Accountability Time for the Missouri Legislature

By Donna Hearne

The Missouri Legislature faced many important issues this year. National furor over Eminent Domain and the unbridled takings of property received much publicity, but in the end, the Missouri legislature ended up doing little.

In the area of education, they passed bills that contained totalitarian schemes from past years due to the legislators’ lack of historical memory allowing them to embrace fine sounding platitudes. Because of term limits, few current legislators understand or remember the heated battles from the 1990s over “Senate Education Bill 380,” “Goals 2000,” “School-to-Work” and “Outcome Based Education.” As an example of this [lack of memory] was the almost unanimous passage of two bills – SB 580 and SB 894 - that put into place the pinnacle of Hillary Clinton’s education dream, School-to-Work, based on the infamous Marc Tucker letter spelling out Orwellian control of the population through education. This lack of an institutional memory makes elected legislators susceptible to letting permanent, long-term internal staff guide the legislation. To add further injury, due to either inattention and/or the power of internal legislative staff held over from previous administrations, such things as abolishing the crime of sodomy were slipped into good bills and passed.

In the 2006 spring issue of Front Line, we looked at pending bills reflecting our readers concerns and what follows are votes on some of those bills that made it into law, or passed one chamber, but failed in the other chamber. Of the over 40 bills covered in the spring, only a few became law. Some, like the education bills, grew in scope from their original proposals. Some, such as the immigration bill, were watered down and never passed. On the other hand, bills such as the vote fraud bill went through torturous battles but survived with language tough on fraud, but compassionate on enabling the disadvantaged to legally vote.

I encourage you to go to the actual bills and read them yourself, as well as read their legislative history to get a feel of how they were weakened, changed or saved. Just type in “Missouri Legislature” in Google and with a little detective work, you can follow any issue you want.

Here are the seven bills that became law: 1) Sexual Offenders, 2) State Control of School-to-Work. 3) Comprehensive Education Reform (Bullying, Certification of Work Readiness etc.), 4) Eminent Domain. 5) Tax Deductions for Pregnancy Resource Centers, 6) Vote Fraud, and 7) Gun Control. Those bills passing only one chamber, but included are 8) Immigration Reform and 9) Reform of Sex Education.

BILL SUMMARIES:

HB 1698 “Sexual Offenders” is known as “Jessica’s Law.” It is a wide ranging bill that registers and regulates sexual offenders, makes child kidnapping a dangerous felony, creates the crime of sexual trafficking, and attacks internet sex crimes among others. Slipped into this bill was the provision that “eliminated the act of having deviate sexual intercourse with a person of the same sex from the crime of sexual misconduct in the first degree.” [In other words, Missouri sodomy laws are a thing of the past.]

SB 580 deceptively called “Coordinating Educational and Economic Policy” essentially puts five unelected people in control of all K-higher education curriculum, policy, assessment and sets the agenda for future jobs in Missouri. In two short pages, unbelievable power is vested in what these five people think is the future. It sets up a command economy using the education of Missouri children as its cannon fodder versus leaving the free market to determine future job needs and individual school boards to determine local education needs. For a brief overview of this system that has been put into place, see Paychecks and Power which is available from The Constitutional Coalition and Front Line.

SB 895 “Education” started out in the Senate simply addressing tax levies, but ended up in a House Committee including good legislation on school bullying that prohibited special classes of students receiving favored treatment. Unfortunately, it also gained a section of the School-to-Work enforcement package, known nationally as a “Certificate of Mastery “(called a “Ready-to-Work Certificate” in the bill.) This is based on the old Soviet system of top-down certification and selection, with employers hiring only those receiving the blessing of the State, and those small employers not powerful enough to have a voice, left out in the cold. (Again, see Paychecks and Power for further information.)

HB 1944 “Eminent Domain” started out trying to add a new definition of “blight” as Missouri’s law on blight has been called one of the worst in the nation. The original bill as introduced defined blight as: “Blighted, any area where dwellings predominate which, by reason of dilapidation, overcrowding, lack of ventilation, light or sanitary facilities or any combination of these factors are detrimental to public safety, health and morals. Under no condition shall a piece of property be determined to be blighted by the sole consideration of the tax enhancements of future economic development on or about the property;” However, that definition was removed in the first round of committee action and never appeared again. In the end, only farm land was partially protected and condemnation procedures were spelled out with better protections for the property owner. The wiggle word used in a nod to the U.S. Supreme Court Kelo decision, was that property could not be taken for “solely” economic development.

HB 1485 “Tax Credit for Pregnancy Resource Centers and Children in Crisis” allows a 50% income tax credit for donations to Pregnancy Resource Centers and/or child crisis care centers.

SB 1014 “Elections” is a major effort to reduce vote fraud in Missouri. It requires photo IDs verified by birth certificates and proof of residency but also provides free photo IDs for those who do not have a driver’s license. Noteworthy and ignored by the media, anyone over 65 and who “has a physical or mental disability, [or] a religious belief forbidding the use of photographic identification,…may vote a provisional ballot upon signing an affidavit.” Past issues of Front Line have covered the dogs that voted, dead people voting and filing law suits, and precincts where 110% votes were recorded. (Wall Street Journalist, John Fund’s book on Vote Fraud documents much of this and is available from Front Line).

SB 919 “Repeals the statue permitting the city council of a third-class city to prohibit the carrying of concealed weapons” was in response to local communities banning the carrying of concealed guns.

SB 1250 “Immigration” passed the Senate but not the House. It was weakened some but still addressed illegals working and going to state universities at in-state tuition rates.

HB 1075 “Sex Education” would have, among other things, prohibited those organizations performing abortions from teaching sex education courses in schools. It passed the House, but not the Senate.

Publisher’s Note...

The above report is a part of a more in-depth analysis of legislation and issues affecting Missourians that will appear in the summer 2006 issue of Front Line which will be available later this month (July). Front Line is a publication of The Constitutional Coalition headquartered in St. Louis, MO headed by Donna Hearne. For copies of Front Line readers are encouraged to either write to The Constitutional Coalition at: The Constitutional Coalition, PO Box 37054, St. Louis, MO 63141 or call (314) 434-7028. Copies of Paychecks and Power and Vote Fraud mentioned in the above article may also be obtained by contacting The Constitutional Coalition.