Rep. Chris Kelly on the Budget Conference Committee

On May 9, two days before the legislative deadline, the Joint House and Senate Conference Committee forged a deal on the state’s $24B budget. Final votes are still needed in both chambers, however.

Among the key decisions in the compromise spending plan:

• A health care program for blind Missourians will receive most of its funding from the state budget.

• Seven universities will split a $3 million boost to higher education funding.

• The Sue Shear Institute for Public Life at the University of Missouri-St. Louis will not be stripped of state dollars.

• Missouri’s seven veterans homes will be funded primarily through the state’s casino entrance fee.

• Most state employees will receive 2 percent raises in the coming year.

St. Louis County Circuit Judge David Lee Vincent III on May 1 ruled that a disputed state law that allows students of unaccredited public school districts to transfer to a nearby accredited district of their choice is an unconstitutional unfunded mandate. The case is expected to be appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court, which has already reversed Vincent once in the case.

The case began in 2007 when the St. Louis Public School District lost its state accreditation and some city residents sought to enroll their children in the Clayton School District with tuition paid for by the St. Louis district, as the law allows. In 2008, Vincent ruled the Clayton district could refuse to accept such transfer students, but the Supreme Court overturned that decision in 2010 and said “receiving” districts have no discretion to turn students away under the law. The high court remanded the case to Vincent for a trial.

Because the law requires the unaccredited “home” district to pay tuition to the “receiving” district but doesn’t provide additional state funding for that purpose, Vincent said it violates the provision of the Missouri Constitution’s Hancock Amendment that prohibits the state from imposing unfunded mandates on local governments. In another case challenging the same law, King-Willmann v. Webster Groves School District, the Supreme Court ruled on March 6 that school districts have no legal standing to raise unfunded mandate claims under the Hancock Amendment and that only taxpayers may do so. In the latest case, however, the Clayton and St. Louis districts recruited taxpayers to intervene in the case and raise the unfunded mandate claim on their behalf.

Vincent also ruled that because the law potentially could allow many thousands of students to transfer from unaccredited districts without regard to the space limitations at receiving districts or the costs to home districts, “compliance is impossible.” In addition to the St. Louis city district, there are two other unaccredited school districts in Missouri – Kansas City and Riverview Gardens in St. Louis County. The case originally was Turner v. Clayton School District but was renamed Breitenfeld v. Clayton School District after the withdrawal of the original lead plaintiff.

FISCAL YEAR 12 REVENUE COLLECTIONS UP 3.1 PERCENT

Year-to-date net state general revenue collections were up 3.1 percent through the first nine months of the 2012 fiscal year compared to the same period in FY 2011, going from $5.81 billion last year to $5.99 billion this year. Net collections increased 6.9 percent in April 2012 compared to April 2011, going from $872.9 million to $933.4 million.

SENATE BACKS CHANGING JUDICIAL SELECTION PROCESS

The Senate on May 1 voted 19-12 in favor of a proposed constitutional amendment that would change the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan to give the governor more influence over the selection state judges. The measure, SJR 51, now goes to the House of Representatives.

The Senate’s approval of the measure is particularly significant because while the House has repeatedly passed proposed changes to the Nonpartisan Court Plan in recent years, such legislation has always died for lack of action in the upper chamber. If the House also approves HJR 51, it will automatically go on the November statewide ballot for voter ratification.

Under the existing system, a seven-member commission is charged will selecting three finalists to fill vacancies on the Missouri Supreme Court and state Court of Appeals, and the governor is required to appoint one of those nominees or forfeit the selection to the commission. The commission consists of three lawyers elected by members of the Missouri Bar, three non-lawyers chosen by the governor and a Supreme Court judge, by tradition the chief justice. Because terms are staggered, the same governor doesn’t have the opportunity to appoint all of the non-lawyer commissioners until he is midway through his second term.

HJR 51 would remove the Supreme Court’s representation on the commission and fill the final voting spot with a fourth non-lawyer chosen by the governor. A retired judge would serve as a non-voting member of the commission, which would submit four finalists to the governor instead of just three. HJR 51 would also change the length of terms so that a governor could appoint a majority of the commission during the single term.

GOP LAWMAKER COMES OUT AS GAY, BLASTS ANTI-GAY BILL

State Rep. Zachary Wyatt, R-Green Castle, on May 2 publicly announced that he is gay and denounced controversial legislation supported by Republican leaders in the House of Representatives that would outlaw any discussion of sexual orientation in public schools. Wyatt, flanked by fellow from both political parties, made his comments at a news conference on the bill in the Missouri Capitol. Wyatt is believed to be the only openly gay Republican currently serving in any state legislature in the country.

Wyatt said he was speaking out “as a proud Republican, a proud veteran and a proud gay man who want to protect all kids by addressing bullying in our schools.” Critics of the so-called “don’t say gay” bill, HB 2051, argue it would discourage Missouri school officials from protecting gay teens against bullying based on their sexual orientation. The bill has brought national negative attention to Missouri in recent weeks, including a blistering segment by political satirist Stephen Colbert on the April 30 broadcast of “The Colbert Report.”

The General Assembly on May 2 gave final approval to legislation that would shorten the sentences of certain non-violent offenders who are placed on probation or parole. The bill, HB 1525, is intended to bring probation and parole terms in Missouri more in line with the lower national average and reduce costs in the state corrections system.

The bill passed 150-0 in the House of Representatives and 24-3 in the Senate. It now goes to Gov. Jay Nixon to be signed into law or vetoed.

Mizzou ’39 is a program of the Mizzou Alumni Association and Student Board that recognizes graduating senior student leaders.  Thirty-nine students are selected to recognize the founding of the University in 1839.  The recipients were selected based on their academic achievement, leadership and service to Mizzou and the community.  The new class of recipients was honored at a banquet at the Reynolds Alumni Center on February 11.

Lauren is a Biochemistry major and is a constituent in the 24th Legislative District.  Congratulations, Lauren!

The Senate on April 25 approved its version of the $24 billion state operating budget for the 2013 fiscal year, which begins July 1. Senators traditionally defer to decisions made by the Senate Appropriations Committee and propose only minor changes to budget bills. This year, however, senators made significant revisions to the committee’s proposed budget in repudiation of its chairman, state Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia.

Senators voted 18-16 to fully restore funding for health care services for the blind. The House had eliminated the $28 million program, although Schaefer partially restored it in committee. The Senate also dropped a plan approved by the Appropriations Committee to eliminate state child care assistance for nearly 3,900 children and reduce subsidies for another 2,300 kids.

Negotiators from the Senate and House of Representatives must now work out final versions of the 13 appropriations bills that make up the state operating budget. Lawmakers face a May 11 constitutional deadline for finalizing the budget.

Key areas that won’t be up for negotiation are funding for local public schools and the state’s public colleges and universities. Both chambers agreed to hold higher education funding flat from the current fiscal year and provide a very slight increase in state aid to local school districts. Since there are no differences on those spending items, they are essentially locked into the final budget.

STATE AUDITOR REFUSING TO FOLLOW BALLOT MEASURE LAW

Frustrated by a trio of recent circuit court decisions, State Auditor Thomas Schweich has said his office will no longer prepare fiscal estimates for proposed statewide ballot measures despite a state law that requires the auditor to do so. Schweich’s directive came in an internal memo to his staff obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request.

In recent weeks, three different Cole County Circuit Court judges struck down ballot fiscal summaries prepared by Schweich, a Republican. One judge went so far as to declare unconstitutional the 1997 that law assigns the task to the auditor, although another judge specifically upheld the statute. The law will remain in effect unless the Missouri Supreme Court also rules it unconstitutional.

Instead of preparing fiscal summaries, Schweich’s memo directs his staff in the future to provide a uniform statement for ballot measures that simply says: “It is impossible to state the fiscal impact.”

HOUSE MOVES TO WEAKEN WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTIONS

The House of Representatives on April 26 voted 86-66 in favor of legislation that would weaken legal protections for whistleblowers who report illegal or unethical activities by their employers. The bill, HB 2099, received just three more votes than the minimum needed to send it to the Senate.

The weakening of whistleblower protections was also contained in a more expansive bill that cleared the Republican-controlled General Assembly earlier this year but was vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat. The main provisions of that bill would have made it easier for employers to escape legal responsibility for discriminating against workers based on religion, race, gender or disability. In the wake of that veto, Republicans opted to pursue legislation limited to the whistleblower provisions.

CONTROVERSIAL ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL WON’T ADVANCE

House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee Chairman Scott Dieckhaus said the panel will take no action on controversial legislation supported by House Republican leaders that would outlaw any discussion of sexual orientation in public schools, the St. Louis Beacon reported on April 24. Dieckhaus, R-Washington, said his committee won’t even hold a public hearing on the bill.

HB 2051 sparked nationwide condemnation shortly after it was assigned to the education committee on April 18. The one-sentence bill says: “Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, no instruction, material, or extracurricular activity sponsored by a public school that discusses sexual orientation other than in scientific instruction concerning human reproduction shall be provided in any public school.”

Opponents promptly dubbed it the “don’t say gay” bill and said it is designed to prohibit support groups for gay teens from forming in public schools and would discourage school officials from cracking down on the bullying of gay students.

An April 13 ruling by a state judge likely will prevent a proposed constitutional amendment from appearing on the November ballot that seeks to eliminate Missouri’s income tax and potentially replace it with a substantially higher and more expansive sales tax. Retired mega-millionaire Rex Sinquefield of St. Louis, who is philosophically opposed to income taxes, was bankrolling the initiative petition drive to put the proposal before voters.

In addition to eliminating the income tax, Sinquefield’s proposal would also eliminate the existing 3 percent state sales tax for general revenue. The General Assembly would be allowed to enact a new general revenue sales tax of up to 7 percent on most items, with a maximum of 5.5 percent for food. The new 7 percent sales tax would apply to services, which aren’t currently taxed, in addition to goods.

In preparing a fiscal summary for the proposal, State Auditor Thomas Schweich said the financial impact on the state would range from a loss of $1.5 billion in state revenues to a potential gain of $300 million due to the expanded sales tax. Schweich’s estimate assumed the General Assembly would enact a new sales tax at the maximum rate.

However, Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce declared Schweich’s fiscal summary to be “insufficient, unfair and likely to deceive petition signers and voters.” Joyce said Schweich based his estimate almost solely on information submitted by a Sinquefield operative, whom Joyce described as “not credible,” and ignored credible contrary evidence submitted by others.

Joyce also said it’s wrong assume the General Assembly would enact a new sales tax at the maximum rate – or enact a new sales tax at all. The only thing that would be known for certain, Joyce said, is that the proposed amendment would eliminate the state income tax and existing general revenue sales tax, which would cost the state $7.5 billion in revenue. Total general revenue collections for the upcoming fiscal year are expected to be about $8.1 billion.

Joyce rewrote the ballot question prepared by Secretary of State Robin Carnahan to reflect that the General Assembly couldn’t be compelled to replace the repealed taxes and directed Schweich to develop an accurate fiscal summary. As a result, it is highly unlikely supporters will have time to gather new signatures before the May 6 deadline for submitting initiative petitions for the November ballot. Schweich plans to appeal Joyce’s ruling.

STATE BOARD VOTES TO CLOSE SIX CHARTER SCHOOLS

The Missouri State Board of Education on April 17 voted to close six charter schools in St. Louis operated by the Virginia-based management company Imagine Schools Inc. The school board cited poor academic performance and financial mismanagement as the reasons for its decision. The schools, which serve more than 3,800 St. Louis students, will close at the end of the 2011-2012 academic year.

Charter schools, which are public schools that operate independently of their local school districts, are required to have a sponsor to oversee their operations. The Imagine schools until recently had been overseen by Missouri Baptist University, which voluntarily surrendered sponsorship. Under state law, the State Board of Education assumed sponsorship of the schools.

NIXON MAKES APPOINTMENT TO STATE COURT OF APPEALS

Gov. Jay Nixon on April 12 appointed St. Louis Circuit Judge Angela Quigless to the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District. Quigless replaces George Draper, whom Nixon elevated to the Missouri Supreme Court last year.

Quigless, 53, is a 1984 graduate of the St. Louis University School of Law. Gov. Mel Carnahan appointed her as an associate circuit judge in 1995, and Gov. Bob Holden elevated her to a full circuit judgeship in 2003. Quigless will be the lone African-American on the Eastern District bench, as Draper had been at the time of his promotion.

Nixon selected Quigless from among three nominees submitted by the state Appellate Judicial Commission under the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan. The other finalists were attorney Gretchen Garrison of St. Louis and St. Louis Circuit Judge Lisa Van Amburg.

STATE ADDS JOBS BUT UNEMPLOYMENT RATE HOLDS STEADY

Missouri added roughly 4,800 jobs in March for the third straight month of job growth. The state’s unemployment rate for the month, however, held steady at 7.4 percent. Missouri’s unemployment rate for March remained below the national average of 8.2 percent.

The Senate Appropriations Committee has agreed to cut about $25 million in state and federal child subsidies that assist low-income Missouri parents with child care costs so that they can afford to work. The cut was to the $199 million the House of Representatives had approved for child care subsidies.

Missouri provides child care subsidies for about 47,000 children whose parents earn incomes of less than 122 percent of the federal poverty level, or $23,290 a year for a family of three. Under the Senate committee cut, the threshold for qualifying for child care assistance would drop to 103 percent of the federal poverty level, or $19,663 annually for a family of three.

According to figures calculated by the Missouri Department of Social Services for The Associated Press, 3,860 children would lose state subsidies entirely, while another 2,330 would receive reduced subsidies. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Kurt Schaeffer, R-Columbia, said the cuts were necessary to help balance the $24 billion state operating budget. Opponents of the cut said it would be counterproductive as it would make child care unaffordable for many low-income workers and force them to choose between working and staying home with their children.

SENATE ENDORSES CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION

The Senate on April 11 gave first-round approval on a voice vote to legislation that would allow charter schools to be established in any public school district in the state. The bill, SB 576, requires another vote to move to the House of Representatives.

Charter schools are taxpayer funded but operate independently of the local school district in which they are located. Existing state law allows charter schools to be formed only within the Kansas City and St. Louis school districts. SB 576 would allow charter schools to be established in any school district that has lost its state accreditation or those that have been provisionally accredited for three consecutive years. Charter schools also would be allowed in fully accredited districts, but only if sponsored by the local board of education. Charter schools typically are sponsored by universities.

Charter schools have proved something of a mixed bag since they were first established in Missouri in the late 1990s. While some have been successful, others have been plagued by financial and management problems and many have produced worse student achievement results than their local school district.

HOUSE ATTEMPTS TO REWRITE PHOTO ID BALLOT WORDING

The House of Representatives on April 11 voted 102-55 in favor of a resolution that seeks to write new ballot language for a proposed constitutional amendment that will appear on the November statewide ballot that would give the General Assembly the authority to impose a photo voter identification requirement. The resolution, HCR 53, passed on a straight party line vote with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed.

Lawmakers passed the proposed constitutional amendment, SJR 2, last year and included ballot language that asked voters to approve the “Voter Protection Act.” Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce recently invalidated the language as “insufficient and unfair” because the actual proposed amendment makes no mention of such an act. Although HCR 53 purports to provide new language, the General Assembly can’t by resolution amend legislation passed in a previous year. The resolution now goes to the Senate.

IMPROVED UNEMPLOYMENT ENDS EXTENDED FEDERAL HELP

Due to a steadily declining unemployment rate, about 9,000 Missourians who have been without jobs for lengthy periods will no longer qualify for extended unemployment benefits from the federal government, the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations has announced. The extended benefits program continues payments to those whose regular state and federal unemployment rates have been exhausted. Missouri’s unemployment rate stood at 7.4 percent in February for its lowest level in 38 months. Unemployment in the state peaked at 9.7 percent in August 2009.

HOUSE VOTES TO INCLUDE CELL PHONES ON NO-CALL LIST

The House of Representatives on April 12 approved legislation to allow cellular phone numbers to be included on the state’s telemarketing No Call List. Under the existing No Call law, which was enacted before cell phone use became as widespread as it is today, only residential phone numbers may be included. The law prohibits telemarketers, with some exceptions, from making unsolicited call to phone numbers on the list. The bill, HB 1549, now goes to the Senate.

The Senate Appropriations Committee has agreed to follow the House of Representatives lead on sparing public colleges and universities from funding cuts in the state operating budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Gov. Jay Nixon had recommended reducing higher education appropriations by about $66 million when he offered his proposed $24 billion state operating budget.

The Republican-controlled House, which passed its version of the budget last month, spared colleges and universities from cuts in part by eliminating a $30 million program that provides health care for the blind. The Senate committee, which is also Republican controlled, has yet to decide if it will go along with the elimination of that program, which the governor opposes.

The Senate committee also modified a plan to provide many state employees with their first pay raises in four years. Nixon had recommended giving all state workers a 2 percent increase but not until Jan. 1 – halfway through the fiscal year. The House approved providing an immediate 2 percent raise, but only for employees who earn less than $70,000 a year. The Senate committee endorsed providing the immediate raise only to workers earning less than $45,000 annually.

Once the Senate committee finishes work on the 13 appropriations bill that make up the state operating budget, the bills will go before the full Senate for debate. After the Senate approves them, negotiators from both legislative chambers will work out a final version of the budget, which must win approval by a constitutional deadline of May 11.

SENATE VOTES FOR HIGHER HURDLE FOR TEACHER TENURE

The Senate on April 5 gave first-round approval to legislation that would double the amount of time a teacher must work for the same public school district in order to earn tenure. The bill requires another Senate vote to move to the House of Representatives.

SB 806 originally would have eliminated teacher tenure outright, but the Senate on April 3 voted 17-15 to gut the bill by amending it to merely call for a study of tenure, not its elimination. That action prompted the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, to temporarily shelve the measure before revising it to extend the years of service a teacher must put in to earn tenure from five years to 10 years. The longer vesting period would apply only to teachers who haven’t yet earned tenure by Aug. 28 of this year.

Opponents of teacher tenure contend it makes it virtually impossible to fire bad teachers. Supporters say that simply isn’t true and tenured teachers can still be dismissed for poor performance or other legitimate cause but that tenure merely entitles them to due process. The tenure bill is SB 806.

HOUSE COMMITTEE SEEKS TO REPLACE VOTER ID LANGUAGE

The House Elections Committee on April 3 approved a resolution aimed at replacing ballot language that a circuit judge invalidated a week earlier on a proposed constitutional amendment slated for the November statewide ballot that would grant the lawmakers the authority to impose photo voter identification requirements. It is appears unlikely, however, that the resolution would achieve its purpose.

The General Assembly passed the photo voter ID amendment, SJR 2, last year and in it included misleading ballot language that asked voters to approve the “Voter Protection Act,” even though the actual proposed amendment makes no mention of such an act and would instead restrict voting rights and potentially disenfranchise Missourians who don’t have a government-issued photo ID. In vacating the legislative ballot language, Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce said lawmakers should be given another opportunity to write valid language. It doesn’t appear, however, that lawmakers still posses the legal authority to modify legislation that passed a year ago.

HCR 53 nonetheless makes the attempt by creating replacement ballot language. The problem is the measure is a concurrent resolution without force and effect of law. As a result, it doesn’t appear that the Secretary of State’s Office, which is responsible for certifying ballot questions, could legally accept the new language. HCR 53 now goes before the full House of Representatives for debate.

HOUSE APPROVES ALLOWING ADVERTISING ON SCHOOL BUSES

The House of Representatives on April 5 narrowly approved legislation to allow school districts to sell advertising space on their buses. The bill, HB 1273, passed 83-65 and with just one more vote than the minimum necessary to send it to the Senate.

Supporters said allowing advertising on school buses would provide local districts a way to generate much-needed revenue. Opponents are concerned it would provide advertisers another opportunity to market junk food and other products to children. Although the bill wouldn’t prohibit most advertising targeting children, it would bar ads relating to alcohol, tobacco products or gambling, as well as those that are sexually explicit, political or religious in nature.

Just three hours before the candidate filing period for the August party primaries was to end on March 27, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the new redistricting plan for the 163 seats in the state House of Representatives. The court’s action came in a two-sentence order stating that it was affirming the decision of a lower court and would issue a full opinion explaining its rationale at a later date.

House districts were redrawn last year to reflect population changes under the 2010 U.S. Census. A bipartisan group of plaintiffs, including past and present lawmakers from both parties, challenged the redistricting plan on claims that it violated state constitutional requirements that districts be compact, contiguous and roughly equal in population.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on Feb. 27, just one day before the start of candidate filing. Although filing opened as scheduled under the new House map, a cloud of uncertainty hovered over the process until the court announced its decision.

The court has yet to rule in another case challenging the constitutionality of a redistricting plan for Missouri’s eight congressional districts. Filing for congressional races also closed on March 27. The court ruled the initial redistricting plan for the state Senate unconstitutional in January, prompting the creation of revised districts that were finalized midway through the candidate filing period.

HOUSE ENDORSES STREAMLINING SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY

The House of Representatives on March 29 voted 126-20 to streamline Missouri’s sex offender registry to focus on serious offenders and allow many of those convicted of minor offenses to be removed from the list. The bill, HB 1700, now goes to the Senate.

Missouri lawmakers established the sex offender registry in 1995 and over the years have expanded it to the point where many people in law enforcement and the criminal justice system believe it has become overly broad and doesn’t differentiate between offenders who are a potential threat and those that aren’t.

Offenses that are only peripherally sexual in nature or otherwise don’t involve actual contact are among those that would no longer require registration. Names of offenders convicted of serious crimes, such as rape or sexual offenses involving children, would continue to appear on the registry.

JUDGE STRIKES DOWN PHOTO VOTER ID BALLOT WORDING

Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce on March 27 declared ballot language on a proposed constitutional amendment that would grant the General Assembly the authority to require voters to show government-issued photo identification in order to cast a ballot to be “insufficient and unfair.” Joyce only vacated the ballot language and not the proposed amendment itself, and the process for getting new ballot language is unclear.

Lawmakers passed the proposed amendment, SJR 2, last year, and it is to appear on the November statewide ballot. Although the job of writing ballot language usually belongs to the secretary of state, the General Assembly invoked a rarely used state law to write the ballot language into SJR 2. That language says: “Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to adopt the Voter Protection Act and allow the General Assembly to provide by general law for advance voting prior to election day, voter photo identification requirements, and voter requirements based on whether one appears to vote in person or by absentee ballot?”

Joyce said the legislative ballot language was misleading because the actual amendment makes no mention of a “Voter Protection Act.” She also noted that lawmakers already have the authority to establish early voting, so the amendment wouldn’t create a new power as the ballot language implies. Joyce further found the amendment would actually restrict the legislature’s power to allow early voting.

The General Assembly has only written ballot language for measures it has put before voters twice previously, and SJR 2 marks the first time legislative ballot language has been invalidated. While state law establishes a process for getting new language when that written by the secretary state is struck down, it is silent as to what should happen in the case of legislative ballot language. Although Joyce’s ruling says the General Assembly should have the chance to fix the language, it is procedurally unclear how it would do so.
SENATE, HOUSE PASS BILLS TO RESTRICT BIRTH CONTROL

The Senate on March 29 gave final approval to legislation that would give employers the power to determine if their female workers would have access to birth control under a company’s employee health insurance plan. The bill, Senate Bill 749, now goes to the House of Representatives for further action.

The House, meanwhile, voted 113-41 on the same day to send a bill to the Senate that would give the any health care professional the right to refuse a woman access to contraception or other medical services. That bill, HB 1541, also contains a highly unorthodox provision that would grant the bill’s sponsor, House Minority Leader Tim Jones, R-Eureka, and any of the other 44 lawmakers who co-sponsored the bill the legal right to intervene in any lawsuit challenging the validity of the legislation.

SENATE VOTES TO OVERRIDE WORKERS’ COMP BILL VETO

The Senate on March 29 voted 24-9 to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of bill to revise state workers’ compensation laws. The override effort moves to the House of Representatives, where the chances of mustering the necessary two-thirds majority are considered low. The House originally passed the bill 87-68 earlier this year; an override requires 109 votes. Nixon vetoed the bill earlier this month because he said it would unfairly prohibit worker lawsuits over certain types of employment-related occupational diseases.

SENATE PANEL APPROVES JOINT TICKET LEGISLATION

The Senate Financial and Governmental Organizations and Elections Committee on March 26 approved a pair of measures that would require Missouri governors and lieutenant governors to be elected as a team. Both proposals now go to the full Senate.

The state’s top two executive branch officers have been independently elected since Missouri became a state. In five of the last nine elections for the two offices, Missouri voters have selected governors and lieutenant governors of different parties.

SJR 30 asks voters to amend the Missouri Constitution to require joint election of the two offices. SB 475, which would be contingent on voter ratification of SJR 30, would give a party’s gubernatorial nominee to sole authority to pick his or her running mate as lieutenant governor.

The Senate Apportionment Commission on March 12 unanimously approved a final redistricting plan for the state Senate. The commission made only minor changes to the tentative plan it had submitted on Feb. 23. The changes primarily tweaked boundaries in the Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield areas to make districts more equal in population. Two outstate counties, Chariton and St. Clair, were shifted to different districts, also for population reasons.

A federal lawsuit that had been filed on March 2 challenging the tentative Senate redistricting plan was dropped one day after the final map was submitted. The plaintiffs in that lawsuit had contended the tentative plan unconstitutionally favored urban and suburban areas over rural areas.

Only half of the Senate’s 34 seats are up for election every two years, with odd-numbered districts on the ballot in 2012. Senators from odd-numbered will be chosen under the “new” map, while senators from even-numbered districts who were last elected in 2010 will continue to serve from their “old” districts until the 2014 elections, when the even-numbered districts under the “new” map will be used for the first time.

This was the second round of Senate redistricting to account for population changes under the 2010 U.S. Census. The process restarted in January after Missouri Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a Senate redistricting proposal that was filed last year.

Because the latest Senate redistricting plan wasn’t finalized when candidate filing for the August party primaries began on Feb. 28, the Secretary of State’s Office allowed candidates to file under both the tentative redistricting plan and the existing Senate districts that were created in 2001. Candidates who filed in districts that they aren’t eligible to run in under the new redistricting plan will be forced to withdraw. Candidate filing runs through March 27.

NIXON, ADVOCATES FOR THE BLIND OPPOSE HEALTH CUTS

Gov. Jay Nixon and leaders from the Missouri Council for the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind-Missouri held a rally in Columbia on March 13 to urge the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to abandon plans to eliminate health care coverage for the blind from the fiscal year 2013 state operating budget. The House will begin debate on the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, after it returns from its annual spring recess on March 19.

The House Budget Committee endorsed eliminating the $30 million health care program for the blind on March 7. Republicans want to use the savings to help avoid cuts to public colleges and universities that Nixon has proposed to keep the budget in balance.

“Preserving our health care program for the blind will give these valuable citizens access to the care and treatment they need,” Nixon said. “It will preserve Missouri’s legacy as a place of compassion and support. And it will save lives. I call on the House of Representatives to restore full funding for our health care program for the blind – and do so right away.”