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Throughout
the last quarter century of the 1900’s the Missouri General Assembly annually
adopted between 240 and 280 legislative bills which routinely included
multiple new laws each. Official state policy, laws and governing principles
increasingly became more and more liberal. Missouri Family Network has tracked every single
bill adopted by the State Legislature (and hundreds more which failed
each year) since 1985. Each year,
those newly adopted laws which expanded government, burdened citizens
with higher and higher taxes, undermined traditional values, and ingrained
a liberal anti-family culture that far outweighed the rare conservative
concepts intended to defend and/or support the family which passed through
the legislature.
During this time the majority political party (Democrat)
held up to a two-thirds voting control of the bi-polar lawmaking body. This meant that members of the majority party
in the House and Senate virtually passed whatever bills they wished as
long as it was agreeable with their dully elected party leadership. Meanwhile, minority party members were relegated
to almost non-participants in the legislative process. Minority party bills were normally ignored or
viewed as nonessential contributions to public policy. In the end only a handful of token Republican
bills would make their treacherous way to becoming law in the midst of
hundreds of Democrat sponsored proposals.
For an example of Missouri’s leftward lean consider how lawmakers only needed two
years to eliminate our hundred year tradition of banning all gambling
and only an additional dozen or so years to place the Show Me State in
the top margin of pro-gambling states!
Missouri has led the nation on ‘right-to-die’ legislation (passive
euthanasia), liberalized liquor laws, explicit sex education, homosexual
advocacy (including foster and adoption practices), aggressive eminent
domain takings, and a host of special interest policies.
While it took only one year to grant dogs and cats more
rights to be fed and watered than an elderly person in a hospital – it
took SEVEN long hard years of battle to establish that marriage in Missouri should be limited to one man and one woman! When the state budget grew to almost ten billion
dollars, it took 170 years. When
the budget grew and doubled from ten to almost twenty billion dollars,
it only took another ten years! Finally,
this ‘conservative’ Midwest state is at the top of the list for allowing
child advocacy ‘experts’ to destroy families by taking children away from
their parents with total immunity from violations of their own governing
policies!
As Missouri
moved into the 1980’s the negative principles of unchecked power (festering
for ten to twenty years previously) became overtly evident. The majority political party, both at the state
and national level, had become the established home to a myriad of far
left wing groups and ideologies. Increasingly
Missouri’s political landscape became dominated by pro-abortionist, gambling
interest, homosexual lobbies, civil libertarians, socialist and big government
tax & spenders (just to mention a few).
Into the 1990’s voters began to catch on to the legislative
free-for-all politics responsible for the clear cut decline in the state’s
social character. Average citizens
who were politically detached began to join with pro-family forces who
were crying foul for years. As
a result the two-thirds majority known for treating the hallowed halls
under the dome as a party place saw their majority lead dwindling to a
dangerously thin margin.
It was too late for the arrogance which ultimately toppled
fifty years of Democrat domination. Three
elements were added to the sausage grinder known as the Legislature.
First was a major court case which placed the members of the General
Assembly on notice to discontinue their Christmas tree approach to legislation.
Missouri’s Constitution requires that all the provisions of any
given legislation be related to the general topic of the proposal. Legislative leaders had become sloppy with the
amendment process and bundled all kinds of issues under ridiculous titles.
The Hammerschmit case stopped cold a generation old habit of ignoring
the Constitution and reestablished a firm principle of germane lawmaking. The average size of many bills now being passed
into laws has been slashed in half.
The second and third elements of term limits and redistricting
broke the back of the historic control of Missouri’s legislative arena by a single top heavy political
party. Yet it was not just these
elements alone but these elements in tandem with a fed-up electorate!
As Missouri
entered the new millennium and the State Senate filled three vacant seats
as a result of a trio of special elections in January of 2000, major changes
rocked the state capitol in Jefferson
City. Despite their eroded majority percentage, leaders
of the dominant political party arrogantly pushed aside traditional Democratic
contenders and backed all three districts with candidates whose track
records clearly revealed each of them as far left liberals. Each were pro-abortion, accommodating of homosexual
policies, tax and spend socialist. Simply
put, they were in-your-face social and fiscal liberals!
The results were devastating to the Democrat Party. All three districts were populated with voters
who had favored the Democratic Party to varying degrees. But special elections can attract a lot of attention.
All records were broke on campaign finances.
Virtually every politically active person in Missouri and hundreds from out of state became involved. As a result, voters knew without question the
positions of the candidates. Two
of the three liberal Democrats lost to conservative Republicans.
So, in February of 2000 the balance of control in the Missouri
State Senate was swung away from the Democrat Party and ever so slightly
into the hands of the Republicans. This
established a much bigger problem for the Democrats as the political environment
was not finished shifting. Missouri voters had just handed control of the Senate to the
Republican Party in the same year as redistricting maps were to be drawn
and at a time when a record number of House and Senate members were to
be term limited.
New redistricting maps were drawn with conservative Republican
leaders in charge, at a time when over half of the majority Democrats
in the House had no stake in the outcome. Thus a deeper wound was cut into the Democrat
majority when the new maps were finalized and gave a slight electoral
edge to the Republican Party. The
2002 General Elections secured control of the Senate for the Republicans
and also tossed out Democrat control of the House.
The big surprise was that both the upper and lower chambers gained
even more Republican seats than expected based on the redistricting map
demographics!
Missouri voters have clearly rejected the liberal direction of
the last generation of legislative leaders.
Missourians want more compassionate conservative consideration
given to our culture. The question
is, ‘have we achieved it’?
A review of the bills placed on the Governor’s desk this
year gives us a stab at answering this question. Missouri Family Network has just completed an
evaluation of all the legislative activity results now sitting in front
of the Governor. He has already
vetoed some items and is expected to veto more, but nothing in this report
can authoritatively predict his final decisions to sign bills into law
or veto them, at this time.
In summary the 2001 and 2002 legislative sessions cannot
be compared as normative years. During
these two years the House and Senate were somewhat deadlocked with Democrat
leaders in the House fighting with Republican leaders in the Senate. In the end those years netted fewer bills than
any other year in recent history. With
Republicans now leading the House and Senate over 1,700 bills were introduced
in the Missouri General Assembly and 260 ended up being passed by the
end of the 2003 Session.
The big story this year is not that the volume of legislation
has returned to ‘normal’. It is
not even how that the bills are much more consistent in scope to their
titles. Rather, it is how many
far left issues formerly proposed were not even introduced under Republican
leadership! Suffice it to say that
in the end, an evaluation of all the provisions of this year’s changes
in law is a total reversal from the 80’s and 90’s.
A point by point accounting of the details of every bill
passed during those former decades showed a strong eighty plus percent
(80%+) lean to the liberal left of center on the culture scale. A detailed evaluation of the 260 bills passed
by the new republican legislative leadership shows the exact opposite
with a full 85% of policy issues sitting toward the conservative right
of the cultural scale!
Here is a review of some of the final outcomes of bills
and issues before the 2003 Missouri State Legislature. For a more in depth analysis of issues affecting
the family, contact Kerry Messer of Missouri Family Network to schedule
a speaking engagement or other venue opportunities.
ABORTION & BIOETHICS
Two-thousand and three will go down in Missouri history as
the most pro-life legislative session since the U.S. Supreme Court
struck down all abortion laws in the United States over thirty years ago!
24 Hour Waiting Period – Passed, but is expected to be vetoed by the Governor.
HB 156 requires
any abortion to be performed only after the woman seeking the procedure
has had at least a 24 hour waiting period from her initial visit to arrange
it. There must be a conference
between the woman and the abortionist which provides specific details
to the woman. This conference must be verified as occurring
no less than 24 hours in advance of the abortion and that the procedure
is in compliance with detailed informed consent. This bill, if not vetoed
by the Governor, will give women the opportunity to truly face the decision
to abort before it is too late. As
with many other choices, most folks often regret making all kinds of decisions. This standard is expected to greatly lower abortion
numbers in Missouri.
HB 156 also
requires minimal medical malpractice insurance coverage for anyone performing
an abortion in Missouri.
Equal Rights Amendment – Failed with no attention or time wasted.
HJR 10 & SJR 1 were both designed to provide state constitutional frameworks for forcing
public funded abortions and homosexual marriages upon Missouri. Thankfully these
bills did not pass the House or Senate.
Family Planning – Taken out of the state budget.
HB 10 provides
funding as part of the larger state budget. This portion of the budget has included public
funding for “family planning” services
each of the past ten years. Pro-life
advocates have waged a perennial battle to try to restrict these funds
from being granted to Planned Parenthood or other abortion providers. Every year the courts have thwarted pro-life
efforts and public tax dollars have ended up subsidizing these groups.
This money has never been used to pay for an abortion but
has served to legitimatize abortion providers.
Most offensive is the fact that our taxes used in this program
have been used to provide free contraceptives to minors without parental
consent! It is no less an offense that these funds have
been used for this purpose statewide.
It matters not if a minor receives contraception from an abortion
provider or from a local health department; both are equally offensive
and wrong.
This year HB 10 contains absolutely NO funding for family
planning. The program itself had
been stripped from the budget before it ever made it out of its first
committee!
Human Cloning – Public funding now prohibited.
HB 688 creates
the Life Sciences Trust Fund and a Life Sciences Board. This bill prohibits public funding for any research
involving human cloning or any other prohibited human research which would
involve the use of aborted baby parts or any infant tissue which would
risk a loss of life to an infant. A
child which dies of natural causes could have post-mortem tissue donated
for research only with the consent of the parents.
Parental Consent – Almost passed but did not face a final vote.
SB 34 would
have allowed parents who had someone assist their minor child to cross
state lines in order to obtain an abortion in another state, to civilly
sue such person(s) for damages. Current
research reveals that over 400 Missouri minors enter Illinois each year to avoid Missouri’s parental consent law. State criminal and civil law is prohibited by
interstate commerce laws from having any jurisdiction over states that
do not have a parental consent requirement.
SB 34 attempted to provide parents with the ability to access the
court system and hold anyone assisting a minor in an abortion without
parental consent accountable to civil penalties.
The bill bogged down in negotiations over limited liability amounts
and never received a final debate or vote.
Concerns over a probable veto from the Governor dampened efforts
to push the bill through.
SCR 3 was a
non-binding Senate Concurrent Resolution pleading with the state of Illinois to change its legal guidelines for minors avoiding parental
consent laws from their home states. Illinois is the only state bordering Missouri that refuses to require parental consent. Every other state surrounding Illinois prohibits abortions for minors unless they first obtain
parental consent. Therefore, Illinois abortion clinics benefit financially from several states’
parental consent laws. This resolution
also failed to clear the legislative process (partly because SB 34 had
been given all the attention before the last day of the session when supporters
realized it was also in negotiating trouble).
CRIME
Prevention of new crimes and treating criminals as criminals
and victims as victims are the standards of the majority of lawmakers.
Obviously the same is true of the new House and Senate leadership.
Amber Alert
– Passed and signed into law.
HB 185 & SB 30 both establishes an “Amber Alert” system for Missouri media regions. With
this program electronic media will participate with law enforcement authorities
to broadcast verified information to the general public about child abductions
or other kidnapping victims in a timely manor. The goal of the program is to enable citizens
to assist law enforcement in locating specific automobiles or other pertinent
information to recover abduction victims.
This system has effectively rescued many children and women in
other states.
Capitol Punishment – Attacked but remains intact.
Under current law the only condition for the application
of a death penalty is first degree murder cases. In these cases a jury may sentence the defendant
to life in prison without possibility of parole, or death. If the jury unanimously convicts the killer
of deliberately taking another person’s life, but cannot determine the
penalty to apply, the judge may decide which penalty to impose.
HB 200 &
SB 265 sought to eliminate the responsibility of judges to determine capitol punishments
in cases where the jury is unable to do so. HB 223
& SB 169 attempted
to completely eliminate Missouri’s death penalty, for any reason whatsoever. HB 255
proposed to prohibit capitol punishment for any person found guilty of
first degree murder if the defendant is under the age of 18, even if they
are determined to be an adult for prosecution purposes.
The actions of Governor Ryan in Illinois last fall emboldened Missouri’s anti-capitol punishment crowd and gave concern to
its supporters here in Missouri
this year. In the end none of these bills were given much credibility
and they each failed to travel to the desk in the Missouri governor’s office.
Disease Testing of Prisoners – Political correctness reversed by passage of new proposal.
HB 477 corrects
years of politically correct treatment of convicted prisoners. Ever since the HIV/AIDS media blitz of the early
80’s, sex offenders were treated as victims and given medical testing
rights for STDs, including HIV/AIDS. A
few years ago some of these false ‘rights’ were watered down. But as of this year, HB 477 eliminates any and
all rights of prisoners to refuse or hide any testing for any infectious
diseases. Victims of their crimes
and prison officials will now be promptly notified of any new test results.
Jury Age Limits – Remains at age 21.
There were five bills seeking to lower the minimum jury
age standard from 21 down to only 18 years.
Jury service requires twelve people to declare the guilt or innocence
in serious criminal matters under some very complicated deliberations. None of these bills were passed by the legislature.
College student groups have been lobbying for this issue
for several years and are building steam in favor of the idea. These groups argue that they can vote at age
18 and drive at much earlier ages. They
focus the debate on the fact that they can be drafted into the military
at age 18, fight and even die for their country, but are denied the opportunity
to serve on juries in Missouri. In fact, they
argue, the only other thing they cannot legally do until age 21 is to
be served alcohol.
The seriousness of the issue is exposed when these same
college groups support provisions in this legislative debate to exempt
18 to 21 year olds from the same jury service for attending classes! (Could it be the debate over jury service age
is really an attempt to isolate the 21 year old drinking age as unfair
and obsolete?)
Age and experience matters. Jury service requires real life maturity.
Sexual Offenses – Public disclosure -- a priority for Missouri. Two bills passed
into law.
SB 5 expands
the sex offender registration law by requiring any registered offender
enrolling in a college or being employed at a college to report such activity
to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
The registration lists are to be provided by law enforcement to
all area colleges. These provisions
are also contained in SB 184.
SB 184 requires the State Highway Patrol to post its
sex offender registration list on the internet and to include in the list
a photograph of each of the offenders along with the crimes they have
committed. Web site visitors will
be able to search by geographic areas to determine how far registered
offenders are from their home or other locations.
DRUGS & ALCOHOL
These are difficult issues for many lawmakers. Often seen as victimless crimes and abuses rather
than serious social and cultural plights which cost more mental, emotional,
physical and financial damage than most any other problems in the state!
Drunk Driving – Passed as part of a larger motor vehicle proposal.
HB 327 is a
total transportation package which includes a provision to automatically
suspend any commercial driving privileges for anyone convicted of even
a first offense of driving under the influence of alcohol or other controlled
drugs.
This legislation also prohibits offenders from being eligible
for a suspended imposition of sentence when charged with alcohol-related
incidents. This higher standard
applies to all municipal as well as state courts.
Liquor Laws
– Passed in a give and take fashion.
SB 298 began
its legislative process by eliminating an outdated and unconstitutional
provision which originally created a 100 foot buffer between liquor sales
establishments and schools and churches.
In the end the 100 foot buffer was reconstituted after sitting
idle for ten years and is now reestablished as the law of the state. Rather than eliminating the entire former statute,
SB 298 ended up only repealing the small portion of the law which had
created a successful court challenge back in 1991.
This bill also creates a keg registration law, thus ending
a long term battle to track beer keg use. After many disastrous incidents involving minors
and beer keg consumption, this registration law is expected to bring accountability
to beer keg abuse. Each keg is
to be individually identified. Qualified
purchasers are to register each keg sale with the retailer and/or wholesaler.
Abused kegs can now be traced back to their lawful sales and the
individual responsible for their abuse.
Sadly the bill further undermines Sunday standards for liquor
sales by extending hours and venues for the purchase of alcohol. But the bill also addresses adult cabaret issues
involving liquor and age limits on nude dancing (See Nude Dancing under the Pornography section).
Methamphetamine – Base production materials restricted.
HB 470 & SB 39 prohibits the sale of more than
two packages, or six grams, of over-the-counter drugs having a sole active
ingredient of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine. The bill stops any sales of three packages,
or nine grams, of any combination drug containing these elements.
Packages with these active ingredients only, must be kept
behind the counter, or within 10 feet of an attended checkout counter
and within the view of a clerk. Exceptions
are made for stores that have an electronic anti-theft system using a
detection alarm and product tags on these drugs.
Violations of the bill are a class A misdemeanor.
The bill also addresses crime of unlawful release of anhydrous
ammonia into the atmosphere by an unlawful possessor as a class B felony.
The bill now authorizes courts to order a defendant convicted of
a drug crime to pay for the testing of the drug at a private lab.
SB 5 increases
the penalties for stealing materials to be used in the manufacture of
meth or the operation of a meth lab. This
is an alternative sentencing bill designed to reduce incarceration cost
to the state Department of Corrections.
Yet the bill strengthens several criminal penalties and creates
new crimes, including the tampering of a prescription drug when a pharmacist
alters or dilutes medications.
SB 39 increases
certain drug manufacturing and distributing offenses when done so within
2,000 feet of a school or within a residence where a child lives. The bill makes it harder to be paroled for these
specific offenses and also creates a Missouri Sheriff Methamphetamine
Relief Task Force to aid rural counties with meth lab problems.
EDUCATION
The largest statewide lobbying network with the largest
number of members is the education industry. Along with the other changes in Jefferson
City, this special interest group has lost influence. This is especially true of the labor unions
claiming to be education first organizations.
Today’s House and Senate Education Committees are more consumer
driven with leadership more interested in ”classroom education” than former
chairmen who were predominately preoccupied with ‘administration’.
Discipline Policies – No new laws, no new changes.
HB 276 would have prohibited any public school from
using corporal discipline and undermine those
families which use spanking as a form of child discipline. Current law already harasses school districts
that choose to use corporal punishment by requiring an annual policy to
be adopted by the school board outlining its use.
This annual policy cannot be extended beyond the school year and
must be completely reevaluated each year, making it very easy for an activist
to pressure board members into giving up the issue. Failure of this bill preserves the schools right
to discipline for one more year.
Home Schooling – Precariously protected, for now, with the passage of one bill and the
failure of others that are expected to return later.
HB 679 protects
home educators who are often harassed by juvenile officials. Current law prohibits the Department of Family
Services to investigate claims of educational neglect if no other abuse
or neglect issues are involved. These
cases are required to be forwarded to the local school where it is also
prohibited from being acted on other than to be forwarded to the county
prosecutor for evaluation. All
the bureaucrats are cut out of the process.
Passage of this DFS reform bill now clarifies that juvenile officers
must adhere to the same standard of involvement as DFS workers.
HB 45, HB 262, and SB 286 failed to become law
this year but are expected to come back next January. They would have raised compulsory school attendance
ages by as much as two additional years, from 16 to 18. The bills allow home educators to be exempt
from the law, but would also require home schools to become quasi-registered
with the school district in order to distinguish between legitimate and
fake home education. High school
dropouts would simply claim to be home schooling and therefore put other
honest parents in a position of liability for the actions of such false
claims. Every home educator becomes suspect of such
false declarations and will be subjected to live under the magnifying
glass of skeptical interference from the authorities.
Strip Searches – An indefensible abuse of power now stripped.
HB 679 was
amended in the Senate before being passed into law to include a strict
prohibition against school personnel or Division of Family Services employees
performing any strip searches of students without explicit written permission
from any involved student’s parents. Parents
may refuse to grant permission or they may request to be involved in a
search if the parent believes the search is warranted. Whatever the case, parents get to make the decisions.
Veterans & Veterans Day – Education in valor, passed with pride.
SB 325 is a
military affairs bill which includes two notable provisions, among others. First the bill expands the honorary high school
diploma program beyond the World Wars and Korean War to all war veterans.
Secondly, this bill requires public schools to recognize and observe
the significance of Veterans Day!
FAMILY
Years of child abuse ‘advocacy’ has led Missouri to become one
of our children’s worse enemies. Families
have been terrorized by child protective services which are financially
driven to substantiate unfounded claims of abuse, accountable to no one,
and operating under a cloak of fuzzy legal standards. Parents have little to no rights and children
are often at the mercy of misguided zealots.
Missouri’s new legislative
leadership sees that the balance of protection has swung too for to the
left and have started to pull it back to the center.
False Accusations of Abuse & Neglect – New standards have been adopted to protect families!
HB 679 & 396 outlines the Dominic James Memorial Foster Care Reform Act of
2003. Dominic James is one of the
latest children to have been killed by abusive adults authorized and licensed
by the state to provide protective services for children taken away from
parents who have only been accused of abuse or neglect. The bill’s basic reforms to the Division of
Family Services are an effort to make the “child abuse industry”, created
by Missouri’s child advocacy community, accountable for its actions
and mismanagement.
Missouri’s Child Abuse Hotline consists of a two tiered anonymous
system. The first tier allows any
caller alleging abuse or neglect of any kind to withhold their identity
completely. The second tier protects
the caller’s name even if they voluntarily provide it. This bill drops the first tier anonymity for
all mandated reporters other than school personnel.
Under this reform hotline calls suspected to have been maliciously
false can be traced back to the mandated reporter who abused the system.
Missouri has the nation’s highest per capita hotline calls received
each month. Of these calls, upwards
to 82% are false reports, and a full 54% of all calls are known false
claims motivated by various estranged relationships!
Child advocates admit knowing the system is over abused
but defend it with only one argument – that many people do not trust the
state to keep their names confidential.
(Such lack of trust points to a much greater need for much more
drastic reforms!) Anyone accused of abuse or neglect of
a child but found unsubstantiated shall be removed from the registry after
five rather than the current ten years.
This bill requires DFS to account for all the children in
its system and report such accounting to the General Assembly each year. DFS is mandated to privatize a minimum percentage
of foster care services. The bill
allows any children being held by the state’s DFS authority only because
of mental health issues only to be returned to their parents.
Foster parents are to be evaluated in the future according
to performance-based criteria. DFS
is to place more efforts into placing foster children with relatives first.
They are to keep parents apprised as to the condition and status of their
children in protective custody. Prohibitions are established against removing
children from schools to be placed into foster care. The bill also prohibits
strip searches of students at schools without parental involvement or
explicit permission.
A key element of this legislation is the raised bar of evidence
for removing children from parents. The
current legal standard is that of “probable cause” and is now raised to
“preponderance of the evidence” which gives greater rights to non-offending
parents when children are removed from a home.
Additionally, the bill holds division employees accountable
for violating policies and gross negligence, creates an elected legislative
committee to oversee division policy, requires a recording to be made
of all meetings related to the removal of children from their homes, prohibits
confidentiality agreements forced upon parents, disqualifies certain foster
homes for crimes and violence, and grants parents some basic due-process
rights as well as several other positive changes.
GAMBLING
Expansion of gambling seems to have been arrested or
at least slowed to a crawl. Our
biggest problem is the Governor demanding more gambling losses so the
state can collect more taxes!
$500 Loss Limit – Remains intact with no bills passing.
HB 147, HB 391, SB 276, & SB 285 each
attempted to eliminate the $500 loss limit adopted by Missouri voters. Each
of the bills designated the additional revenue created through higher
patron losses to various causes and/or boast of other statutory changes
to justify violating citizen’s trust.
The $500 loss limit is one of the very few remaining issues promised
to Missouri voters, which has not been completely ignored. The constant witling away of standards originally
guaranteed to sway Missouri voters in favor of casinos has proven the lack of trust
and integrity of the industry.
HB 147 offered a limit on the number of boats allowed to
be licensed in the state. HB 391
proposed higher taxes on gambling losses, thereby raising revenues. SB 276 proposed granting additional loss revenue
to the Educational Job Retraining Fund, administered by the Department
of Economic Development, to aid educational job training and tuition assistance
for the unemployed or underemployed. Lastly,
SB 285 would have simply removed the loss limit with the argument that
it would benefit education in general.
In the end none of these or other attempts to amend other
bills were successful. They all
failed to be adopted and failed to satisfy the demands of Governor Holden
who keeps crying for more gambling.
Cost – Benefit Analysis – Failed to pass through the legislative process.
SB 35 sought
to solicit competitive bids from state universities to perform a comprehensive
study on gambling addiction in Missouri. This study,
not to be funded by the casino industry, could also help create benchmarks
for evaluating the economic and social cost-benefit ratio of legalized
casino gambling.
Corruption
– Added measures to battle this ‘clean’ industry passes.
HB 523 & SB 294 expands the fingerprinting requirements
of the Missouri Gaming Commission to include all persons seeking either
employment with the Gaming Commission or any and all persons seeking licensure
as a Missouri bingo equipment and supplies manufacturer or supplier. These prints are to be double checked by the
highway patrol’s criminal history repository and the FBI’s criminal history
files.
Gambling Expansion – Fails to advance.
HB 207 would
have created a new form of aggressive high-stakes “Satellite Bingo”. In this new twist; bingo halls would be linked
together via satellite where hundreds of locations could pool prize winnings
together into millions of dollars. Such
games further erode ‘private’ bingo and promote commercial gambling enterprises.
HB 207 failed to gain any support from House leadership.
SB 475 proposed
to create a “Video Gaming Machine Network” that would have been run by
the state for the purpose of generating revenue for the Higher Education
Trust Fund. Various forms of video
poker and other electronic gambling that were to be linked together through
a central computer that would have been used to control the entire network. SB 475 failed to attract any support from the
Senate leadership.
Revenue Honesty & Use – Passed bills puts the tax revenue to work.
HB 444 redistributes
moneys in the Gaming Commission Fund by increasing funds to the Veterans
Commission Trust Fund and to three other funds. This bill became one of the top targets for
attempts to expand gambling by eliminating the $500 loss limit in Missouri casinos. Before
the bill passed and was sent to the Governor’s desk, these attempts were
withdrawn because of the solid refusal by House leaders not to accept
any additional gambling expansions!
HB 600 supplies
the state with numerous revenue enhancements by altering a variety of
revenue issues. Part of the bill
will now guarantee that out-of-state gamblers, who actually win large
pots at the state lottery, or other gambling venues, pay their state tax. In the past such non state residents could skirt
tax laws and fail to file a report with the Missouri Department of Revenue.
This bill passed requiring the gambling entity to withhold a portion
of non resident payouts in order to cover the tax liability on their winnings.
SB 11 also contains a similar provision.
GOVERNMENT ETHICS
The new Republican leadership in Jefferson
City is undeniably a Party of action, not just words. Former leadership has been repeatedly dogged
with accusations of giving lip service to minority groups. The first Republican Speaker of the House (the
second highest position in the legislature) is a lady, Catherine Hanaway
of St. Louis County. African Americans say the legislature honored
Dr. Martin Luther King Day for the first time ever. George Washington Carver (the poor man’s scientist)
has finally been honored with a highway name designation. And, thanks to the passage of HB 640, Missouri now has an
official “Emancipation Day”, June 19th, to honor the struggles
of slavery and its eradication.
Government
ethics issues are one of the most overlooked areas of legislation which
shapes the culture of Missouri and the resulting
worldviews of our next generations. It
is very important that Christians not fail to be Salt & Light in these
arenas as socialism, corruption and other governing ethics mold the future.
Charity
– Compassionate conservatism passes to help the needy with food.
SB 175 grants
immunity to restaurants who participate in a “food recovery program”.
Nonprofit organizations and charitable groups may collect food
for needy people without being subject to criminal charges of civil liability,
when acting in good faith, based on the condition of such food.
Citizen Privacy – Protections for Social Security Numbers (SSN) passes.
HB 253 & HB 613 both removed all requirements that petitioners for orders of protection
provide their SSNs on petitions or case documents that are public records.
Courts may require such information on supplemental documents to
be maintained confidentially.
SB 61 limits
the use of a person’s SSN at a county recorder’s office. The bill prohibits any person or entity from
publicly displaying someone else’s SSN or requiring an individual to send
their SSN over the internet without guaranteeing encryption or other security.
Legislative Pay Raises – Rejected.
HCR 6 was adopted
by the House and Senate early in the year and disapproved the increased
salary recommendations made by the Missouri Citizen’s Commission on Compensation
for Elected Officials. This move
has killed any salary increases for the 2003 legislature and judiciary.
Missouri Sunset
Act – Passage of this provision
codifies accountability!
SB 40 establishes
the Missouri Sunset Act. No new government program could be created as
a perpetual agency. Rather than
new programs being assumed to remain until eliminated by an act of the
legislature, each new program would face an automatic sunset after six
years. Beyond the original sunset, each program would
have to be reauthorized no later than every twelve years. Passed and waiting for the Governor to sign
into law.
Performance Based Budgeting – Passed to guarantee future financial accountability.
SB 299 statutorily
requires the state budget to the developed through a “performance-based”
process. Every five years, on a
rotating schedule, each division of state government would be required
to filter through a detailed performance review and be accountable for
its stewardship of public tax dollars.
Over the past generation, these agencies have never had to give
an account of their performance. Whatever level of funding they received the
previous year was assumed standard and only additional requested funds
were questioned! This is a key
reason for Missouri’s out of control budget growth.
Small Business – Protections for small businesses passes.
SB 69 creates
a Small Business Regulatory Fairness Board to help protect small businesses
from government bureaucracies and unnecessary burdensome regulations.
State agencies must face oversight accountability, and submit regulatory
plans and industry impacting rules to third party review.
SB 69 allows small businesses certain remedies for punitive impacts
resulting from government controls.
Transportation Commissioners – New ethical standards put into place.
HB 668 provides
several new measures promoting accountability from the state’s Transportation
Department. A notable provision
of the bill prohibits transportation commissioners from hosting or managing
political fundraisers for electoral candidates (whose political friends serve in the Senate and confirm their appointments).
The bill also requires the Director of the Dept. of Transportation
to formally address the Legislature early during each annual legislative
session. By passing this bill the Transportation Dept.
comes under many watchful eyes.
Tobacco Settlement Securitization – Repealed and sent to the Governor for approval.
HB 401 repeals
the absurd tobacco settlement securitization plans which would have squandered
hundreds of millions of dollars of pubic funds. This plan was to basically sell the states portion
of the national tobacco settlement payments for a fraction of their value
in order to collect as much funds today in exchange for payments drawn
out over the next two decades. At
issue was a silly idea to patch up a bloated budget with these funds and
leave the next executive gubernatorial administration with a financial
nightmare in just a few short years.
HOMOSEXUALITY
One of the last things to be seen in this new day of
Republican leadership in the Missouri Legislature
is the homosexual lobby freely and regularly visiting the offices of House
and Senate leaders. Former relationships
with those offices were dissolved when the Republicans took control. The homosexual lobby maintained a much lower
profile this year than any time in recent history.
Boy Scouts of America – No more politically correct retribution.
HB 598 was
passed to allow Missouri citizens to request specialized license plates which
proudly identify with the Boy Scouts of America. During the discussions about this special plate
no one dared to criticize the Boy Scouts for denying homosexual involvement
within their organization. While
the bill covers multiple areas of motor vehicle regulations it also allows
the Department of Revenue to issue sixteen other new plate designs.
Sexual Orientation Policies – No new changes in law. All failed.
HB 239 would
have disallowed public school districts from adopting discrimination policies
granting special protections and credibility to homosexuals or other groups
identified according to their “sexual orientation” (sexual fetishes). Any discrimination policy exceeding state or
federal laws on discrimination would have been required to be submitted
to a public vote of the school district’s registered voters.
HB 258 sought
to create a new special provision expanding Missouri’s hate-crimes to add higher penalties to those crimes
committed against certain politically correct groups, including homosexuals. This particular bill adds church burning to the list of identified
crimes in which enhanced penalties could have be applied if a victim happened
to be a member of one of these special politically protected groups.
PORNOGRAPHY
Anyone who criticizes Missouri’s new Republican
leadership for being too pro-business cannot parrot the same claim for
all industries. The pornography
industry obviously holds no influence over them.
Child Pornography & the Internet – New tools to fight pornography adopted.
HB 228 creates
an anti-spam program within the Attorney General’s Office, similar to
the popular no-call list for residential phone customers. Under this legislation, passed by the legislature,
certain types of unsolicited email are prohibited if the receiver request
to be blocked from such communications.
Two provisions in the bill address pornography. First is a requirement that any unsolicited
email containing pornographic material contain a nationally recognized
“ADLT” identification at the beginning of the subject line of the message. This requirement applies whether or not the
recipient is on a no-spam list or not.
The second pornography provision of the bill allows any
citizen who discovers child pornography on the internet to notify the
Attorney General. The AG is then
authorized to take steps to remove the child pornography from the web
site or to have it blocked by the server if the site operator is out of
the state’s jurisdiction.
Nude Dancing – More new tools provided to control adult industries.
SB 298 passed
as a liquor provisions bill but also contained prohibitions against anyone
allowing nude dancing by persons under the age of 19 in an adult cabaret.
Current practice in Missouri’s expanding adult industries is to hire girls as young
as 18 (Some literally still in high
school!) to perform nude in a variety of environments, including financially
lucrative “lap dances” with paying customers. These same girls are used to recruit others
from the area (including schools)
and often work odd hours provided by the proprietor in order to avoid
parental knowledge!
By clarifying the law that prohibits entertainment venues
from allowing the consumption of alcohol without a liquor license, two
issues are resolved at once. First
a ‘bring your own bottle’ facility must become responsible for the behavior
of their drinking patrons. Secondly,
any adult business formerly skirting liquor control regulations are now
accountable to standards applied to liquor licensees.
This means that TOTAL nudity can be restricted and that violations
of various kinds can be used to shut down the business. In other words, no more commercialized victimization
of 18 year old high school girls.
PRIVATE PROPERTY
Chose ye this day your friend
– government or property – the two cannot live in harmony.
Eminent Domain Expansion – For the first time in years, the good bills pass and
the bad one fail!
HB 289 produces
tax incentives for economic development. This approach to civil government and tax policy
utilizes appropriate biblical principles to build an economic infrastructure.
Included in the bill are economic stimulus provisions for both
rural and urban areas. Both programs are absolutely prohibited from
engaging in condemnation proceedings or exercising any rights of eminent
domain!
HB 327 was
one of the largest bills of the year.
In the past these bills often hid bad policies, but this huge transportation
bill clarified that property owners who face eminent domain takings of
their land or businesses must be fully compensated, including ‘loss of
access (to a highway) damages’.
HB 142 failed
to be adopted and for good reason. This
bill sought to extend the power of private property condemnation and taking
by eminent domain to towns as small as 200 in population! This bill would have placed thousands of homes
and properties in Missouri
at risk of all kinds of abusive legalized theft.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Two-thousand and three has proven to be a good year for
religious liberty in Missouri. Attempts to drag residential ministries under
the heavy hand of state bureaucracies failed, and Missouri restored long
lost protections for religious liberty standards with the passage of the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act after a four year battle.
Ministries Under Fire – Bills and maneuvers attacking ministries fail.
HB 33, SB 85, SB 638, & SB 684 each attempted to place religious boarding ministries,
in the form of homes, schools, and rescue ministries, under state mandated
controls. Each had their own method
of asserting authority over legitimate ministries but none were as insidious
as the last minute sneak attempted on a fifth bill.
Under the guise of fire, health, and safety standards (already in place) new language was illegally
added to a bill during a late night, closed meeting. The newly added provision would have required
certain unlicensed ministries to contact the state and prove their exemption
from licensure to the licensing authority!
This annual registration could then be used to disqualify the ministry
from its exemption status because the ministry, bearing the burden of
proof, would have to prove a negative.
This is impossible to do. In
the end, the sponsor of the attack provision was caught at the last moment
before the bill passed and the provision was drastically changed.
Religious Liberty vs. Government – Religious liberty finally wins.
SB 12 reinstates
the “compelling state interest” standard required of government before
usurping the religious liberties guaranteed in the Constitution. For over 70 years
the courts of the land used this “compelling state interest” test, but
early in the 90’s the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out this standard in favor
of a “simple interest” test. As
a result all a government entity needed to show was any interest of any
kind and they could have pushed aside an individual's or institution’s
religious liberties.
From state statutes to zoning ordinances, historical commissions,
school districts, or environmental rules, no government agency needs to
prove a thing before trumping religious liberty in any kind of conflict.
As a result of this change federal legislation was adopted by Congress
but was declared by the courts to be limited in scope to federal legal
jurisdictions only. (For a
brief moment they actually discovered the 10th amendment –
too bad they lost it again.) Each
state must now pass a RFRA bill in order to restore traditional legal
protections for citizen’s religious liberties.
After three years of failed attempts, Missouri’s new leadership
has once again demonstrated its priorities.
SECOND AMENDMENT
The year 2003 is now the most pro-Second Amendment legislative
year for Missouri in over a generation!
Citizen’s Self Protection – Passed after 12 long years of debate – but may be
vetoed.
HB 349 allows
law abiding citizens to protect themselves, and others if need be, from
violent criminals by issuing personal protection permits. Under this law Missouri joins 44 other states that allow honest citizens the
right to carry a concealed firearm. (This is notably the most restrictive proposed
legislation of its kind in the nation – yet the governor indicates that
he will most likely veto the bill to keep his financial supporters happy.)
Missouri is one of only six states which completely prohibit
concealed carry for personal protection and of the other 44 states, not
a single one has restricted their law since being adopted. Clear research shows a qualified reduction in
violent crimes for every state that allows its citizens the right to personal
protection.
Manufacturers Lawsuits – Harassing lawsuits now prohibited.
SB 13 prohibits
the state and its various political subdivisions from filling lawsuits
against firearms and ammunition manufacturers, dealers, or trade associations.
Such private enterprises not otherwise in violation of any laws,
operating in gross negligence or in breach of a contract are protected
from frivolous and harassing lawsuits.
Off-Duty Police Officers – Passed as part of a larger crime bill.
SB 5 makes
the statutory clarification and authorizes off-duty police officers to
carry a concealed weapon any place in the State of Missouri. This provision
applies to officers both in and outside their jurisdiction.
Second Amendment Pride – Gun owners allowed to brag a little.
HB 598 allows
members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) to apply for specialized
license plates with the official NRA insignia.
While the bill covers multiple areas of motor vehicle regulations
it also allows the Department of Revenue to issue 16 new plate designs.
Second Amendment Restrictions – Requiring disarming trigger locks fails.
SB 152 attempted
to outlaw the sale of most firearms anywhere in Missouri without the additional
cost resulting from the forced sale of a trigger locking device. SB 302
also tried to outlaw any firearm within a private residence without a
trigger locking device! Both failed
to advance through the system to become law.
In addition to these two failed bills, restrictive `safe storage'
proposals, submitted as amendments, were also rejected during House and
Senate debates.
TAXATION
This legislative year began and ended with majority Republican
Party legislative leaders saying they would raise no new taxes. So far they have kept their promise. It’s a good first step.
Expanded Taxing Authority – Failed along with other tax increase bills.
HB 381 wanted
to grant income and sales taxation authority to local school districts.
In addition to property taxes, schools could propose these new
forms of taxation to be placed on the election ballot with a simple school
board majority. Once placed on
the ballot it would only take a simple majority of citizens to adopt sales
or income taxes within the district.
Various plans could replace property taxes with income taxes
or they could be doubled up (You
get one guess which would occur).
These new taxes could only be collected for a period of three years
with a mandatory fallow year before being reauthorized for another three
years. But, once school districts have this taxing
power, expect it to continue. It
has clearly failed for now.
Sales Tax Holiday – Passed, even in the midst of a revenue shortage.
SB 11 establishes
a statewide sales and use tax holiday which will run for three days during
the month of August. All sales
and use taxes will be suspended for the purchase of school supplies, clothing,
computers, and software unless a local community opts out of the holiday
by ordinance.
This bill also modifies a variety of tax policies to protect
and/or reward consumers.
This concludes this 2003 Legislative Roundup Update. The information presented here is only a partial
summary of the end results of the 2003 Missouri General Assembly. For more information on the heroes and villains
of each of the issue categories presented here, along with more details
on those issues, contact Kerry Messer, President of Missouri Family Network
at: Missouri Family Network
P. O. Box 1288, Festus,
MO 63028 or call (573) 483-2007.
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