Capitol Report, May 12

This week I will recap the bills signed into law by Governor Nixon. Among these have been the appropriation bills for Missouri's FY 17 budget. While governor has often disagreed with the legislature in regard to budget priorities, this year he signed almost all of the Fiscal Year 2017 operating budget into law. In fact, he used his line item veto power on just two funding items approved by the legislature. The first is an appropriation from the World War II Memorial Trust Fund, which the governor said would violate the allowable use of the fund according to state statute. The second funding item he vetoed because he said it would have placed conditions on health information exchange services that would unfairly exempt select providers from the requirement to pay for such services as called for under existing contracts. It is unlikely the House and Senate will attempt overrides on the vetoes of these two items.

As tomorrow is the last day of session, I will concentrate this week on bills that have become law.

TAFP Bills Signed by Governor
SB 585 - Divides the Thirty-Eighth Judicial Circuit and creates a new Forty-Sixth Judicial Circuit: 2/18/2016 - Signed by Governor.

Currently, the Thirty-Eighth Judicial Circuit consists of Christian and Taney counties. The act provides that the Thirty-Eighth Judicial Circuit shall consist of only Christian County and creates a new Forty-Sixth Judicial Circuit consisting of Taney County. The Forty-Sixth Judicial Circuit shall have one circuit judge elected in 2016. Juvenile officers employed in a multicounty circuit which switches to a first class single county circuit on or after August 28, 2016, are state employees and shall receive state- provided benefits.

HB 1979 - Modifies provisions of law relating to public officials becoming lobbyists: 5/6/2016 - Signed by Governor

Under this act, no member of the General Assembly or any statewide elected official shall solicit any registered lobbyist for any position with a hiring date beginning after such person is no longer an elected official, whether compensated or not, while such person holds office. The act also provides that all individuals and business entities are prohibited from soliciting a member of the General Assembly to become a legislative lobbyist while such a member is currently holding office. Furthermore, members of the General Assembly are prohibited from soliciting clients to represent as a legislative lobbyist.

The act also specifies that any person elected or appointed to the office of State Senator, State Representative, or any statewide office who later vacates his or her office may not act, serve, or register as a lobbyist until 6 months after the expiration of the term of office for which the person was elected. This limitation also applies to persons holding an office that requires an appointment by the Governor and confirmation by the Senate. Moreover, the limitation is only applied to lobbyists who are employed by a lobbyist principal for pay or other compensation. These provisions do not apply to lobbyists who act, serve, or register as a lobbyist for a state department or agency.

HB 1983 - Creates new provisions of law relating to elected officials acting as paid political consultants: 4/14/2016 - Signed by Governor.

This act prohibits members of the General Assembly and all statewide elected officials from accepting or receiving compensation of any kind as a paid political consultant for a candidate of a statewide office, state senator, or state representative; the candidate committee of a candidate, statewide office-holder, or member of the General Assembly; the Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, State Auditor, or any member of the General Assembly; any continuing committee; or any campaign committee.

HB 2140 - Creates the "Missouri Task Force on Fair, Nondiscriminatory Local Taxation Concerning Motor Vehicles, Trailers,Boats, and Outboard Motors": 5/4/2016 - Signed by Governor

Under this act, taxing jurisdictions where these taxes were repealed or jurisdictions that failed to put the issue on the ballot before November 2016 may place the issue on any subsequent ballot before 2018 with language outlined in the act. This act also creates the "Missouri Task Force on Fair, Nondiscriminatory Local Taxation Concerning Motor Vehicles, Trailers, Boats, and Outboard Motors." Membership for this task force is outlined in the act. The task force shall attempt to address the disparity in taxation after Street v. Director of Revenue, 361 S.W.3d 355 (Mo. 2012) (en banc), the need for local jurisdictions to receive revenue to provide services required by SB 23 (2013), and the need to not competitively disadvantage Missouri dealers. The task force shall review evidence regarding methods to address the goals of the task force and develop legislation that will not discriminate against Missouri dealers.

HB 2203 - Modifies provisions of law relating to expenditure of campaign committee funds: 5/6/2016 - Signed by Governor.

This act provides that any person who registers as a lobbyist shall dissolve his or her candidate committee. In the course of dissolving any such committee, such officials are only permitted to transfer money from any such committee for the purpose of: returning contributions to donors; donating money to a charitable organization; or transferring money to a political party committee. This act requires funds held in any candidate committee, campaign committee, debt service committee, or exploratory committee to be liquid so that the funds may be readily available for the specific and limited purposes allowed by current law. Committee funds may only be invested in short term treasury instruments or short term bank certificates of one year or less. Such funds are not required to be placed in an interest-bearing account.

The act further prohibits any person who has transferred funds from his or her candidate committee, or any committee over which he or she exerts control over the expenditures of such committee to any committee shall not thereafter be compensated by such committee in any form. Finally, the act provides that no person who registers as a lobbyist shall transfer any funds from a candidate committee, exploratory committee, debt service committee, or continuing committee under his or her control to any such committee controlled by a candidate or public official.

Bills Vetoed by Governor and Overridden by Legislature
SB 586 - Modifies the definition of "current operating expenditures" and "state adequacy target" for the purposes of state funding and applies the definition of "average daily attendance" to charter schools: 5/5/2016 - Legislature voted to override Governor's veto.

This act modifies the definition of "current operating expenditures" by removing the 2010 expiration date on the 5% per calculation cap on the growth of current operating expenditures. The act also modifies the definition of "state adequacy target". The recalculation of the state adequacy target shall never result in a decrease from the state adequacy target as calculated for fiscal years 2017 and 2018 and any state adequacy target figure calculated subsequent to fiscal year 2018. (Section 163.011) The act clarifies that charter schools shall receive early childhood education funding at the same time as the district in which the charter school is located. (Section 163.018).

SCR 46 - Disapproves and suspends the final order of rulemaking for the proposed rule 19 CSR 15-8.410 Personal Care Attendant Wage Range: 5/3/2016 - Legislature voted to override Governor's veto.

Identical to HCR 59, this resolution disapproves and suspends the final order of rulemaking for a rule proposed by the Department of Health and Senior Services relating to personal care attendant wage ranges.

HB 1891 - Creates new provisions of law relating to labor organizations: 5/12/2016 -- House voted to override veto, Senate has not yet taken action.

This act allows public employee labor unions to withhold fees from public employee paychecks only upon the annual consent of the employee. The act also requires the public employee's annual consent for public employee labor unions to use fees and dues for political purposes. Any authorization required by this act may be in written or electronic form. The employee must authorize the amount to be used for political contributions to be transferred to the labor union's continuing committee. Authorizing or refraining from authorizing any amount shall in no way affect employment. Public employee first responders are exempted from these provisions. All public labor organizations are required to maintain financial records in substantially the same form as are required by federal law. Such organizations are further required to make such records available to each public employee it represents, in an electronic searchable format. Represented employees have a right of enforcement of these provisions.