The Missouri House sent several bills to the Senate this week, while the upper chamber virtually shut down at times while sending a bill over to the House considered friendly to investor-owned utilities.
That particular bill would allow Kansas City Power and Light and St. Louis-based Ameren Missouri to recover more of the cost of upgrading their infrastructure from their customers. Backers say it will improve Missouri’s power grid and spur job growth, while opponents say it will lead to higher electric bills.
The measure was the target of a filibuster last week, and then another work stoppage occurred Wednesday, led by a small group of senators who still opposed the bill even after it received initial approval. But the stoppage ended and the bill passed the Senate Thursday. Majority Floor Leader Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, said the conflict and multiple filibusters actually helped them reach a solution.
“I saw a Senate that came very much together,” he told reporters Thursday. “Some of those were not ‘yes’ votes, but (were) people who wanted to get this issue up for a vote.”
The Senate managed to pass several other bills Thursday that had been stuck in line waiting out the utility bill debate – they included a bill that would create a state income tax deduction for National Guard members and military reservists, and another that would remove the requirement that landlords hold security deposits in a separate bank account.
The Missouri House sent 17 bills to the Senate this week. They include one that would reduce jobless benefits to 13 weeks whenever the unemployment rate is below six percent.
House members also got into an impassioned debate over a bill that would create a tax exemption on medals won by Olympic athletes. Opponents argued that it was irrelevant since no one currently on the U.S. Olympic team lives in Missouri. The sponsor, GOP Rep. Jeanne Evans of Manchester, said it would benefit any future Olympians residing in Missouri, and that America’s best athletes should not be hit with a tax penalty for winning a gold, silver, or bronze medal.
“We have a few former Olympic athletes (living) in the St. Louis area,” she said. “The amount of goodwill that they bring to our community, starting foundations (and) working with kids, we want to attract these people.”
The House also defeated a bill backed by Governor Eric Greitens that would increase fines and jail time for killing or harming a police dog. It fell short of the 82 minimum votes needed to pass after African-American House members accused GOP leaders of pushing a pro-police agenda while sitting on bills designed to address concerns after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer.
“The test will be over the next few weeks to really see (if) any of these bills make it through committee, and more importantly, will we actually see them on the floor,” said Gail McCann Beatty of Kansas City, the top Democrat in the Missouri House.
House Democrats are also pushing a measure that would declare youth violence a public health epidemic, which some say is underscored by this week’s mass shooting at a high school in south Florida that left 17 people dead.
“It’s not just an issue of school shootings, this is an issue of gun violence that takes place across our country every single day,” said Rep. Gina Mitten, D-Richmond Heights. “What else kills this many people that we just stick our heads in the sand about? If it was cancer, we would certainly be talking about that.”
House Republicans next week plan to bring forward a bill designed to combat so-called “revenge porn,” and may also take up a measure that would expand the parental notification process for minors seeking an abortion.
The Senate is expected to work on bills originally scheduled for debate this week, including one that would cut back on the amount of historic preservation tax credits awarded each year.
Erin Achenbach contributed to this report.
Follow Marshall on Twitter: @MarshallGReport
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