House legislation enables safe place to surrender newborns in Missouri

The first Baby Box in Missouri has been installed, and more are coming. 

Representative Jim Murphy (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Baby Boxes are an extension of the Safe Haven law, which allows parents to relinquish a newborn up to 45 days old without fear of prosecution.  That law, in place in Missouri since 2002, allows for babies to be dropped off at places including hospitals and fire stations, but Baby Boxes offer an option for parents who don’t want face-to-face contact.

      “The whole idea of the Baby Boxes is [for there to be] no interaction with one human to another, so if you just want to do it and you want to do it anonymously, this is a method of doing it,” said Representative Jim Murphy (R-St. Louis), who sponsored the language that made Baby Boxes an option in Missouri.

      For mothers in need of help, the Safe Haven Crisis Line is (866) 99BABY1, or visit shbb.org

      The first Box in the state is in his district, at Mehlville Fire Protection District Station 2.  There is a commitment for a second Box at Mehlville, and more fire stations in the state are expressing interest.

      Murphy said the Safe Haven Law is saving the lives of children. 

      “It’s happened time and time again where we’ve discovered babies in alleyways or in dumpsters and so forth.  For a woman to give up her child after birth has got to be a traumatic decision to make.”

      The box is built into an outer wall at the Mehlville Fire Station.  A parent can open it, place a baby inside in a bassinet, and close the door.  Alarms will alert personnel on duty, who will remove the bassinet and take the baby to a hospital.

      “I think the most important thing is that we try to deliver a message to mothers who are in this situation that their baby will be taken care of, and that’s the whole, entire goal of this thing is that the child shall have a good life from that day on and that we don’t villainize the person that gave the baby up.  We actually honor them for making a decision that if they can’t care for their baby that they gave it up in a proper way.” 

      Murphy said since his language became law two years ago, the state had to develop language to ensure Boxes would be safe.

      “Everything’s inspected properly, everything’s wired properly, the bassinet’s correct, there’s nothing in there that could endanger the baby, the alarms are set so that there are people readily available to retrieve the child … there’s all kinds of regulations that had to be promulgated to make sure that within a minute or two that that baby is put into care.”

      Founder and CEO of Safe Haven Baby Boxes Monica Kelsey helped guide the legislation that allows for these Boxes in Missouri and other states.  So far more than 160 have been installed.

      “I introduced baby boxes to allow parents anonymity so they can place their infant in an electronically monitored box that calls 911 on its own.  It’s heated, it’s cooled, and the infants are only in these boxes for right about two minutes.  With the amount of stories that we’re having across this country right now with babies being abandoned, these boxes are saving the lives of these kids now where before they were being thrown in dumpsters, trash cans, alongside highways, and stuff like that.”

      She said there are many reasons a parent might want to give up a child, including factors like financial struggles, mental health issues, or domestic abuse.  She wants people to support those who utilize the Safe Haven Law.

      “Every story is different.  Every story is unique, and every person handles crisis differently, but the one thing that all of these parents that are surrendering are doing is they’re putting their child first, and we should celebrate that.”

      Babies who are dropped off under Safe Haven receive immediate care, and Kelsey said they are adopted within 30 to 45 days. 

      “Every baby that has come through the Baby Box program and the Safe Haven program has been adopted.”

      For those who drop off a baby under Safe Haven, there is time to change their mind and reclaim their child. 

      “I don’t think our intent is to take babies away from parents.  Our intent is to protect children,” said Murphy.

      “They can get their children back as long as the termination of parental rights has not happened and that usually takes between 30 and 45 days,” said Kelsey.

      The installation of this Baby Box has gotten a lot of attention, but Murphy and Kelsey want to stress that it is not the only place in the state to drop off a child.

      “Every hospital in America – every hospital in the State of Missouri – is a Safe Haven location, and most [states’ Safe Haven laws also] have fire stations, Missouri is one of them, so every fire station that is manned – that is also another avenue for women in the State of Missouri,” said Kelsey.

      Murphy’s Baby Box language was introduced in 2021 as House Bill 76, which was approved by the House 151-1.  It was later amended to and became law as part of, House Bill 432 sponsored by Representative Hannah Kelly (R-Mountain Grove). 

      Since its installation in August, the Box in Mehlville hasn’t been used.  Since the Safe Haven Law was adopted in Missouri in 2002, 61 babies have been surrendered.  

      Kelsey said those who want to see a Baby Box installed in their community can contact her organization for help.

      “We’ll walk alongside you, or contact Mehlville Fire.  Talk to Chief [Brian] Hendrix.  See what his process was, see what he’s learned along the way … contact us if you want to get started.  We’ll help you raise the funds so the government doesn’t have to pay for it.  Mehlville Fire was 100% not tax dollars, so donors stepped forward for that … and that’s what we like to see.  We like to see the communities come together and do this on their own.”

      For mothers in need of help, the Safe Haven Crisis Line is (866) 99BABY1.  Kelsey’s organization, Safe Haven Baby Boxes, can be found online at shbb.org. 

Missouri adds historic Hawken rifle to list of State Symbols

      A rifle that was created in St. Louis and was integral to the shaping of the West is now Missouri’s Official State Rifle. 

Representatives Doug Clemens and Mazzie Boyd, at the recent Hawken Classic, got to fire an original 190-year old Hawken as well as a replica.

      The Hawken muzzle-loading rifle was created by Jacob and Samuel Hawken, brothers who learned gunsmithing from their father before opening a shop in St. Louis in 1815.  As the Rocky Mountain fur trade was getting underway, the brothers created the rifle meet the needs of fur trappers, explorers, traders, and others venturing out into then-largely unexplored parts of what today is the United States, west of Missouri.

      Legislators hope that by making this one of the symbols of the state, it will draw people to learn more about this part of history. 

      “With the fur trade era, this just opened up the entire West, and the fact that it started right here in Missouri, I think is just incredible.  People couldn’t just go to Wal-Mart and just go buy clothes,” said Representative Mazzie Boyd (R-Hamilton), who sponsored the idea.  “I think it’s just a whole different world that sometimes people just don’t even think about.”

      Representative Doug Clemens (D-St. Ann) also carried the state rifle legislation, after a gunsmith friend of his approached him about the idea.  Clemens, who has a minor in history, said the Hawken gave those in the frontier a reliable, high-quality weapon that was effective at very long range.

      “Between the rifling and the hair-trigger that you create by the double-trigger setup it actually makes the weapon, according to the National Rifle Association, accurate to 400 yards.”

Representatives Clemens and Boyd (back row, at left) were joined in the Capitol by several historians and enthusiasts who testified on their Hawken rifle legislation .

      House members this past session heard from historians who said giving the Hawken this state designation would be appropriate.     

      “It’s about more than just the gun.  It’s about the history of the western fur trade and how that was the economic engine for the State of Missouri around 1825, first coming out of the mountains into St. Louis and then being shipped all over the world to be used in beaver hats and fur hats and things like that,” said Paul Fennewald, former state Homeland Security coordinator and historian. 

      He said it was actually one of the state’s first executives who spurred the rifle’s creation. 

      “The first Lieutenant Governor [of Missouri] William Ashley, for his Rocky Mountain Fur Trade company, he knew that they needed to have a better rifle, so he approached the Hawken brothers about building one … and that kind of was the springboard for the Hawken rifle.”

      “It was a change from the long guns … the Pennsylvania guns.  Once they started going west, that gun needed to be stouter because it had to go so far on horseback and survive in the mountains and so forth,” said Historian and Dekalb County Commissioner Kyle Carroll.  “There’s nothing that would compare to the reputation that the Hawken had, the significance of it.”

      Representatives Boyd and Clemens both, at the recent Hawken Classic event in Defiance, had to chance to fire both an original Hawken and a replica.  Both say they shot well with it, and they were given plaques for supporting the rifle’s state symbol designation this year.  Both said it was an honor to fire the 190 year-old original, which Boyd notes, is very valuable.

Representative Mazzie Boyd holds an original Hawken rifle that was brought to her office in the Capitol on the day her bill was heard in committee.

      “If you want to get an original Hawken it’s over six figures now.”

      The replica Hawken they fired is expected to go on display in the Missouri Capitol, as an addition to the State Museum on the Capitol’s first floor.  Clemens is looking forward to having fun with that.

      “I’ve been joking that’s going to be one of my ‘old man’ things,” he said.  “I’m going to go in the Capitol and I’m going to point at that rifle behind the glass and I’m going to say, ‘I shot that gun!’”

      Missouri becomes at least the 10th state to have a firearm among its state symbols.  That Hawken rifle language was added to Senate Bill 139, which was signed into law in July.

Birth Certificates language will help escapes from domestic violence

      Escaping domestic violence in Missouri might have gotten a little easier, under legislation that became law August 28. 

Representative Chris Dinkins (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      One of the greatest obstacles facing victims of domestic violence involves possession of the documents they need to start their lives over.  A provision in Senate Bill 28 will provide free copies of birth certificates when those are requested by victims. 

      The idea came out of the Southeast Missouri Family Violence Council, who brought it to Representative Chris Dinkins (R-Lesterville), and she immediately saw its importance.

      “When the SEMO Family Violence Council brought this to my attention, [I could see that This was a real-life issue that people were facing on a daily basis and it was a good thing to get done for the people,” said Dinkins.  “We want to do everything we can, everything in our power, to help them move on and get out of these situations.”

      Tracy Carroll is the Assistant Director and Case Manager for the Council.  As a case manager she has seen, countless times, people trying to get out of abusive situations but struggling to do so because they needed documentation. 

      “About 90 percent of them didn’t have a birth certificate or a driver’s license because part of the abuser’s M.O. is to keep those important documents from them so that they can’t leave … and every time we needed to get one, of course they don’t have any money – they come to us with very little – so we would either have to take it out of general funds or we would scrounge up in our purses $15 for the birth certificate.”

      Often, victims escape from an abusive home in the middle of the night and even perhaps during a violent incident.  They leave with little more than the clothes on their back and the backs of their children, only to later realize that they need documentation to do things like get a job or enroll children in school.

      “A lot of these women have four and five kids and we have to get birth certificates for them so that they can go to school and different things like that, so it’s not just the mother, it’s all their children we get birth certificates for.  That was really important to us, that we could help them in that first step,” said Carroll. 

      The $15 apiece fee to get a copy of a birth certificate often presents a huge obstacle for someone in a crisis situation.  Shelters, then, have typically covered that fee, but Carroll said that adds up quickly and takes away from other things shelters aim to provide.

      “I don’t think people realize those kinds of things are not in our grants.  We have to come up with that money out of our general revenue or … we have been in here counting [one dollar bills] and stuff trying to get a birth certificate for somebody,” said Carroll.  She said in one case, “A lady, she had seven children … and needed to all get enrolled in school.  Well at $15 a pop times seven children plus herself, and then to top it off they came in at Christmas … that family, we just shelled out a large chunk of money that could be used for other resources for them, had we not had to purchase all those.”

      The Council’s Executive Director, Stephanie Bennett, said after they met with Rep. Dinkins at an event in the capital city and brought up the issue, she recognized its importance and asked them to bring her some legislation.

      “We drove home from Jefferson City and literally sat at my kitchen table and Googled how to write a bill, because it’s not something we had ever done.”

      Later, the Missouri Coalition for Domestic and Sexual Violence, the membership of which includes the Council and other shelters around the state, picked up the issue and advocated for it.  Dinkins said that helped get the proposal the traction it needed.

      “Missouri wants to be a helping hand and that’s exactly what we’re doing in this situation.  We don’t want to be a stumbling block keeping people from being able to move forward, especially when they’re coming out of these domestic or sexual violence situations,” said Dinkins.

      While this could make an immeasurable difference for many victims, Bennett hopes the passage of this language in SB 28 is only the beginning.

      “The end goal would be for this to be a federal law, because we often get clients who aren’t even born in the state, so you might pay $25 to Oklahoma for one but then you might pay $110 to New Jersey, so every state’s amount differs.”

      Carroll said cost isn’t the only issue regarding certificates from other states.  She said different lengths of delays in getting documents mean victims can be forced to sit idle, sometimes for months, before they can begin rebuilding their lives and the lives of their children.

      “We did one in California, it took us ten weeks to get the birth certificate.”

      The language in SB 28 authorizes a waiver of the fee for a Missouri birth certificate when a victim of domestic violence or abuse requests it, documentation signed by a victim advocate; attorney; or health or mental health care provider who has assisted that person accompanies that request. 

Enhanced distracted driving law sends message: don’t text while driving

      Missouri’s newly-enhanced distracted driving law takes effect on Monday, and House members say it’s a message to drivers in the state:  put your phones down.

Representative Jeff Knight (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      After years of the General Assembly considering and rejecting bans on texting while driving, the legislature this year agreed to a ban that covers holding a phone; the typing or sending of text-based messages; video calls or broadcasting or otherwise recording and sharing videos; and watching videos or movies.  The language was part of Senate Bill 398, signed into law last month.

      It’s called the “Siddens Bening Hands Free Law,” named for two Missourians who died in separate distracted driving incidents. 

      Representative Jeff Knight (R-Lebanon) handled that proposal in the House.  He knew the history of the texting while driving issue was one of a long time lack of consensus.  This was based, in part, on conservative lawmakers’ desire not to infringe on individual liberties.  So, Knight had concerns when it was amended to another bill he was carrying and wanted to get passed.  After talking to some of the opponents of the issue and others with a stake, he decided to let it stand.

      He said as technology has evolved, any need to let people keep holding their phones has diminished.

      “I have my first vehicle that I can answer the phone by touching a button on my steering wheel and I never thought that was a big deal, and it’s a big deal.  I like it.  I think the more the technology in these vehicles advances, and the technology of the actual cell phones, I think in the near future you won’t see a need for people to pick their phones up while they’re driving,” said Knight.

      Representative Lane Roberts (R-Joplin) has an extensive background in law enforcement, including as a former Joplin Police Chief and Director of the Department of Public Safety.  He agreed that this year’s proposal included the right provisions at the right time.

      “Finding that balance between individual liberty for one person when it begins to encroach on the safety or the liberty of another is not a bright line.  It’s always a challenge to find the balance, and I think that’s what this bill does,” said Roberts.  “It recognizes that we’ve grown to the point where the use of technology is so prevalent that misuse of it puts other people at risk, and then given the fact that there is the availability, so many alternatives for hands-free use of technology, it’s just time to think about how we go about limiting that.”

      Also on the language’s list of bipartisan backers is Representative Steve Butz (D-St. Louis), whose background is in the insurance industry.  He said distracted driving has long been a concern for that industry.

Representative Steve Butz (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      “It’s exceptionally bad in Missouri, and part of that problem is … inattentive driving due to texting, Facebooking, emailing, everything else on your phone while you’re driving, so the more we can hammer, ‘Put the stupid phone down while you’re driving,’ which we’ve been saying for a while but it’s got to have some teeth,” said Butz.

      Knight and Roberts, like others in their caucus, said they still hold personal liberties as important, but said those concerns were tempered by the fact that the bill makes phone use a secondary offense.  That means a traffic stop can’t be triggered just by phone use.  A person has to be stopped for something else before they can be cited.

      Knight adds, “The only time they could come after your phone records was [in cases of] severe bodily injury or death, which you can kind of already do.  I thought the bill was more of a stronger message to the public that we don’t want [people to be texting while driving] than, probably, the enforceability of it.”

      Butz agrees that the most important thing this bill does is send a message that legislators, on behalf of Missouri citizens, are telling drivers that they shouldn’t be on their phones and behind the wheel at the same time.

      “Anything that just brings to the regular citizen’s mind – mine, yours, and everybody else in between – just like there was a time when very few of us wore seat belts, now almost everybody wears a seat belt.  There was a time when you didn’t put little kids in car seats, now everybody puts their little kids in car seats, texting, to me, is in that thing,” said Butz.

      “At this point I don’t believe anybody believes that texting while you’re operating a vehicle, regardless of who you are or where you are, could possibly be considered safe,” said Roberts.  “The important thing is that the law now acknowledges that [texting while driving] is problematic.  There are now some parameters in place to exercise some level of control and hopefully it will lead to some prudence in the development of technology and people’s decision making.  It’s like seatbelts.  [The state’s seatbelt law creates a secondary offense] but the fact that you’re required to wear it, the fact that it gets a lot of attention, has most definitely increased the use of seatbelts, so this is very similar.”

Representative Lane Roberts (Photo: Missouri House Communications)

      As was the case with the seatbelt law when it passed, Roberts and his colleagues expect it will take some time to see wholesale change in drivers’ habits now that the updated distracted driving law has been passed.

      The tougher law regarding phone use was long sought by road safety advocates, who are pleased with the passage.  The Missouri Department of Transportation says in the ten years up to 2021 there were nearly 200,000 distracted driving related crashes in Missouri, which caused no fewer than 801 deaths.  Some agencies think the real totals are far greater.

“States that have texting bans, phone use bans, hands free bans, they do have a reduction in serious auto accidents … to me it was a no brainer,” said Butz.

      Michael Bening of Raymore was 46 and trying to clear debris from a highway when he was hit and killed by a driver believed to have been distracted, on Interstate 49 in Cass County in May, 2021.  Randall Siddens was picking up traffic cones after a race in Columbia in May, 2019, when a woman who was driving while voice chatting swerved around a vehicle stopped at a red light and hit him.

      The bill including the law bearing their names was passed out of the House 97-40.  While the law takes effect on Monday, its penalty provisions won’t be enacted until January 1, 2025, to allow for a grace period while the public is educated on the new law.

Tax Credit Legislation Expected to Bring More Film Productions, Concerts to Missouri

      More television, movie, and concert productions could be coming to Missouri after the legislature approved tax credits targeting the entertainment industry. 

Representative Michael O’Donnell (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      The “Show MO Act” created credits for up to 30 percent of qualifying expenses for live entertainment and tour expenses, if certain conditions are met.  It created credits equaling 20 percent of qualifying film production expenses, with additional credits available if more conditions are met.

      Senate Bill 94 had broad bipartisan support on its way through the House and Senate, and was signed into law by the governor last month.

      Representative Michael O’Donnell (R-St. Louis) said with tax credits, the first consideration is always whether they are fiscally responsible.

      “I always wonder do we really get our money’s worth, and I feel like there was so much built into this one that I felt like the answer to that question was yes,” said O’Donnell.

      “We really worked hard to try to make it as conservative as possible while at the same time leveling the playing field so Missouri can compete with other states,” said Cape Fair Republican Brad Hudson regarding the concert portion of SB 94.  “These kinds of concerts could be held in numerous different places within our state, and we’ve seen when a big name entertainer comes to town, the kind of revenue that that generates for a community is definitely notable, and I expect that we will see more of that after this legislation takes effect.”

      For an artist to qualify for the credits they must perform at least two concerts in the State of Missouri.

Representative Brad Hudson (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      The only other state that offers tax credits to concert productions is Pennsylvania, which recently increased the cap on its credits due to their success.  Hudson said due to geography alone, Missouri could fare even better.

      “I am confident that this great state that we all know and love, when we can compete with other states we will win every day of the week because of where we’re located in the country, because of the people that we have here, and the resources that we have.”

      O’Donnell said Missourians could also get more opportunities to see their favorite artists.

      “They get a shot at seeing some entertainer that they wouldn’t otherwise see, who are in a lot of cases going to be doing one show on one side of the state and one on the other.”

      The state’s previous film tax credit program expired in 2013.  Since then the state has hosted little in the way of television and motion picture filming, while some major projects – even ones set in Missouri – have gone elsewhere.  The new law puts Missouri among 39 states that offer film incentives.

      Representative Steve Butz (D-St. Louis) has a brother in the film and live theater industry, who this past spring moved to Georgia to film a movie that might otherwise have been filmed in Missouri.

      “He, just as an actor, said hey, you know that Georgia has these film tax credits and the film industry has exploded in Georgia even to the point that Ozark, the show that was a huge success and was meant to be filmed, and it certainly is about, the Missouri Ozark region, was filmed in Georgia, as was this movie that my brother just filmed.  He said it absolutely is attracting and creating a film industry,” said Butz.  “He said Missouri is losing out on this.  You don’t have hardly any TV shows filmed there, you don’t have movie sets coming there.  They might use a few shots like to simulate something from the Midwest, or if it has to do with St. Louis or Lambert Airport or something, but they’re not actually moving the sets and the crews there.”

Representative Steve Butz (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      The benefits of having things filmed in Missouri aren’t just financial.  There’s a boost to the very morale of communities, and that often spans generations.

      “There’s the hard to measure benefit of civic pride when a major movie comes to town.  The stars stay at your hotels, they’re seen publicly, your local people get to be the extras in the movie, and it just brings a lot of excitement.”

      The film tax credits are capped at $16-million dollars.  In addition to the 20 percent credit for qualifying film productions, another 5 percent can be earned if at least 15 percent of production takes place in a rural or blighted area; another 5 percent can be earned if a certain number of Missourians are hired; and another 5 percent is available if the production depicts Missouri or the region in a positive light.  The Department of Economic Development will decide which productions are approved.

      “It’s good for business, it’s good for the industry, it’s good for civic pride, and there is a solid return on the dollar,” said Butz.

      As with all tax credits, these will be reviewed annually by the legislature to ensure that they are benefitting Missouri.  As O’Donnell put it, “What’s the return on investment?  The state’s taxpayers are making an investment.  What are they getting back?  I think in this case we’re going to find ourselves very positive.”

      The legislation becomes effective August 28.  The new tax credits would expire in 2030 unless a future legislature and governor agree to extend them.

Expired temp tags to phase out as vehicle dealers collect sales tax under new law

      Many Missourians will be pleased to know that expired temporary license tags on vehicles could soon become a thing of the past, under one of the bills signed into law earlier this month.

Representative Michael O’Donnell (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Those tags have, for some, been a source of anger and fodder for jokes.  Entire social media accounts have been dedicated to posting pictures of vehicles with tags that expired months or even years ago, and some openly ridicule law enforcement for not acting against drivers with outdated tags.  For others the issue has been a source of anxiety as they felt the scrutiny of peers and law enforcement while driving with them. 

      “It’s embarrassing,” said Representative Michael O’Donnell (R-St. Louis) of the system now in place in Missouri – the system that would be changed as part of Senate Bill 398.   “This [change] is long overdue … we’re only one of like three or four states that’s still doing it this way.”

      The “way” to which O’Donnell refers is the collection of sales taxes on vehicle purchases by the Department of Revenue, after the sale.  

      “We had this weird situation in Missouri where people would go buy a car and unlike anything else you buy you don’t pay the sales tax when you buy it,” explained Representative Peter Merideth (D-St. Louis).  “People get the best car they think they can afford.  Next thing they know they go to get their plates for it, they find out they owe $4,000 or $5,000, or even $1,000 or $500 if they got a cheap, used car, it’s a lot of money at once in order to get their plates, and they go, ‘Well I can’t afford that.’”

      O’Donnell was the House handler of the proposal that became part of SB 398 that will require auto dealers to collect sales tax at the time of a vehicle purchase. 

      “When [Missourians] go in to buy the car, the dealer’s going to bring it up.  ‘The sales tax on a vehicle is this.  Do you want to write a check for that or do you want to roll it into the financing?,’” said O’Donnell.

      While having dealers begin collecting taxes at the time of purchase sounds like a simple change, Merideth said it took several years for infrastructural changes that will allow it.

      “We’ve been saying for a long time that that’s the solution,” said Merideth, “and then the Department of Revenue would tell us, ‘We don’t have a technical system that can do that.’  What they told us is their computer systems that they were using were designed in the ‘80s when we barely had computers and hadn’t been updated.”

Representative Peter Merideth (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      A series of legislative and budgetary changes – some of which, notes Merideth, did not have the bipartisan support that this portion of SB 398 had – have allowed for this bill to advance and O’Donnell describes it as the last step in a long process.  The new law becomes effective August 28but it allows several months for changes to Department of Revenue systems.  O’Donnell said it could be 12 to 24 months before those buying vehicles experience the new system.  

      Many legislators in recent years have said that this issue was among those about which they most often heard complaints from constituents, but they often learned that increasing enforcement against those with expired tags was only going to hurt those who were already financially struggling and would not end the problem.

      Merideth told House Communications, “This temp tag issue is the thing I have heard maybe second most from constituents about, second only to gun violence, of anything in my district.  It shocked me how upset people are about it, but I get it.  It feels like we have a situation where all these people are running around that aren’t paying their fair share of the taxes that the rest of us are paying.”

      “I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘Well don’t buy the car if you can’t pay the taxes,’” said O’Donnell, but he, like Merideth and others, quickly learned that it wasn’t always that simple.  He said a series of reports by a television reporter illustrated the depth of the problem.  She talked to a number of Missourians who had expired temporary tags.

      “A lot of people had hardship problems,” O’Donnell learned.  “That was a lot of money to come up with, and she would ask the question, ‘If you were able to roll it into your financing and just pay $30 extra each month would that have been more doable,’ and people were like, ‘Oh my gosh, that would’ve been so much easier and so much less stressful.’”

      O’Donnell also learned how anxious many of those drivers were because of their expired tags.  “It wasn’t like it’s no big deal, nobody cares.  They were always nervous that they were going to get pulled over and get questioned about it … [this legislation] will reduce that stress of thinking that the eyes of the world are upon you because you’ve got this temp tag.”

      The end result was a much-needed change that lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle will be glad to talk about to their constituents.

      Said Merideth, “I’m tired of seeing the expired temp tags and I’m tired of, honestly, hearing from so many people about the expired temp tags.  It’s a frustrating problem and honestly I’m glad we’re finally going to collecting the revenue that we need to have and we’re going to do it in a way that people are going to know what they’re getting into when they buy their car.”

      O’Donnell said four or five years from now there might still be some stragglers out there, but most expired tags should disappear over the next couple of years.

Production note: due to a technical issue, the audio from Rep. Merideth was not of good quality. Those who wish to access it may contact House Communications.

911 Dispatchers get ‘First Responder’ status, more mental health help options

      Missouri 911 dispatchers will now be considered “first responders” in state statute under legislation that becomes effective next month.  That will bring a lot of changes, including increased access to mental health resources. 

Representative Robert Sauls (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Language in two bills signed into law by Governor Mike Parson (R) will add emergency telecommunicators to the definition of “first responders,” which previously included people like firefighters, police, and emergency medical personnel.  The change in designation will mean, among other things, that dispatchers will have access to the same mental health supports as those in those other jobs.

      Sarah Newell, Polk County 911 Director, says that’s something from which she and others in her field can definitely benefit.

      “I hear it every day.  I hear it happen.  I hear overdoses, I hear suicides, I hear fatality accidents in children.  It happens all the time,” Newell told House Communications. 

      She said a dispatcher’s emotions can be constantly in transition.  “We don’t stay consistent.  We drop to a one, and then we’re at a nine, and then okay we’re back to a two, and here we are, ten, ten, ten, and so it’s hard for your body to adjust to those heightened adrenaline changes so often throughout the day.”

      “Sometimes it’s minute-by-minute,” said Jamie Taylor, President of the Missouri Chapter of the National Emergency Numbers Association (MO NENA).  “[A dispatcher] could be on a really serious call with somebody that’s wanting to harm themselves and they’re having to try to talk them down, talk them through it … they could get right off of that call and deliver a baby on the next call.”

      Taylor said the proposed re-designation has been considered for years while legislators and state agencies worked to consider what changings it would bring, and how to best implement it, but he said legislators always seemed to favor the change.

      Representative Robert Sauls (D-Independence) has proposed such language for several years.  In his time as a Jackson County Prosecutor and later as a public defender he listened to a lot of 911 calls.

      “Having seen many of the videos and listened to many of these 911 calls, I know they’re stressful, and this is something that should have always been the case.  Opening that door for mental health is so important,” said Sauls.  “These people are the absolute first point of contact in most instances involving a crime and what could potentially be someone’s worst day of their life.  The stress that they undergo, the amount of pressure that’s placed on them at that time, these people absolutely should be treated as first responders.”

      Joplin Representative Lane Roberts (R) worked in public service for more than 40 years, including as Joplin’s Police Chief and the state’s Director of Public Safety.  He said he even did some dispatching early in his career.

Representative Lane Roberts (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      “Those people, in my mind at least, are the most underappreciated element of public safety there is,” said Roberts.  “Everybody sort of takes them for granted.  They’re in this windowless environment.  Nobody sees them, they don’t get to see anybody, they deal with all the emotion, they deal with all the psychological trauma, but they don’t get to do anything except move on to the next calls.  But, when you’re the guy in the field and you get yourself in trouble, that dispatcher’s your lifeline and suddenly they become the single most important person on the planet.  There is just no way to express your appreciation for a good dispatcher.”

      Taylor said like anyone who has done the job, he has experienced calls that he’ll never forget – the kinds of calls that take a toll.

      “The one that really hits me most is during a Christmastime several years ago I took a call on a non-breather who ended up being a newborn … and the outcome wasn’t the outcome that we wanted.  The infant didn’t make it.  During the holidays, and whenever you have kids of your own, that stuff really starts to set in, and you don’t have an avenue to get rid of those emotions or be able to talk about it or seek help.”

      He hopes this change will help to slow what has been a notably high turnover rate in his field.

      “Our pool of people that want to do this job is getting smaller and smaller, so we really have to take care of those people that are here doing that job today and to be able to provide for those new people coming in,” said Taylor.

      He added that as much as anything, though, it will feel good for dispatchers simply to have this acknowledgement. 

      “It’s going to be huge for the folks that sit in a dark room or sit behind the scenes and deal with the public off and on, and handling those phone calls, and sometimes those dispatchers don’t get the recognition that they need.  I know departments try to recognize them within the department but being recognized by the state, now, as a first responder, it just brings smiles to my face.  Finally we get that ‘job well done’ piece that we’ve needed for a long time.”

      The change could also create access to grant dollars that could see local agencies expand the latest forms of 911 access in areas of Missouri that don’t have it.  Newell and Taylor expressed their thanks to the legislators who worked for so many years on this issue.

      That change in designation will take effect August 28.

Transitional ‘benefit cliff’ legislation would help more Missourians take raises, drop state assistance

      A plan that would allow Missourians who are on certain state financial assistance programs to gradually get off of them without falling off a so-called “benefits cliff” is one of the things awaiting action from Governor Mike Parson (R). 

Representative ALex

      That “cliff” is what policy makers call situations when a person accepts a salary increase that puts them over the income limits for programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and what that person then loses in benefits is more than the amount their pay would increase.  The result is that often, Missourians on benefits programs are forced to reject promotions and raises, for their own good and that of their families.

      The House passed last month a proposed transitional program that would let people get off of state programs incrementally as their income increases. 

      “Our social safety net system, our welfare system in the State of Missouri, isn’t working.  It’s designed in such a way that it really does trap people in poverty and discourages people from trying to get out,” said Springfield Republican Alex Riley, the House sponsor of that legislation.  “My goal with the benefits cliff bill was to create a pathway where our welfare system really does what its intended to do, and that’s to serve as a hand up to people to help pull them out of these tough situations that they’re in, and not to serve as an anchor that keeps them in poverty forever and then results in this generational cycle of poverty that unfortunately far too many in our state are in.”

      The legislation would apply to SNAP and TANF, and expand and make permanent existing transitional benefits for the child care subsidy program.  Benefits to a participant would be reduced relative to their increases in pay until they are making twice the federal poverty rate. 

      Representative Keri Ingle (D-Lee’s Summit), whose background is in social work, said most Missourians, even if they haven’t been on these programs, could understand having to make the decisions some have had to make, to turn down pay increases.

      “I don’t think it’s hard for most people to imagine, in this economy, but, you absolutely wouldn’t want to be in a situation where you had to cut your income,” said Ingle.  “One of the great things about this bill is that it allows people to slowly ween off the system.  It allows them to be in situations where it doesn’t adversely affect their income to accept a higher paying job, or to have a higher income, to accept a raise, and still have some of those benefits until they can kind of slowly ween off of them and be self-sufficient.  We’re really empowering working folks within our state with families to come off the system but to do it in a way that they’re still having all their needs met.”

Representative Keri Ingle (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Riley said there’s nothing in Missouri’s various policies and statutes that does what this would do.

      “There are some minor benefits cliffs provisions in place for, I think, food stamps, but it hasn’t really worked, so this is a bigger bite at the apple that will, hopefully, do a better job of actually resolving that issue,” said Riley.  “Once this has been implemented and is in effect for a few years I expect we’re going to start to see large numbers of people coming off the rolls over time and then once we get a really good opportunity to see how this has played out over time, we’ll have an opportunity to make adjustments if we need to, but hopefully we won’t have to.”

      He said the legislation might have to be revisited over time for factors like inflation. 

      In the end, the legislation received broad bipartisan support.  It is a proposal that had been around for several years, sponsored by members of both parties.  Even so, Riley said such issues can present a narrow path to success.

      “It’s hard to do any sort of welfare reform in a bipartisan way but this was a way that we could do that.  You had Democrats that were okay with this type of reform, you had Republicans of all shapes and sizes, from your conservative wing, your Libertarian wing, your more moderate wing, that recognized that this is a structure that makes sense and will benefit the state as a whole for a long time to come.”

      He said giving people a way to get off of state benefits is good for them, good for state agencies, and good for the state’s budget.

      “It’s good for the individuals because they’re starting to work their way out of poverty, they’re becoming more self-sufficient, which is good for the state when you have more people working and getting off of benefits.  It’s going to ultimately result, over time, in the state having to spend fewer dollars on folks on benefits and it will result in fewer people, ultimately, on benefits, over time.”

      Ingle said most people who are getting state help don’t want to do so for any longer than is necessary, and they will appreciate this program.

      “I think it’s a common misconception that people want to stay on the system, or people don’t want to be self-sufficient … but people have to be able to pay their bills and to feed their children, and so at the end of the day it’s just a common sense solution to that problem.”

      Riley said, “My excitement and focus with being able to get this done this year was really to create a pathway for people who are on state benefits but don’t want to be on those, who want to be self-sufficient, who want to work and start to get out of these tough economic situations, a way to do so, and I think we accomplished that with this bill.”

      The language passed as part of Senate Bill 106 and Senate Bills 45 & 90, broad bills dealing with various public health issues.  Governor Parson could sign either or both of those bills into law, veto them, or allow them to become law without his action. If this proposal becomes law it would become effective on August 28.

Legislature’s action could ease escapes from domestic violence, governor’s action awaited

      One of the bills on the desk of Governor Mike Parson (R) would make it easier for people to escape domestic abuse, if it becomes law.

Representative Chris Dinkins (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      A provision in Senate Bill 28 would waive the fee for a copy of a birth certificate when it is requested by a victim of domestic violence. 

      It has been proposed for several years by Representative Chris Dinkins (R-Lesterville), who explained to her colleagues that when a person escapes domestic violence, they often have to leave things behind.  That often includes vital documents.

      “It is very difficult to leave a situation and when you’ve got kids that you’re trying to support and you’re thinking, ‘How am I going to do this now, how am I going to get a job, how am I going to keep moving on and going forward,’ and if they don’t have those documents then they start thinking, ‘I’m not going to be able to get a job, I’m going to have to go back,’” said Dinkins. 

      “Once they’ve made the decision to leave we [as a state] need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to help them be successful in moving forward.”

      Matthew Huffman is the Chief Public Affairs Officer with the Missouri Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence.  He said making a decision to leave can be dangerous, frightening, and difficult, and this legislation would help to keep victims from having to go back.

      “Whenever a survivor makes the step to leave that can be months, years of safety planning, and we also know that right after someone decides to leave that abusive relationship, that can be one of the most dangerous times for that individual, and so being able to make it out of a dangerous situation and accessing safety, you might not remember to get those vital records that you need.  You might not have the ability or the access to get those vital records.”

      “Birth certificates are crucial in the individual being able to start their life over again, be able to get out on their own, get away from the person who is abusing them, and often [abusers] hold [victims] captive by keeping their birth certificate and other important documents from them so that they can’t start over again,” said Dinkins.  “If you want to get a job, if you want to open up a bank account, you’ve got to have forms of identification, and in order to get a new driver’s license you’re going to have to have a birth certificate.  In order to get a new social security card, you’re going to have to have a birth certificate; enrolling kids in school, you’re going to have to have a birth certificate, so all these things are very important.”

      She adds that victims escaping abuse often have little if any money and that’s why the fee that is normally charged for certificates is an issue.     

      “Fifteen dollars may not seem like much to you or me but someone who escapes in the middle of the night … they leave with the clothes on their back and that’s that … so it’s a very important step in saving these peoples’ lives.”

      After seeing this proposal fall short in several past legislative sessions, Huffman is hopeful that Governor Parson will sign it into law.

      “If, as a state, we can show we really care about domestic violence survivors and we have the ability to provide you a free birth certificate to help you get yourself on a path to self-efficiency and sustainability, I think that that is an incredible thing that the State of Missouri can offer to survivors.”

      Dinkins agrees, and adds that just as this proposal was brought to her by a shelter in her district, she encourages advocates to bring her more ideas.  She said in her time as a teacher she knew several individuals who were involved in domestic abuse situations, and that makes these issues personal.

      “I would be happy to do what I can to move forward any piece of legislation that can help these victims.”

The bill would allow a survivor to get one birth certificate free, one time. It requires a signed statement from an advocate, attorney, or provider of healthcare or mental healthcare.

Governor Parson could sign that bill into law, veto it, or allow it to become law without his action. If it becomes law, this provision would become effective on August 28.