Bills sponsored by Hunter change over years

There was a time when State Rep. Steve Hunter, R-Joplin, had a broader interest than business-based legislation.
In his first year in the Missouri legislature, Hunter didn't sponsor any bills, but he co-sponsored a bill which would have regulated internet access for minors, and another similar to the one signed into law by Governor Matt Blunt Thursday restricting the sale of precursors for making methamphetamine.
In 2002, Hunter was involved in legislation that, had it been passed by the General Assembly, would have increased the fee for admission to casinos by a dollar and put that extra money into funding performance-based salary increases for teachers. He co-sponsored a bill that would have prevented students who committed any kind of felony sex crime from being readmitted to public schools.
The 2003 legislative session, Hunter sponsored a bill which would have exempted food sales made by religious, charitable and nonprofit organizations from the state food code laws and rules and another law which would have made manufacturing a controlled substance within 2,000 feet of a school a felony.
The 2003 legislative session ended in May, and to all intents and purposes that was also the end of the Steve Hunter who didn't concentrate on pro-business legislation.
What happened in the meantime?
Approximately three weeks after the end of the 2003 General Assembly, Steve Hunter was hired as a membership recruiter for Associated Industries of Missouri, a powerful pro-business lobbying organization. Financial disclosure forms filed by Hunter with the Missouri Ethics Commission indicate that he was employed by the organization in 2003 and 2004 and received at least $1,000 from it in both years. Unfortunately, all officeholders are required to state on these forms is if they received $1,000, they do not have to be specific.
Perhaps it was Hunter's prior business experience that made him attractive to Associated Industries. Or perhaps it was because he was chairman of the House Workforce Development and Workplace Safety Committee...the committee that deals with the workers' compensation legislation that has been so important to Missouri businesses, as well as being a member of the interim committee on Job Creation and Economic Development.
Ethics Commission records show that in 2003, Hunter received $216.25 in gifts from Associated Industries lobbyists, including $112.60 on four dates in October and November, well after he began working for the organization.
The expenditure reports show Hunter received $8.81 for meals, food, and beverage from lobbyist James W. Kistler on Nov. 13, 2003, as well as $65 in travel from Kistler on the same date. Hunter had another $21.72 for meal, food and beverage from Kistler two days later. The expenditure forms show an $8 meal from Kistler on Nov. 12 and a $9.07 meal from him on Oct. 22.
Other dates on which the Joplin legislator received gifts from Associated Industries lobbyists during the 2003 session were:
Jan. 21- $35.75 for meals from David Smith
April 9- $26.23 for meals from Smith
May 1- $31.59 for meals from Smith
May 21- $10.08 for meals from Gary Marble, Associated Industries president and former representative from Neosho
Those gifts were among the $2,025.17 Hunter received from lobbyists during the 2003 calendar year, again ranking him among the top legislators in that category.
During the 2005 legislative session, it appeared that Hunter carried the ball for his other employer while he was being paid to work for the taxpayers. He sponsored the workers' compensation bill that had been aggressively pushed by Associated Industries and when the legislative session ended last month, Hunter put on his other hat and went to six "Lunch and Learn" presentations put on by Associated Industries. At those sessions, he explained how his legislation would benefit them.
As a legislator, Hunter also sponsored three bills his other employer favors that would have crippled labor unions in the state.
A few months after Hunter began his other job, reporter Aaron Kessler of The Joplin Globe asked him if the new job didn't present him with a conflict of interest. "I don't see it as a conflict of interest at all," Hunter told The Globe, adding he would not benefit "one iota" from his position as a state representative.
"We're citizen legislators, not full-time," Hunter told the newspaper. "I'm like an outside salesman (for Associated Industries). It's not a conflict."
For the record, according to the last Missouri State Manual (the blue book), state representatives, including Hunter, receive "a salary of $31,351 per year, a weekly allowance for
miles traveled going to and returning from their place of meeting and expenses for each day the
General Assembly is in session."
It might be added that Hunter's 2003 and 2004 financial disclosure forms show that he received more than $1,000 both years from three sources: the Missouri House of Representatives, Associated Industries of Missouri, and Phillips, Ward and Associates, a Joplin advertising firm.
As for what kind of salary Hunter receives from his other job, he would not tell The Globe during that September 2003 interview and neither would Gary Marble, who told the newspaper, "I'd rather not discuss that."
Marble added, "I'm comfortable everything was legal...pure as the driven snow."