(From Rep. Ingrid Burnett, D-Kansas City)As I was headed into the building on Thursday morning, I rode the elevator with another building employee – perhaps an LA or staff member for another rep.
As our conversation morphed from weather to building security and accessibility, she began to explain to me that the real threat we face is the coming of the anti-Christ who is coming to destroy Christians and make them subservient to his will.
Once we made it inside, I excused myself and went into the café to purchase a cup of coffee. They stream a music service that plays classic hits from the 60s & ’70s and I often get my ideas for my music reference from this encounter. This day, the song that was playing was The Eve of Destruction, by Barry McGuire. It was a weird way to start the day.
Widgets and Wedges Dominate the Week
For the most part, it’s been budget appropriation committees that have dominated the calendar. Speaker Plocher has introduced a different approach to the way the budget will be developed by giving more authority to budget subcommittees.
Widgets and Wedges Dominate the Week
For the most part, it’s been budget appropriation committees that have dominated the calendar. Speaker Plocher has introduced a different approach to the way the budget will be developed by giving more authority to budget subcommittees.
Each subcommittee will amend the budget bills in their possession before sending them to the larger “Big Budget” committee.
While some subcommittee members are also members of Big Budget, not all are. Thus, subcommittees are larger than before with more assembly members investing in the process. I am a member of Big Budget, and I also sit on the Education Approps committee and am the Ranking Member on the Agriculture, Conservation, Natural Resources and EcoDevo Approps Committee. We are through the lion’s share of the department requests and Governor recommendations and will start our amending process probably by the second week of February.
As you heard in his State of the State address, Governor Parson outlined his spending priorities for the upcoming fiscal year including:
· $859 million to expand and rebuild portions of Interstate 70;
· $275 million for capital improvement projects at Missouri's public higher education institutions;
· $250 million to continue broadband internet expansion efforts;
· $233 million to help public schools meet their transportation needs;
As you heard in his State of the State address, Governor Parson outlined his spending priorities for the upcoming fiscal year including:
· $859 million to expand and rebuild portions of Interstate 70;
· $275 million for capital improvement projects at Missouri's public higher education institutions;
· $250 million to continue broadband internet expansion efforts;
· $233 million to help public schools meet their transportation needs;
· $78 million to increase childcare subsidy rates and to establish three new childcare tax credit programs;
· $56 million to expand pre-kindergarten options for all four-year-old-children eligible for free and reduced lunch;
· $50 million for school safety grants;
· $38 million for MoExcels workforce development projects on college campuses;
· $35 million to update railway crossings throughout the state; and
· fully fund the school foundation formula.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the House Elections and Elected Officials Committee endorsed gutting the initiative process and voted to advance four proposed constitutional amendments that either seek to effectively gut the initiative petition process, make it more difficult to amend the Missouri Constitution, or both.
Majority Republicans supported the measures, while minority Democrats opposed them. The initiative petition process empowers Missourians to propose and enact legislation independently of the legislature.
In recent years, it successfully has been used to enact several issues the Republican-controlled General Assembly had long blocked, including Medicaid expansion, legislative ethics reform and legalizing medical and adult recreational marijuana use.
As a result of being bypassed on these and other issues they oppose, Republicans have prioritized making it virtually impossible to enact laws or constitutional changes through the initiative. While some measures would raise the minimum number of signatures required for an initiative to qualify for the ballot, most would impose some kind of supermajority requirement for ratifying constitutional amendments, thus allowing a minority of voters to thwart the will of the majority.
The more straightforward of the proposals would require a two-thirds supermajority of votes cast for ratification. Others are more creative, with one requiring the support of both a simple majority of the statewide vote and majority approval in at least 82 of Missouri’s 163 House Districts to effectively create a rural veto.
As a result of being bypassed on these and other issues they oppose, Republicans have prioritized making it virtually impossible to enact laws or constitutional changes through the initiative. While some measures would raise the minimum number of signatures required for an initiative to qualify for the ballot, most would impose some kind of supermajority requirement for ratifying constitutional amendments, thus allowing a minority of voters to thwart the will of the majority.
The more straightforward of the proposals would require a two-thirds supermajority of votes cast for ratification. Others are more creative, with one requiring the support of both a simple majority of the statewide vote and majority approval in at least 82 of Missouri’s 163 House Districts to effectively create a rural veto.
Two proposals would require amendments to receive support from a simple majority of registered voters, rather than of votes cast, which would set such a high ratification threshold that nearly all ballot measures would fail – even those that somehow managed to achieve 100 percent voter support.
Most of the supermajority requirements would apply only to amendments proposed by the initiative process, while those the legislature put on the ballot could still pass with a simple majority of votes cast. Any of the measures that clear the legislature automatically would go on the November 2024 ballot for voter ratification using the existing simple-majority threshold.
Because restricting or eliminating the initiative process likely isn’t popular, the proposals include deceptive ballot language falsely telling voters they would allow only U.S. citizens to vote on ballot measures. However, the Missouri Constitution already restricts voting to citizens.
Republican bills target transgender children, drag shows
During a 10-hour hearing that stretched into the early morning hours of Jan. 25, the House General Laws Committee considered six Republican bills tightly restricting medical care for transgender children and limiting their participation in youth sports, along with two bills to criminalize drag performances. The bills are part of a national GOP push against LGBTQ rights.
Most of the supermajority requirements would apply only to amendments proposed by the initiative process, while those the legislature put on the ballot could still pass with a simple majority of votes cast. Any of the measures that clear the legislature automatically would go on the November 2024 ballot for voter ratification using the existing simple-majority threshold.
Because restricting or eliminating the initiative process likely isn’t popular, the proposals include deceptive ballot language falsely telling voters they would allow only U.S. citizens to vote on ballot measures. However, the Missouri Constitution already restricts voting to citizens.
Republican bills target transgender children, drag shows
During a 10-hour hearing that stretched into the early morning hours of Jan. 25, the House General Laws Committee considered six Republican bills tightly restricting medical care for transgender children and limiting their participation in youth sports, along with two bills to criminalize drag performances. The bills are part of a national GOP push against LGBTQ rights.
In an attempt to reduce public participation, the hearing was announced with just barely more than the 24-hour minimum public notice required by law. As has happened in previous years, however, the tactic didn’t work and transgender children, along with their parents and supporters, still flooded the Capitol to oppose the bills, far outnumbering the handful of bill proponents who showed up to testify.
Three of the bills seek to ban transgender children from participating in girls’ sports, while another three would prohibit transgender children from receiving gender-affirming medical care.
While the bill’s sponsors said they are necessary to protect children, opponents said they would interfere with the ability of transgender children to live their lives as who they are, jeopardizing both their physical and mental well-being.
The remaining two bills would make it a crime for someone to perform in front of children dressed as a member of the opposite sex – legislation that seems to ignore the long tradition of drag performances in the mainstream, all-ages entertainment that includes several Shakespeare plays, comedian Milton Berle’s 1950s variety show, the long-running TV series M*A*S*H in the 1970s and the hit films Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively.
The committee took no immediate action on any of the bills but is expected to advance at least some of the eight measures at a later hearing. A link to the archived video of the hearing can be found here.
Because of a new policy enacted by the Speaker, except for the Budget Committee, each committee will only be allowed to advance two bills for floor debate prior to Spring Break in March. Therefore, we should expect bills that touch on the same subject to be combined into one.
Meanwhile, the Senate Considers Corporate Income Tax Elimination and Curriculum Bans
On the heels of a $2-billion-a-year individual income tax cut primarily benefiting the wealthy that’s expected to put the Missouri government on shaky financial ground within the next couple of years, the Senate Economic Development and Tax Policy Committee on Jan. 24 heard legislation to completely eliminate the state’s corporate income tax, estimated to cost the state another $712.14 million a year in lost revenue.
Missouri first enacted its corporate income tax, along with the state’s individual income tax, in 1917. The corporate rate topped out at 6.25 percent in 1993 and remained at that level until a series of reductions over the last decade dropped it to the current rate of 4 percent. Starting in 2024, Senate Bill 93 would reduce the corporate rate by one percentage point each year until the tax was completely eliminated in 2027.
The committee also considered a proposed constitutional amendment, Senate Joint Resolution 3, to authorize the legislature to levy sales taxes on digital services, licenses, and subscriptions. Such taxes currently are prohibited under an earlier constitutional amendment Missouri voters ratified in 2016 with 57 percent support. The committee took no immediate action on either SJR 3 or SB 93, both of which are sponsored by Republicans
Committee advances prohibition on teaching about racism
The Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee on Nov. 24 voted for a bill that would prohibit public schools from teaching about the past and present impact of racism on society and require them to teach “the principles of American civics and patriotism.”
Senate Bill 4 would ban K-12 schools from teaching “critical race theory,” a concept taught in some law schools that examines racism’s impact on institutions but that is not taught in Missouri elementary or secondary schools. However, many Republican lawmakers here and elsewhere commonly mischaracterize CRT as part of an effort to prohibit any discussion of race or racism in public schools.
The committee took no immediate action on any of the bills but is expected to advance at least some of the eight measures at a later hearing. A link to the archived video of the hearing can be found here.
Because of a new policy enacted by the Speaker, except for the Budget Committee, each committee will only be allowed to advance two bills for floor debate prior to Spring Break in March. Therefore, we should expect bills that touch on the same subject to be combined into one.
Meanwhile, the Senate Considers Corporate Income Tax Elimination and Curriculum Bans
On the heels of a $2-billion-a-year individual income tax cut primarily benefiting the wealthy that’s expected to put the Missouri government on shaky financial ground within the next couple of years, the Senate Economic Development and Tax Policy Committee on Jan. 24 heard legislation to completely eliminate the state’s corporate income tax, estimated to cost the state another $712.14 million a year in lost revenue.
Missouri first enacted its corporate income tax, along with the state’s individual income tax, in 1917. The corporate rate topped out at 6.25 percent in 1993 and remained at that level until a series of reductions over the last decade dropped it to the current rate of 4 percent. Starting in 2024, Senate Bill 93 would reduce the corporate rate by one percentage point each year until the tax was completely eliminated in 2027.
The committee also considered a proposed constitutional amendment, Senate Joint Resolution 3, to authorize the legislature to levy sales taxes on digital services, licenses, and subscriptions. Such taxes currently are prohibited under an earlier constitutional amendment Missouri voters ratified in 2016 with 57 percent support. The committee took no immediate action on either SJR 3 or SB 93, both of which are sponsored by Republicans
Committee advances prohibition on teaching about racism
The Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee on Nov. 24 voted for a bill that would prohibit public schools from teaching about the past and present impact of racism on society and require them to teach “the principles of American civics and patriotism.”
Senate Bill 4 would ban K-12 schools from teaching “critical race theory,” a concept taught in some law schools that examines racism’s impact on institutions but that is not taught in Missouri elementary or secondary schools. However, many Republican lawmakers here and elsewhere commonly mischaracterize CRT as part of an effort to prohibit any discussion of race or racism in public schools.
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