February 4, 2011

The legislature had an abbreviated session this week as the general Assembly met on Monday and then basically adjourned Tuesday. Officially Wednesday and Thursday the House and Senate adjourned with “technical sessions” both days for business purposes only.

In a sad note Representative Wanda Brown (Clinton) had an automobile accident Monday on her way to Jefferson City in the storm. She suffered neck and back injuries and will require a great deal of rehabilitation. However, recovery looks very good.

Committee hearings will be intense next week as the legislature attempts to make up for the “lost” days of this week.

News this week includes:

Legislative Action on Revenue Related Bills
An additional “fair tax” proposal was introduced by Rep. Chris Kelly this week.  HB 152 would decrease the individual income tax rate, eliminate the corporate income tax, and expand the sales tax to cover services.  While the bill modifies broader mega-tax proposals, tweaks cannot fix the underlying problems of the concept.  HB 152 and HJR 8, which proposes a constitutional amendment to eliminate personal and corporate income taxes and broaden and increase the sales tax on products and services, have both been referred to the House Tax Reform Committee.  The Senate’s version of the constitutional amendment proposal, SJR 1, was referred to the Ways and Means and Fiscal Oversight Committee. 

Sen. Will Kraus introduced SJR 8, a proposal for a constitutional amendment that would establish a revenue lid for the state.  The amendment, if passed by voters, would require the state to provide refunds to taxpayers if revenue increased by more than five percent over the previous fiscal year.  Like other TABOR revenue lids, the bill is problematic because it permanently locks the state into the current revenue crisis and threatens the ability of future legislatures to respond to the state’s changing needs and adequately fund basic state services.  The bill was referred to the Ways and Means and Fiscal Oversight Committee. 

 Senate Judiciary
The Workers Compensation bill (Goodman) was voted out Monday evening. Employers are required to furnish workers' compensation for injury or death caused by occupational disease.

This act ensures that co-employees shall be released from liability for all workplace injuries under the workers' compensation system except that the employee shall not be released from liability for injury or death caused by that employee's unprovoked violence or assault against another employee.

Senate Financial and Government Organizations
Senate Bill 105 (Green) was voted DO Pass creating an advance voting system for elections. This act creates a system to allow voters to cast advance ballots at central voting locations and satellite sites. The advance voting period will begin the third Wednesday prior to an election and shall be conducted between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. and until 12:00 p.m. on Saturdays. The election authority shall consider factors including geographic location and demographics of the registered voters from the previous election to ensure nondiscrimination and provide adequate notice of the central locations and the satellite sites that are chosen.

Election authorities shall create lists of names and addresses of each voter casting an advance ballot and such lists shall be confidential until 8:00 a.m. on the Friday before the election. Upon expiration of the confidential period, authorized individuals are entitled to view the lists and the election authority may make copies of the lists available to those individuals for a fee. A violation of confidentiality is a class four election offense. Provisions regarding advance voting become effective January 1, 2012.

This act is similar to SB 859 (2006), SB 37 (2007), SB 1251 (2008), SB 523 (2009), SB 21 (2009), and SB 651 (2010).

TANF
HB 73 was passed on Monday 116 to 27 requiring testing of suspected drug users receiving TANF dollars. Proponents have consistently remarked that DOSS will do the testing.

Next Week
The Senate begins debate on several major initiatives.

SB 8 restricting co-employee liability in workers compensation cases. In addition, Senator Schmitt’s legislation capping the corporate income tax rate at two million dollars will be discussed.

The House will address SB 8’s companion workers’ compensation bill HB 91 and HB 162 Fisher specifying that an employer subject to workers compensation provisions must be liable to furnish compensation for injury or death of an employee by occupational disease.

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