Legislation Sent to the
Governor’s Desk
With the final week of session approaching, more legislation is moving forward and being approved by the House and Senate. The deadline to finalize legislation is 6 p.m. on May 13. Several pieces of legislation that I am handling in the Senate were recently approved by the chamber. These bills now move to the governor’s desk for his signature.
House Bill 109 would make sure the Linked Deposit Program, which makes low-interest loans available to small businesses and farms throughout the state, will not expire.
House Bill 83 is similar to a bill that I am sponsoring in the Senate (SB 219). The bill would affect local banks in the state by making sure that ATMs are able to charge an additional access fee if someone is making a withdrawal or modification to a bank account in a foreign country.
House Bill 465 is also similar to a Senate bill I proposed this year (SB 306). The bill contains a variety of provisions that would affect credit unions in order to bring their regulation and enforcement up to date. The law relating to credit unions has not been revised in close to 40 years.
House Bill 217 would allow an election authority to use an electronic voter identification system or an electronic signature pad to verify a voter’s address, registration status, and signature information at a polling place. This would allow our election authorities to utilize the new technology available to them to make voting a quicker and easier process.
House Bill 499 would add a licensed counselor to the list of people who can report information to the Department of Revenue regarding a person’s competency to drive. If it is believed a person is incompetent or unqualified to drive, the department director could then require the person to submit to an examination in order to retain his or her license.
A Responsible Budget
This week was the final week to approve and finish work on the state’s budget. This includes the 13 bills that make up the state’s operating budget for the 2012 fiscal year, which begins on July 1, 2011.
This year’s budget was very difficult, and discussions between the House and Senate took time to iron out the differences between the two versions of the bills. Ultimately, the Senate was able to accomplish our goals of increasing funding over the governor’s initial recommendations for higher education and K-12 transportation.
Here are some of the highlights of the $23 billion budget approved by the House and Senate:
* An $8 million increase for in-home care providers over the governor’s budget recommenda-tions.
* Full funding for the Missouri RX program of $19.6 million.
* A $10 million increase for K-12 transportation, compared to the governor’s recommendations.
* A $12 million increase for higher education over the governor’s budget recommen-dation.
Legislature Overrides Governor’s Veto on Congressional Map
Last week, the Senate and House worked to approve a new congressional redistricting map, House Bill 193. This is necessary since the results of the 2010 Census required Missouri to lose a representative in Congress. The new map cuts the number of congressional districts in the state from nine to eight.
Over the weekend, the governor chose to veto the Legislature’s map. Since the governor vetoed the map before the final week of the legislative session, the House and Senate had the opportunity to try to override the veto before the Legislature’s annual veto session in September. Since a veto override requires a two-thirds majority vote, it is more difficult than passing a bill, which requires a simple majority vote. With a Senate vote of 28-6 and a House vote of 109-44, we successfully overrode the governor’s veto, allowing the map to go into effect.
Before this week, the last time the General Assembly successfully overrode a governor’s veto was in 2003 during veto session, when lawmakers voted to overturn three vetoes relating to concealed carry, lawsuits against gun manufactures, and abortion. This is the first time in more than 30 years that the Legislature has overturned a veto during the regular session.
An image of the map approved by the House and Senate is available here:
If you have any questions or comments about this or any other matter regarding your state government, please feel free to contact me at (573) 751-1503; you are also welcome to e-mail me at jay.wasson@senate.mo.gov.
