DUI checkpoints

The House Budget Committee has proposed a state spending plan that would continue to keep state-appropriated funds from going to impaired driving checkpoints.

Representative Kathie Conway (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications – click for larger version)

Last year the House proposed that $20-million made available for grants to law enforcement agencies not be allowed for use in checkpoints.  That proposal became part of the final budget plan for the fiscal year that began July 1, 2017.  Law enforcement agencies can conduct checkpoints but have to find other ways to pay for them.

The idea was controversial but has the backing of House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick (R-Shell Knob), who cited data from the Department of Transportation showing saturation efforts – periods of increased law enforcement patrols on the roads – result in more arrests per dollar.

Representative Kathie Conway (R-St. Charles) remains adamant in her opposition to the prohibition.  She proposed letting $500,000 be used on checkpoints in the Fiscal Year 2019 budget, and argued that checkpoints are effective.

“Checkpoints are not really used to catch drunk drivers and impaired drivers.  They’re mostly to make the public aware of the risk of being caught,” said Conway.  “There’s been ten studies reported in five separate papers that the impact of sobriety checkpoints showed relative decrease in alcohol-related crash fatalities of 9-percent, and that’s just the fatalities.  Two of these studies showed a decrease of 64-percent in one and 28-percent in the other of blood alcohol content above the legal limit.”

Those who supported barring state-appropriated funds from going to checkpoints last year stood by their decision.  Representative Justin Hill (R-Lake St. Louis) said what’s happened in the last year shows it was correct.

“We were pretty confident last year when we spoke about focusing this fund to methods that work and actually remove drunk drivers off the road because after all, that is the goal – to arrest drunk drivers and get them off the road to make our roads safer,” said Hill.  “In the first six months, without using these funds to use checkpoints, we saw an increase of 15-percent statewide in DWI arrests, and you know some may say that’s kind of a long shot to say that’s due to the lack of checkpoints, but I truly believe that sometimes this body has to make tough decisions to force the hand to do what not only is right, but to do what’s effective and efficient.”

Representative Peter Merideth (D-St. Louis) supported the partial opening up of state funds to checkpoints.  He said he believes checkpoints are effective, at least when used in conjunction with other things like saturation efforts.  He also believes checkpoints are fairer.

“What I would point out is that when we rely solely on individual officers pulling over individual vehicles we have significant research and evidence that those stops much more disproportionately impact poor and minority communities, and at the very least a checkpoint is a uniform way to check everybody fairly, regardless of your color, regardless of the type of car you drive,” said Merideth.

Representative Justin Hill (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications – click for larger version)

Many backers of the prohibition on state funds being used for checkpoints say checkpoints are unconstitutional because vehicles are stopped without probable cause.  Yukon Republican Robert Ross said while he supports law enforcement and knows Conway does too, he said the issue is one of due process.

“Checkpoints are a system of being guilty until you can prove yourself innocent.  That’s exactly counterintuitive to the way this country was set up and how we should operate,” said Ross.

The committee rejected Conway’s amendment.  If that decision stands through the completion of a budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2019, the prohibition on state-appropriated funds being used for checkpoints would continue.  Conway said she would continue to try to lift it.

“I’ve stood in crowds of 200 and 300 police officers that were going out to do saturation and/or DUI checkpoints.  They’re very enthusiastic about their programs.  I’ve stood and talked with parents and spouses and children of people that were killed by drunk driving and they’re very supportive of DUI checkpoints; in some places it’s up to a 70-percent approval of the citizens where checkpoints are used,” said Conway.  “For some it simply boils down to a constitutional issue and their minds will not be changed, but I think it’s also – since it has been found constitutional under both Missouri and United States Supreme Courts – that until that changes we have to go with the constitutionality of it, and I must say that public safety is always at the forefront of most things that I do.”

The full House, when lawmakers return from spring break next week, will debate the proposal that was passed out of the chamber’s Budget Committee.  The issue could be debated again then.

House budget committee adopts stiff cuts to DHSS over Bourbon virus data dispute

House Budget Committee leaders have proposed deep cuts to the office of the Department of Health and Senior Services’ director because the Department has not provided data on a recent virus outbreak that left a state employee dead.

Representative Justin Alferman (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House communications – click for larger version)

Committee Vice-Chairman Justin Alferman (R-Hermann) said prior to last week’s budget markup hearing that he would make such cuts if the information was not provided.  The Department continued to stand by its argument that it cannot release the requested data without violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Alferman’s proposal would cut more than $239-thousand in state revenue and another $925-thousand in federal funds from the director’s office.  That represents the salaries of seven attorneys in the director’s office, the director, the assistant director, and the legislative liaison.

“We have very little resources at our disposal in order to put checks in with some of these departments, and one of the checks and balances is the power of the purse, and we are absolutely using it right here to get information for the six million Missourians who live in the state,” said Alferman.

Alferman and House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick (R-Shell Knob) say the information they want – the number of people in Missouri who tested positive for the antibodies to the Bourbon virus, indicating they have had it – would not include specific patient information that would violate HIPAA.

A department spokesperson on Wednesday night told the House Budget Committee two people in Missouri have tested positive for Bourbon virus, but did not offer information on how many have tested positive for the antibodies.  The superintendent of eastern Missouri’s Meramec State Park died last year after contracting the virus from a tick bite.  Alferman said he wants to know whether there is a risk to public health from the tick-borne illness.

“All of the released information up until this point, 40-percent of all cases of the Bourbon virus have happened in Missouri, so for a state parks worker to pass away from this disease, I don’t think it’s an unrealistic expectation for us … we know testing was done.  We want the results of that testing to know … we’re policy makers.  Do we need to make a policy change in the state of Missouri to combat this virus?  We don’t know because we’re not getting any information back from the Department,” said Alferman.

He said the Department’s rationale is that releasing the number of people tested could allow someone to question park employees about whether they were screened and use a process of elimination to identify who was and was not tested – something Alferman called a “ridiculous” interpretation.

Representative Peter Merideth (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications – click for larger version)

Democrats on the budget committee said while they might agree with Alferman about whether the Department should release that data, they don’t agree with cutting the department’s funding.

St. Louis Democrat Peter Merideth said the proposed cut could result in the firing of people in positions which work to enforce laws protecting Missouri’s seniors.

Merideth told a DHSS spokesperson, “I know that [Representative Alferman] has said that he is not trying to be punitive with this but it strikes me as that is all this is.  It is punishing you for something that you did that you shouldn’t have done … Maybe there is a very real complaint here that we should have gotten more information from you on a timely basis, but I don’t see how this cut to your budget actually helps address the problem and it looks to me like all it actually does is hurts the people of our state.”

Other Republicans, however, agreed with Alferman.  Representative Don Rone (R-Portageville) told the DHSS spokesperson that with as long as this issue has been developing, the DHSS’ director should have been in front of the committee and not a spokesperson.  The director was instead in the nation’s capital that night.

“There’s nothing can be, in Washington D.C., any more important than letting the citizens of this state know that if there is a problem … we’ve got a job to do here and that is protect the people of the state of Missouri, and it’s not right that the director is not here, sitting here, taking these questions,” said Rone.

Alferman’s proposed cut was adopted as part of the committee’s budget proposal, which the committee has voted to send to the House floor.  It will be debated there next week when lawmakers return from spring break.

House considers barring public contracts with companies boycotting Israel

The state House’s Speaker is asking his colleagues to bar state and local governments from contracting with any company that is boycotting Israel.

Missouri House Speaker Todd Richardson (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Speaker Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) is sponsoring only one piece of legislation this year:  House Bill 2179.  It would prevent any public entity in Missouri from entering into contracts with such companies.  It’s being called the, “Anti-Discrimination Against Israel Act.”

Richardson told the House Committee on General Laws the bill is a push-back against the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement (BDS movement) against Israel.  Richardson says the U.S., and Missouri in particular, have strong economic ties to Israel.

“I think there is a belief, and I think rightly, that while some people that may sympathize with the BDS movement may do it legitimately and with good intention, but at its core the BDS movement seeks the economic destruction of the State of Israel,” said Richardson.  “I think it’s been the longstanding public policy in the United States, and certainly here in the State of Missouri, that the State of Israel legitimately exists.  It’s existed legitimately and been internationally recognized for more than 70 years and those efforts to seek to destroy it are something that we shouldn’t be supporting.”

St. Louis representative Peter Merideth (D) asked whether the bill sets a precedent for the state to take a position or action against those who participate in protests.

“There was talk of some conservative folks across the country wanting to boycott the NFL because of some protests in the NFL and there were businesses saying we’re not going to advertise on NFL games now.  So if that had spread and grown and all of a sudden business across our state are going, ‘We’re going to protest the NFL by boycotting advertisements on the NFL,’ and we said, ‘Well you know what, we benefit economically from the NFL.’  Are we then entitled to, as a state, say as our policy because we economically benefit from the NFL we can tell those businesses they’re not allowed to do business with our state?” Merideth asked.

Richardson said he would not support something to the extent of the position Merideth posed, and said his bill addresses a unique situation.

“You are talking about a deep and long-standing public policy of this country and of this state to support the State of Israel and its continued existence, and Missouri enjoys tremendous economic benefits from that relationship,” said Richardson.

The bill was the subject of two hours of testimony.

Andrew Rehfeld of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis said BDS seeks to end the existence of Israel, and said that’s why the Federation supports HB 2179.

“What we are seeking to do is address the fact that Israel is consistently singled out for this kind of activity, that this activity is aimed at the distinctive character of Israel as a Jewish state, and this legislation makes clear – more than symbolically, I’ll grant you that – but at the same time it sends a statement that the state won’t do business with businesses that want to engage in that kind of discriminatory economic practice,” said Rehfeld.

House Bill 2179 was the subject of about two hours of testimony in a packed hearing room. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Naveen Ayesh told lawmakers the BDS movement is a peaceful attempt at changing oppressive Israeli policies she said she has experienced first-hand.  She argued HB 2179 would be unconstitutional.

“The Supreme Court has recognized non-violent political boycotts as protected free speech under the First Amendment.  Legislatures should work towards protecting the rights of Missourians, not punishing them for exercising them, and hopefully push towards a more balanced Middle East foreign policy that grants equal rights for Palestinians and everyone in the Holy Land,” said Ayesh.

The committee voted 12-1 to advance HB 2179, with Representative Merideth casting the lone dissenting vote.  It faces one more committee, which will vote whether to send it to the full House for debate.

Missouri House votes to support needle exchange programs to fight IV drug abuse, disease

The Missouri House has proposed easing state law to allow organizations to give clean needles to users of illegal intravenous drugs.  Backers say the bill will help combat a potential outbreak in diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C caused by the sharing of used needles, and will get more people into drug treatment, but not all lawmakers are convinced.

Representative Holly Rehder (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Needle exchange or syringe access programs already exist in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas.  Representative Holly Rehder (R-Sikeston) said those programs are operating in violation of state law regarding drug paraphernalia, but local jurisdictions allow them to operate because of the impact they have.

Legislation sponsored by Rehder, House Bill 1620, would relax state law to allow those programs to operate and to expand to other regions in the state.

Rehder said people who use those programs to get needles are 5-times more likely to get into drug treatment because the programs put them in contact with medical professionals.

“That becomes the medical professional in their life, so they go and they get a ten-cent needle but they get so much more than that,” said Rehder.  “They get educational material explaining the harm of what they’re doing.  They get a person who’s greeting them where they’re at in life who’s explaining there are options for you.  We have places for you to go that we can get you into to help get you past this addiction, and so that becomes a relationship.”

Lake St. Louis Republican Justin Hill said as a former police officer and drug task force detective he supports the legislation.  He said law enforcement officers are always conscious, when dealing with individuals abusing intravenous drugs, to look out for needles.

“Use extreme caution because you don’t want to be pricked by what?  A dirty needle.  We want clean needles on the street because of the instances where if an officer gets pricked they don’t want to have to take tests for the next two years of their lives every month – go get tested for HIV, go get tested for AIDS, go get tested for Hep C,” said Hill.

Some Republicans who are former law enforcement officers oppose Rehder’s bill.  Cedar Hill representative Shane Roden, a reserve deputy sheriff, called the idea “stupid.”

“We’re not fixing the problem.  We’re just creating Band-Aids.  We’re not actually coming down with any solutions,” said Roden.

Representative Shane Roden (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Roden argued that with HB 1620, “We’re literally going to put the needle in their arm.”

Still the proposal has broad support including from Democrats.  St. Louis City representative Peter Merideth followed-up Rowden’s statements by asking Rehder, “Do you expect this to cure the problem of opioid addiction in Missouri?”

“No, and no one other than that gentlemen has even insinuated that this is a fix for the problem.  We all, that have stood up, have said it’s a tool in our toolbox,” Rehder replied.

Backers also say the bill will save the state money in costs to Medicaid of treating people who contract conditions like HIV and Hepatitis C by sharing needles.

The House voted 135-13 to send the legislation to the Senate.  In previous years one similar proposal was voted out of one House committee but moved no further through the process.

House votes to send latest lobbyist gift ban proposal to Senate

The Missouri House has for the third straight year proposed a ban on lobbyist gifts to legislators and other elected and appointed officials.

Representative Justin Alferman (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The House voted 134-12 Wednesday to send to the Senate House Bill 1303, sponsored by Hermann Republican Justin Alferman.  The bill would bar lobbyists from giving gifts to government officials – things such as meals or tickets to concerts or sporting events.  It would allow lobbyists to pay for gifts at events in Missouri when all members of the legislature or all statewide officials are invited at least three days before the event.

“We’re trying to alleviate the one-on-one interactions that sometimes have personally consumable items given to individual legislators in the State of Missouri,” said Alferman.  “I think it’s important … that we as legislators tackle these tough issues and show the State of Missouri and its citizens that we are capable of handling complex issues like ethics reform.”

The bill specifies what elected and appointed officials could still receive.  That includes things like entrance fees to events at which they are participating in a ceremony; flowers or plants as expressions of condolence or congratulations; and plaques or awards.  It would also eliminate the requirement that lobbyists report having given such gifts.

Representative Peter Merideth (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Democrats wanted to restore those reporting requirements.  They also proposed that the bill should include penalties for lawmakers who violate it.  Their proposed amendments were rejected last week, though the bill still received broad bipartisan support.

“I do wish that we had included in the bill some provisions of transparency with regard especially to the new exemptions for allowable expenditures that are for individual legislators,” said St. Louis representative Peter Merideth (D).  “I also do wish that we had added provisions to make ourselves accountable under this bill … However with that said I still think this is an improvement from current law and so I will be supporting it.”

The vote came a year to the day after the House last voted to send a gift ban proposal to the Senate.  Neither that bill nor the one the House approved in 2016 were approved by that chamber.

House budget plan proposes nearly $3-million for education on new voter photo ID law

One of the things House Democrats wanted in the chamber’s proposed spending plan for the next fiscal year, they got.

The House voted to move $1.5-million from an election administration improvements fund in the Secretary of State’s office to go to the implementation of the voter photo ID law approved by voters in November.  Specifically that money is for educating voters about the new law so that they can comply with it when they go to the polls.

St. Louis City Democrat Peter Merideth wants that education process to include direct mail; something the Secretary of State told the House Budget Committee he wasn’t planning to use.

“When we run campaigns, when we try and reach out to voters about elections, there is no better way to reach voters than direct mail, especially in rural parts of the state where people may not even have internet, may not even have cable,” said Merideth.  “Direct mail reaches these people.  That is the best way to let them know about their new rights and responsibilities.”

St. Louis City Democrat Bruce Franks, Junior, said the needs of educating people about the new law can vary from community to community.

“If we’re going to present something new, something that we haven’t had, we have to have adequate education on informing every single community, every single district that we have,” said Franks.

The change would bump the funding available for voter photo ID education to nearly $3-million.  The House’s earlier proposal for funding it with about $1.4-million was based on what the Secretary of State had asked for.

House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick (R-Shell Knob) supported Merideth’s amendment.

“I’m not saying that they can or will spend this money, but they have a plan.  If for some reason their plan doesn’t work, having another tool in the toolbox is reasonable,” said Fitzpatrick.

The measure initially failed but after a motion to reconsider the vote, many Republicans sided with Merideth and Fitzpatrick and approved it.

It becomes part of House Bill 12.  The House is expected to vote Thursday on whether to send that and the rest of the budget bills to the Senate for its consideration.