The Missouri House has sent Governor Eric Greitens a bill that would make Missouri the 28th right-to-work state.
Representative Holly Rehder also sponsored the House’s version of a right-to-work bill, HB 91, which was sent to the Senate in January. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Senate Bill 19 would bar union membership or the paying of union dues from being a condition of employment. It would make violators of that prohibition guilty of a Class “C” misdemeanor and would require county prosecutors and the state Attorney General to investigate complaints or violations.
It also includes a “grandfather” clause, which would allow existing contracts between unions and companies to remain in place until they are changed or expire.
The House voted 100-59 to send the bill to the governor, who, it is anticipated, will sign it into law.
Republicans say right-to-work is an issue of worker freedom that will allow workers to decide how their money is used and who will represent them. They say some companies have not come to Missouri because it is not a right-to-work state, and say the bill’s passage will lead to more jobs and perhaps an increase in union membership.
Sikeston Republican Holly Rehder carried SB 19 in the House. She said it felt great and humbling to be carrying the bill that appears set to finally make law a long-time Republican priority.
Democrats, as they did when the House debated its right-to-work bill (HB 91), proposed sending the issue to Missouri voters rather than the governor. That was rejected on a Republican-led vote. Democrats said the issue is one that should be decided by the people. Republicans said they proposed sending right-to-work to voters two years ago and Democrats opposed it then, and accused Democrats of favoring a vote now only because the governor is unlikely to veto the bill.
Proposals were also rejected that would have put a sunset on the bill, making it no longer law after five years unless renewed by the legislature; and that would have made it not apply to existing union-company contracts until their renewal, as opposed to when they are changed.
House lawmakers continue to lay out a slate of proposed ethics reforms they believe would help restore the public’s trust in Missouri’s elected officials.
Representative Kip Kendrick (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Columbia Democrat Kip Kendrick presented to the House Committee on General Laws, House Bill 217, an omnibus bill encompassing a series of measures offered by other members of his caucus. He said each proposed reform is based on promises made by candidates during the recent campaign cycle – promises that he says were endorsed by voters based on which candidates made those promises and won.
Two key provisions would build on work already done by the House toward ethics reform that House Democrats say they want to take farther than earlier proposals. One aims to ban gifts and monetary donations from lobbyists to elected officials.
Kirkwood Democrat Deb Lavender is carrying the Democrats’ version of a proposed gift ban, House Bill 212. She told lawmakers her bill would be tougher than House Bill 60, passed two weeks ago by the House.
Kirkwood Democrat Deb Lavender is carrying the Democrats’ version of a proposed gift ban, House Bill 212. She told lawmakers under House Bill 60, passed two weeks ago by the House, organizations could exploit a provision that lets them provide meals for legislators at events as long as all members of the General Assembly and all state lawmakers are invited.
The other provision proposes extending the prohibition on elected or appointed officials or legislators becoming lobbyists from six months to five years after their term has ended, and would apply that to certain legislative staff. It is also found in House Bill 213, sponsored by Representative Joe Adams (D-University City).
Other provisions in HB 217 propose prohibiting any candidates’ committees from transferring their funds to their candidate’s family members; requiring former candidates to dissolve their candidate committees; and letting the Missouri Ethics Commission prosecute criminal cases and initiate civil cases if the state Attorney General declines to pursue either regarding an alleged ethics violation. Those provisions are found in House Bill 214 (Tracy McCreery), House Bill 215 (Mark Ellebracht), House Bill 216 (Crystal Quade), respectively.
Representative Shamed Dogan (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Republicans have their own proposals to further reform Missouri ethics laws. Ballwin Representative Shamed Dogan wants to ban gifts from lobbyists to local government officials.
Dogan said such officials are held to a much lower standard than legislators.
Republican Tom Hurst (Meta) presented House Bill 150, which would exempt individuals not paid to lobby from having to register or report as a lobbyist.
Hurst said he wants members of the public to know that they can talk to elected officials about issues that concern them without having to file as a lobbyist, and without fear of being prosecuted for failing to file.
The committee has not voted on any of those bills.
House Speaker Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) and other legislative leaders have said ethics reforms would continue to be a priority in the 2017 session.
State House members are doing groundwork on the Fiscal Year 2018 budget, ahead of the release by Governor Eric Greitens of his proposed spending plan. Mike Lear sat down with the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, Michael Butler (St. Louis), to talk about his thoughts in facing what lawmakers say will be a difficult budget year.
Representative Michael Butler is the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
ML: Let’s talk about the causes in a moment because I do want to get to that, but let’s start with where we are in the budget, and I think everybody agrees that there is a hole, that there is a – I don’t know if I’ve heard the word “crisis” yet – but it’s certainly a dire budget year. How do you deal with the situation that we’re in this year?
MB: “I think it’s first important to note how we got here. How we got to this budget hole and what I could call a budget ‘crisis’ is we are currently about $450-million dollars that we have to cut out of the budget for this year, and that is not because of the past governor and the past administration. It’s because of the legislature who controls the budget process. We’ve been hearing that the past administration is to blame but we have to include Republican majorities in both the House and Senate that actually create the budget.
“They have cut revenue for years and revenue is down. Expenses are barely up – are generally up for how they normally are, but because we aren’t taking in as much revenue because of plenty of tax cuts for the rich, and for businesses, and for specific special interests, are the reason why we don’t have enough money to provide services to people.
“We want to be a part of the solution. We’re going to help, but we’re in the minority. We didn’t cause the problem. We’ve spoken against the problem in many cases, and we can’t take the blame for something we did not do.”
ML: Since we’re talking about cause, we are going to hear a lot about Medicaid and the need to reform Medicaid, and that a lot of the costs [to the budget] are driven by Medicaid. What is the answer there? Is it a question of Medicaid reform?
MB: “Well, with a brand new governor who is just learning the budget and is late on giving us his idea of the budget – much later than any other governor in recent history – we have to remind him and other folks around the state how we got here. Part of how we got here, especially with Medicaid; when many members of the majority, the Republican party and the governor says that Medicaid spending is out of control, they made it out of control. They have cut Medicaid spending so much that it creates a system for poor people, Medicaid recipients, that can’t get to good care. They can’t get to their primary care doctors, which cost the system much less.
“In fact when primary care doctors have a choice to decide whether to take these patients, Medicaid patients, when they decide not to those folks are forced to take emergency room care which is much, much, much more expensive. And as we cut more – if we just say we’re going to cut more – we’re going to create more of that system. We’re going to create where folks either can’t get care, or can’t get care that the state can afford, and in the end folks are going to suffer, and many of the folks in poor rural areas that they represent.
“On the Democratic side we’re going to be sure we’re continuing to take care of people, putting people first and not special interests, and put people first, not just numbers on a budget. We believe that we should continue to make sure that folks can get good care and they can take care of their children as well, as Medicaid recipients.”
ML: We have a new administration in Washington D.C. Is now the time to pursue Medicaid expansion if this state is going to do it, when we could be seeing changes or a repeal of Obamacare?
MB: “Now is the time. The time was three years ago when the federal government was going to reimburse us at 100-percent. Now is still the time because we believe that President Obama, and the facts show that President Obama had it right.
“In states where Medicaid was expanded Obamacare premium healthcare costs have decreased. We’ve seen premium healthcare costs once again decrease in states that expanded Medicaid. We’ve heard the governor and the new federal administration, new president, say that healthcare premiums are increasing, but they’re only increasing in states that didn’t expand Medicaid.
“So, we’re going to talk a little bit more about expansion of Medicaid and we know that we have facts on our side, and we have statistics on our side that show that if we expand Medicaid not only will poor folks and working class folks benefit, so will people that have premium healthcare.”
ML: What is the path forward, then, on this budget year, when we do get the budget from Governor Greitens and start to go through that … as you said $450-million I think is the figure that’s going to have to come out of it. How do you approach this?
MB: “We can’t raise taxes. We can’t take more from Missourians. What we can do are find ways as we will continue to do where government can work better, where we can use more technology. We are unfortunately going to have to make tough cuts to services that may be a benefit to a small amount of people or a benefit to a small amount of special interests. Unfortunately that may be just an extra service that government has done.
“As Democrats we’re not trying to raise taxes. We don’t have the power to. But we want to make sure we’re finding waste, fraud, and abuse, and we’re finding if there’s money that we’re not using in the state budget, that we’re being good stewards of the people’s money.”
ML: Do you think there are a lot of places in the budget like that?
MB: “I think there are very few. Democrats have been working very hard over the years to fix those things in the budget already and we’ve been successful, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
A state House committee has advanced the Senate’s version of right-to-work legislation.
Senator Dan Brown is the sponsor of SB 19, a right-to-work bill now making its way through the Missouri House. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Senate Bill 19 is largely similar to House Bill 91, the right to work bill passed by the House earlier this month. The major difference between the bill sponsored by Rolla Republican Senator Dan Brown and HB 91 is that it includes a grandfather clause. That will allow contracts between employers and unions that exist at the time it becomes law to remain in place until they expire or are altered.
Republicans supporting SB 19 say right-to-work would give workers more freedom in being able to choose whether to be members of a union. Lake Ozark Republican Rocky Miller said he wants more union jobs in Missouri, and he believes right-to-work will increase union membership.
Democrats note a recent article that said Missouri union membership has increased to 9.7-percent.
Representative Doug Beck (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications
Democrats say right-to-work is an attack on unions that would drive down wages in Missouri. Representative Rory Rowland (D-Independence) suggested that right-to-work should not be a priority compared to other issues Missouri is facing.
SB 19 was passed out of the House Committee on Economic Development 7-2. It next goes to the House Rules Committee before reaching the House floor. If it is passed by the House with no changes, it would go on to Governor Eric Greitens, who has said he supports right-to-work.
The bill will be carried in the House by Sikeston Republican Holly Rehder, who sponsored HB 91.
A bill has been filed that aims to keep guns out of the hands of those with a history of domestic violence.
Representative Donna Lichtenegger (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Missourians found guilty of a domestic violence misdemeanor or who were the subject of an order of protection were denied concealed carry permits until the legislature last year overturned the veto of SB 565. That allowed anyone who can legally carry a gun to carry one concealed even without a permit. Domestic violence advocates said that meant the one protection victims had from their abusers having a gun had been removed.
Cape Girardeau Republican Donna Lichtenegger’s legislation, House Bill 766, would mirror Missouri law to a 1997 federal law. It would expand the crime of unlawful possession of a firearm to include those who have been convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors or who have orders of protection against them.
Colleen Coble is the Chief Executive Officer of the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. Her organization was one of those concerned about what current Missouri gun law might mean for victims. She said HB 766 is the fix that law needs.
Lichtenegger said she felt strongly about filing such a bill because of domestic violence committed by her father when she was a child against her, her mother and her brother.
According to the Highway Patrol, 74-percent of the 30 domestic violence related homicides in Missouri in 2015 involved a firearm. In 2011 it was 74-percent of 54 such homicides. The American Journal of Public Health said when a gun is present in a case of domestic violence, there is a 500-percent greater chance of an intimate partner killing his or her partner.
HB 766 includes prohibitions against gun possession by anyone who is in the United States illegally; has been dishonorably discharged from the military; or has renounced United States citizenship.
A Missouri House subcommittee that will investigate reports of harassment within the Department of Corrections has been formed.
Representative Jim Hansen will chair a House subcommittee that will investigate reports of employee-on-employee harassment within the Department of Corrections. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
An article on Pitch.com outlined multiple cases in which, it said, court documents showed some Corrections employees were the victims of harassment by other employees. Some were retaliated against after reporting incidents. Some cases led to lawsuits that have cost Missouri millions of dollars in legal settlements, with more pending.
He said the committee’s greatest focus will be on the Department’s procedures and how it follows up on complaints.
“I have taken several complaints to different levels of the Corrections Department and always got an answer but it was always in favor of the Department, basically. I’m not saying it was wrong or right,” said Hansen. “I think we just need to review who are making these decisions when it comes to policy, when it comes to harassment, when it comes to workplace environment.”
The House’s investigation comes as the administration of new Governor, Eric Greitens, is taking over from the administration of former Governor Jay Nixon. Hansen says that means some of the people who bore responsibility for continued harassment, or who had knowledge of it, could have already left the Department or be on the way out.
Hansen said the committees’ recommendations could include actions against employees connected to the harassment, if its members feel that is necessary. Hansen said supervisors of those employees could also be called in front of the committee.
Entry-level corrections officers in Missouri are paid less than their counterparts in any other state. Hansen said that makes it more difficult to keep the best people. That could also be reflected in to the committee’s investigation and recommendations.
Hansen’s district includes the state prison at Bowling Green. Prior to the Pitch article he had been looking into unrelated complaints at the Corrections Department.
The committee will prepare recommendations for House Speaker Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff).
The Missouri House has given initial approval to a bill that would allow rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft to expand services in the state.
Representative Kirk Mathews (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
House Bill 130 would require background checks on national and local drivers, inspections of vehicles, an annual registration fee of $5,000, and would exempt such companies from local or municipal taxes.
It would allow such companies to expand beyond municipalities that have passed their own ordinances governing rideshare companies – so far that’s Kansas City, St. Louis, Columbia, and Springfield.
The bill is sponsored by Representative Kirk Mathews (R-Pacific). He said the benefits of allowing transportation network companies to expand in Missouri include the creation of jobs and businesses, and a reduction in the number of drunk driving arrests in the state.
Mathews said the bill addresses concerns raised last year that Kansas City authorities would struggle to monitor the compliance of companies with the new regulations.
Representative Lauren Arthur (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The House also voted to require companies to have policies on protecting the personal information of riders. That was proposed by Kansas City Democrat Lauren Arthur.
Missouri School Districts could have new ways to deal with interruptions in students’ education caused by snow days, under a bill being offered in the Missouri House.
Representative Mike Kelley filed HB 127 dealing with school make-up days; his district number also happens to be 127. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The proposal by Lamar Republican Mike Kelley would allow districts to create plans for students to do schoolwork from home on up to 10 days on which school is out of session for inclement weather. These “alternative instruction plans,” could include the use of online work or some other form of activity.
On the days districts utilize those plans, the state would give those districts credit for being in session.
Kelley said the concept could help districts with issues that Janson and other superintendents have raised about the problems with making up excessive missed days at the end of a school year.
The bill would require the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to develop rules regarding these alternative instruction plans. It would allow districts to begin using them in the 2018-19 school year.
The Missouri House has advanced another priority of its Republican supermajority, sending a right-to-work bill to the State Senate.
Representative Holly Rehder carried HB 91, the right-to-work bill passed to the Senate by the House. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
HB 91 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 of violations. It would also negate existing agreements between unions and companies that require the paying of union dues or fees.
Many Republicans, like Representative Rick Brattin (Harrisonville), say right-to-work is an issue of worker freedom.
Democrats like Karla May (St. Louis) say a right-to-work law will let workers who aren’t paying union dues enjoy the salaries and other benefits that unions fight for.
Republican backers say right-to-work will bring more jobs to Missouri, and argue there are many companies that would have come to the state already if it had a right-to-work law.
Representative Clem Smith and other Democrats argue right-to-work will result in lower wages for Missouri workers. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Democrats said the idea that a right-to-work law would result in more companies bringing jobs to Missouri is, “preposterous.”
The House voted 100-59 to send the bill to the Senate.
Sponsor Holly Rehder (R-Sikeston) said she will work next week on more labor reform issues when the Economic Development Committee she chairs holds a hearing on a bill supporters call “paycheck protection,” and opponents call, “paycheck deception.” It would bar the automatic deduction of union fees or dues from a public employee’s pay except with that employee’s annual permission. It would also bar the use of union dues or fees for political campaign donations except with permission from the union members paying them.
The state House has advanced a right-to-work proposal but rejected Democrats’ attempt to have Missourians vote on it.
Representative Doug Beck offered an amendment that would have had a right-to-work proposal go to a vote of the people, if passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Eric Greitens. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Right-to-work is a priority for the Republican super majorities in both chambers and of Governor Eric Greitens (R). The plan the House voted on 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 of violations.
Most Republican House members say the bill would make Missouri more competitive against neighboring states, would increase wages, and argue that requiring union membership violates employees’ rights.
Democrats say right-to-work will lower wages and would be a government overreach into contracts between unions and employers.
St. Louis Democrat Doug Beck proposed an amendment that would put right-to-work before voters if it is passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Greitens.
Representative Holly Rehder (R-Sikeston) is sponsoring right-to-work legislation in the Missouri House. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Republicans like Paul Curtman (R-Union) say voters spoke on the issue when they elected a Republican governor to go with Republican supermajorities.
He said Democrats are calling for a vote on the bill now that there is a Republican governor who won’t veto it, but years ago they opposed a Republican bill that would have put the issue to voters at a time when Democratic Governor Jay Nixon would have vetoed it.
Representative Clem Smith (D-Velda Village Hills) said the argument that the election of a Republican governor means the people want right-to-work doesn’t hold up.
Republican-led opposition carried a vote defeating Beck’s amendment, and the House then voted to advance the right-to-work bill 101-58. Another vote for the bill would send it to the state Senate.
