Top Legislative Issues for 2012
The issues that are likely to rise to the forefront in 2012 include:
JOB CREATION: The No. 1 priority of 2011 that wasn’t acted on, job creation is even more vital in 2012. House Democrats will pursue polices aimed at encouraging businesses to expand hiring while protecting the rights and wages of Missouri workers. Unfortunately, Republican legislative leaders have announced that instead of substantive job creation efforts they will instead pursue an anti-worker agenda that will further depress the state’s economy.
BUDGET: After several years of deep cuts to the state operating budget, another round of cuts is expected for the 2013 fiscal year, which begins July 1. The FY 2013 Consensus Revenue Estimate agreed to by the Nixon administration and House and Senate budget officials predicts net general revenue collections nearly $7.59 billion for an increase of $285 million, or 3.9 percent, over the revised CRE for FY 2012. However, because of the loss of federal stimulus funds that helped to shore up state spending in recent years, it is estimated Missouri will need to make at least $550 million in cuts to cover the shortfall.
EDUCATION FUNDING FORMULA: In 2005, the Republican-controlled General Assembly enacted a new formula for distributing state education funding to local school districts. Instead of being implemented immediately, however, the new formula law had a long, seven-year phase in. House Democrats warned at the time warned that since education formulas typically have a shelf life of no more than a decade, the 2005 formula would obsolete by the time the phase in was complete. They also warned that additional funds promised to schools under the 2005 formula might never materialize.
House Democrats proved right on both accounts. The final year of the phase-in is supposed to occur in FY 2013 (the 2012-2013 school year), but the formula hasn’t been fully funded in recent years and is now out of whack. But with no new money to pump into education, efforts to rewrite the distribution mechanism will create winners and losers among Missouri 522 public school districts.
STUDENTS TRANSFERS: State law allows students whose home school districts lose their state accreditation to transfer to the accredited district of their choice in the same or an adjacent county, with their “home” district obligated to pay tuition to “receiving” districts. After the St. Louis Public Schools lost its accreditation, however, suburban districts in St. Louis County refused to accept transfer students. In 2010, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that transfer law means what it says and that “receiving” districts have no right to refuse such students. Suburban districts, however, continue to resist implementation of the law.
Now that the Kansas City School District has lost its accreditation, the situation has spread to the western side of the state. A push is expected in 2012 to rewrite the law to allow districts the discretion to refuse transfers from unaccredited districts, although changes are expected to be fiercely opposed by school choice advocates.
I-70 TOLL ROAD: The Missouri Department of Transportation will ask lawmakers to approve a plan to rebuild Interstate 70 as a toll road. Because a 1967 Missouri Supreme Court decision prohibits MoDOT from operating toll roads or for using money from the state road fund for their construction or maintenance, MoDOT is seeking legislative approval to lease I-70 to a private contractor, which would finance the interstate’s reconstruction and recoup its investment by operating it as a toll road. Whether MoDOT’s plan clears the constitutional hurdles, however, is questionable and the proposal has so far received a lukewarm response from lawmakers and Gov. Jay Nixon.
EVERYTHING TAX: Republican lawmakers are again expected to pursue a proposed constitutional amendment to eliminate Missouri’s income tax and replace it with a substantially higher sales tax on nearly all goods and services. The everything tax would shift the state’s tax burden from the wealthy to the poor and middle class and also could bankrupt the state since the higher sales tax isn’t expected to be sufficient to cover the revenue lost by abolishing the income tax.
SEXUAL ABUSE REPORTING: In response to the Penn State football program sexual abuse scandal, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is asking the General Assembly to enact a law that would require any person who witnesses the sexual abuse of a child to report it to authorities or face criminal prosecution for failing to do so.
Category: House Updates
