January 20, 2012

The Missouri Legislature began its third week of the 2012 session.

Governor Nixon announced his State of the State and recommend a $500 million reduction in an effort to balance the state budget.

Higher education received a 12.5% cut in their budgets and over 800 state employees were cut from the employment rolls.

Redistricting dominated discussion in the halls. The Supreme Court struck down the proposed new Senate districts on Tuesday and Congressional redistricting remains uncertain. The decision means the redistricting process must begin again and be finished by February 28th. The current failed attempt by the redistricting committee and two judicial commissions has taken over a year. A highly unlikely scenario would be for the entire process to be repeated in one month.

Speaker Tilley is considering a legislative extension for the process. This is a very unique situation and has not been seen in 40 years at least.

The Governor’s speech touted that the budget has been cut $1.5 billion the last 4 years and that he reduced over 4,100 positions from state government.

The Governor added $5 million to the Education Budget which boosted it to $3.01 billion over $477 million dollars short of what is called for in state statute.

Senate-Commerce, Energy and the Environment Committee
The Senate Committee on Commerce met Tuesday, January 10th and heard several bills.

• SB 592 Modifies the law relating to the Missouri Human Rights Act and employment discrimination. - Hearing Conducted
  
  
• Sen. Lager presented his bill
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• Sen. Green asked about fast tracking the bill noting that he had not had time to read all of the changes.
• Sen. Justus inquired as to if sexual orientation would be protected in the bill.
  
  
• Speaking in favor of the bill were James Paul, Chip Casteel and Ray McCarthy representing AIM, Rich AuBuchon with the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, Dave OverFelt, Bart from Missouri Restaurant Association, and Mike Lodewegen with Missouri School Administrators.
  
  
• Testifying against the bill were Mark Jess with an employment rights law firm, Sara from Deaf Inc. St. Louis, Wayne Lee who is an advocate for people with disabilities, Misty Snodgrass representing the American Cancer Society, the ACLU, Jeremy Lefaver, the Missouri Association of Social Welfare, MNEA, Mary Ratliff, Nimrod Calp with the NAACP.
  
  
• This was the only bill heard in the committee and following the hearing the adjourned.
  
  
• Senator Kiki Curls bill prohibiting those under 18 from selling tobacco products was heard and supported by the American Cancer Society and the Missouri Hospital Association.

Appropriations
Ross McKinstry presented testimony to the House Appropriations Health Committee Thursday afternoon.

The Governor has decreased our public health funding by 27% to $5.7 million a two million dollar cut.

Representative Flanigan the Chair has been contacted and will work with us to restore funding. Senator Schafer, Senate Appropriations Chair has also been helpful.

The frustrating part of the process is that MOALPHA can work the legislative process and the Governor can still withhold funds after the General Assembly adjourns.

Next Week
Unbelievably, the legislature will enter its fourth week of the session. Committee hearings will now begin in dominate.

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