JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri legislative leaders on Friday claimed big victories in addressing the school transfers crisis and reforming the state’s criminal code, as they headed home for an election year summer.
At 6 p.m., the legislature adjourned sine die. In the first five and a half months of 2014, they sent a wide range of legislation to the governor, including bills to reform the state’s mammoth criminal code and the first income tax cut in decades.
Still, Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, said, “One of our biggest accomplishments was finding a solution to the students transfer issue.”
The legislation would allow local tax dollars to be used in private, non-religious schools. The broader bill would remove the requirement for the sending school to cover the costs of transportation, but how much they would have to pay for tuition would be covered by the receiving school district. If they were to transfer to a private, non-sectarian school district, local tax revenue would cover tuition.
The legislature also passed a handful of health care bills, including one that would allow use cannabidiol oil for epilepsy treatment, one that would place orally administered chemotherapy treatments on the same level with traditional treatments, and another that would expand dental coverage under Medicaid.
“We were able to work together on tough issues,” Dempsey said.
The legislature did not act on labor bills, a chief priority of outgoing-House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka. The House passed a measure dubbed “paycheck protection” which would have asked voters to approve a measure that would require annual authorization from members of public labor unions to deduct union dues from their paycheck. The measure, which made its way out of the House, was laid aside as part of a Senate deal to move forward legislation that would triple the state’s current 24-hour waiting period for abortion.
Senate Democratic Leader Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City, expressed disappointment that the legislature went another year without moving forward with Medicaid expansion.
“We had the opportunity this year to get it done in a Missouri style,” she said, adding that she hopes lawmakers act on the issue when they return next year. She was also critical for the legislature’s focus on “wedge items” like abortion and labor unions. “It’s wrong wrong we have to stand up on behalf of those folks when we’d like to be fully funding education and expanding Medicaid,” she added.
Still, pointing to things like elimination of the lifetime ban on food stamps for felons or increased funding for the Children’s Division and pre-kindergarten funding, Justus said, “on balance, I believe it was a good year.”