Bills are continuing to come out of committees. This week we heard several “consent” bills. A consent bill comes out of committee with unanimous yes votes and then it has to be unanimously voted yes in order to be sent to the floor as a consent bill for a final vote. These bills are to be noncontroversial and have no cost to the State. When a consent bill comes to the floor, it is debated but cannot be amended. If it is passed, a bill will go to the Senate as a standalone bill. Topics linked to consent bills include issues such as naming highways or bridges, a special day or week or month. This week we heard consent bills on surface mining notifications, allowing electronic savings of insurance documents, engineer week, designating US Highway 54 from Missouri border to Missouri border as the “Discover More on Route 54 Highway” plus several other issues. Two of the bills that did not come out of committee as consent were regarding voter photo ID. One bill house.mo.gov/billsummary.aspx?bill=HJR47&year=2014&code=R HJR 47 would allow the voters to decide if a photo ID may be required to vote. The other bill HB 1073 put in grandfather clauses and safe guards to protect the elderly or people who could not afford to obtain a photo ID. I take voting seriously. It is important that the citizens of this state are able to vote but it is equally important to protect the integrity of the voting process. I would like to hear from you on this issue. School funding and tax cuts have been a hot topic in my emails the last couple of weeks. School funding for the year (2014) was already increased 66 million dollars. Next year, 2015, which is the budget we are working on now looks like the House will increase school funding another 100 million dollars. Our budget is required by law to be balanced. As revenues grow, so will school funding. Part of school funding is from property tax. Residential assessments are about 18%, business assessments are about 32% and this is one of the reasons I am a big supporter of small business. Successful businesses in our community help our schools and the stronger our small business community is the better for our schools and that is why I have supported tax breaks for small business. Tax policy does make a difference when it comes to keeping and attracting businesses. Local, small business is so important to our community.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 22:45:37 +0000