End of Session Report 2006

In addition to measures that deal with motor carrier registrations and newly licensed drivers, this measure exempts Missouri’s citizens over the age of 65 from having to provide a birth certificate to establish lawful presence when seeking to renew a driver’s license. Many elderly Missourians have never had a birth certificate and others have birth certificates with errors. Providing or correcting such birth certificates is currently taking the state months and causing great inconvenience to our elderly family members and neighbors. Anyone who has had a Missouri license for 15 years may receive a 1 year extension to allow time to acquire proper documents.

One of the roadblocks to affordable healthcare is the cost of healthcare supplied through a small employer. This bill should help in giving small employers a way to lower the costs of insurance. Under this legislation small employers can band together with large employers as consortiums to purchase health insurance for their employees. This model allows small employers to have the benefits of size, stability, and randomness in a risk pool that large employers experience when the latter purchases insurance for employees on their own. Small businesses should be able to offer quality benefits, experience lower administrative costs, and more bargaining power in the bid process resulting in lower costs to offer health insurance to their employees.

This legislation should help doctors lower patients’ costs by stabilizing the malpractice insurance rates that physicians pay. The bill requires insurers to report rates they charge customers to the Department of Insurance. The DOI will take that information to establish and publish average base rates according to each risk reporting category. This will create a more transparent approach to setting and adjusting medical malpractice insurance rates. Insurers will also be prohibited from charging excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory rates and from refusing to renew a policy without providing the consumer 60 days’ written notice.

By authorizing a check-off on the Missouri individual and corporate income tax forms for donations for cervical cancer awareness and treatment, this legislation should help programs that assist women with cervical cancer prevention and treatment. The money will be used by the Department of Health and Senior Services to provide information on cervical cancer, early detection, testing and prevention; to collect statistical information on cervical cancer; and to provide services and funding for early detection, testing, and prevention.

To assist Missouri children in establishing strong educational foundations, this legislation will require the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to develop standards for early childhood education programs that receive federal Title I funds or Missouri preschool project funds. The standards must include, among other items, an assessment of needs; a focus on cognitive, language, physical, and social/emotional development; and highly qualified, properly certified teachers. The department must involve representatives of many groups, including the business community, existing early childhood programs, school districts, and private and faith-based providers as they develop these standards.

Some teachers who have recently retired are required to get a background check before returning to school to fill in as a substitute or part-time teacher. Under this bill, the state will not require a background check if a teacher has been retired for less than a year and wants to return as a substitute or part-time teacher. This should remove some of the difficulties faced in finding substitute teachers. School districts will still be allowed to require additional background checks.

The Supreme Court’s June 2005 landmark decision in Kelo v New London cleared the way for governments to take private property on behalf of another private entity for the sole purpose of economic development (e.g. generating tax revenues; creating jobs). HB 1944 ensures economic development can no longer be the sole reason for taking one’s property. Condemning authorities will not be able to exercise eminent domain before determining that property taken will be used for public use or is blighted. The bill also specifies that farmland cannot be blighted, and it implements a number of pro-landowner policies such as the new "heritage value" clause. This clause entitles landowners to 50 percent more than their land is appraised for if they’ve owned the property for 50 or more years. Condemning authorities are also required to give the owner a "landowner’s bill of rights," at least 30 days notice before filing a condemnation petition and 60 days notice before negotiating for property.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This bill prohibits people from engaging in picketing or other protest activities in front of or about any church, cemetery, or funeral establishment an hour before or an hour after a funeral. A church group from Topeka, Kansas has made national headlines protesting the funerals of American soldiers because of American military policies on homosexuality.

This legislation makes several changes to laws relating to sexual offenders. Among other things, the bill increases the minimum penalty from 5 years to 30 years for committing forcible rape or forcible sodomy against children under the age of 12. It prohibits a convicted sexual offender from being present or loitering within 500 feet of a school or building that serves school age children. It also requires more detail in the description of sexual offenders on the state’s sex offender registry and creates a program that will award grants to support efforts to crack down on Internet sex crimes committed against children.

The "Guard at Home" program, effective July 1, 2006, will be an important benefit to hundreds of deserving Missouri families. This program is designed to assist families of active duty National Guard members or reservists who have been deployed for active duty with financial and employment needs and to assist returning guard members with employment and training needs so that they may reenter the workforce. Eligible families will be those in which the primary income-earner was called to active duty for more than four months, and who suffer financial hardships due to a lack of outside resources. Services under the program may include various forms of financial assistance, vocational evaluations, counseling and training, paid internships or subsidized employment, and other job placement assistance.

Property of veteran service organizations like the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars have generally been considered tax exempt because they are devoted to charitable work. However, some county assessors have started taxing the property because the Missouri Constitution does not expressly exempt them from property tax. This measure proposes a constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters, would make the property of veterans organizations exempt from taxation.

This act will put Missouri on the frontlines of bio-fuel production. It requires that all fuel sold as of January 1, 2008 be blended to contain at least 10% ethanol. A distributor will not be held to this 10% standard when purchasing the ethanol blend is more costly than purchasing unblended gasoline. There are other fuels that are exempt from this requirement including fuel used for aircraft, premium gasoline and E75-E85 fuel ethanol.

The state’s Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund is set up to provide a financial "safety net" for those who have lost their jobs at no fault of their own. The fund is paid for through a tax on Missouri employers. Governmental mismanagement has led to the fund going bankrupt requiring benefits to be paid out by way of an expensive federal loan. Also, the current system is setup to provide unemployment benefits to individuals who have been fired for being under the influence of illegal drugs, being drunk or actually drinking alcohol on the job, and for continually being absent and not showing up to their job. By putting a stop to these abusive practices, this bill will help increase assistance for lower wage earners and increase the maximum weekly cap to $320. The bill also will reduce higher tax burdens on employers and pave the way for the preservation of this vital safety net.

This bill will serve to protect the integrity of Missouri voting for years to come. The act protects voters by making subject to criminal prosecution anyone who harasses or intimidates a voter with the intention of keeping him from voting. Under this bill, you can not conduct campaign or election activities within 50 feet of a polling place; the previous boundary was 25 feet. If you use violence or if you knowingly use false information to keep someone from voting you will be charged with a felony. A principal component of the bill is a requirement for voters to bring a government-issued photo ID to the polling place in order to cast a ballot. This change is based on recommendations from the Federal Commission on Election Reform. At least nine mobile units will be employed to assure that Missourians of voter age (more than 95% of whom already have acceptable forms of photo IDs) have the IDs necessary to vote. Also, this bill allows those who do not have photo IDs to be able to cast a provisional ballot.

When it comes to campaign finance, transparency and accountability should be the name of the game. This measure takes Missouri a step closer by prohibiting lobbyists from hiding expenditures meant for legislators in caucuses; future expenses will have to be recorded for each individual legislator. It eliminates special candidate committees, which give legislators an unfair advantage in the election process. To increase uniformity and to increase the speed at which information is available to the public, this bill requires all filings of financial disclosures to be electronic. Under this bill, the Missouri Ethics Commission will take a pro-active, audit-driven rather than complaint-driven process when examining disclosure reports.

Where the Money Comes From...

Where the Money Goes... Out of each dollar: