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Although legislators from Eastern Jackson County say a projected budget deficit will again dominate the Missouri General Assembly session that opens in less than three weeks and that major questions such as the fate of Kansas City School District will loom large, local legislators also have a variety of issues they plan to address.
Several have said action is needed on the state’s veterans homes, which are full and have growing waiting lists and which face a budget shortfall in about 18 months if nothing is done.
“The goal this year is to choose a dedicated revenue stream,” said Rep. Sheila Solon, R-Blue Springs.
Several ideas are on the table:
• A lottery ticket with proceeds going directly to veterans homes. That easily passed in the House in 2011 but died in the Senate. Solon said that would raise an estimated $2 million, not enough by itself to solve the problem.
• An added $1 per customer fee paid by riverboat casinos.
The casinos pay $2 a customer, half to the local government and half to the state. That brought the state $46.5 million in 2011, but the veterans homes share of that has been capped at $6 million since 2004.
The rest of it goes to the Missouri National Guard trust fund, a college financial assistance fund, compulsive gambling programs and – more than half of the pie – to early childhood development programs.
Solon has two ideas there. One is to raise the veterans homes cap to $12 million. The other is add another dollar to the amount the casinos pay and dedicate that to veterans homes.
• An option on slot machines that would allow gamblers to donate some of their winnings. Let’s say you just won $36.76. The machine would ask if you’d like to donate the 76 cents.
“We believe that a lot of people will do that, and it would raise a lot of money,” said Rep. Brent Lasater, R-Independence.
Local legislators said there a general understanding of the problem at the Capitol.
“We’ve got to do something,” Solon said. “It’s just a matter of what.”
Several legislators also said economic development incentives need attention, an issue that legislative leaders have tied to putting limits on the state’s dozens of tax credits for issues including historic preservation, low-income housing and property tax relief for low-income seniors. That broad deal on economic development also included incentives to help Missouri prevent Kansas from continuing to siphon off companies and jobs in the Kansas City area.
Although legislators from Eastern Jackson County say a projected budget deficit will again dominate the Missouri General Assembly session that opens in less than three weeks and that major questions such as the fate of Kansas City School District will loom large, local legislators also have a variety of issues they plan to address.
Several have said action is needed on the state’s veterans homes, which are full and have growing waiting lists and which face a budget shortfall in about 18 months if nothing is done.
“The goal this year is to choose a dedicated revenue stream,” said Rep. Sheila Solon, R-Blue Springs.
Several ideas are on the table:
• A lottery ticket with proceeds going directly to veterans homes. That easily passed in the House in 2011 but died in the Senate. Solon said that would raise an estimated $2 million, not enough by itself to solve the problem.
• An added $1 per customer fee paid by riverboat casinos.
The casinos pay $2 a customer, half to the local government and half to the state. That brought the state $46.5 million in 2011, but the veterans homes share of that has been capped at $6 million since 2004.
The rest of it goes to the Missouri National Guard trust fund, a college financial assistance fund, compulsive gambling programs and – more than half of the pie – to early childhood development programs.
Solon has two ideas there. One is to raise the veterans homes cap to $12 million. The other is add another dollar to the amount the casinos pay and dedicate that to veterans homes.
• An option on slot machines that would allow gamblers to donate some of their winnings. Let’s say you just won $36.76. The machine would ask if you’d like to donate the 76 cents.
“We believe that a lot of people will do that, and it would raise a lot of money,” said Rep. Brent Lasater, R-Independence.
Local legislators said there a general understanding of the problem at the Capitol.
“We’ve got to do something,” Solon said. “It’s just a matter of what.”
Several legislators also said economic development incentives need attention, an issue that legislative leaders have tied to putting limits on the state’s dozens of tax credits for issues including historic preservation, low-income housing and property tax relief for low-income seniors. That broad deal on economic development also included incentives to help Missouri prevent Kansas from continuing to siphon off companies and jobs in the Kansas City area.
Legislators couldn’t get a deal worked out before adjourning last May, then announced a deal over the summer, but that unraveled in a special session in the fall. One part of that package – the Missouri Science and Innovation Reinvestment Act – did pass this fall, and legislators say that will especially help the Kansas City area in attracting bioscience companies.
Other parts of that package remain unpassed.
“We ought to try again,” said state Sen. Victor Callahan, D-Independence.
Others agreed. Solon and Rep. Jeanie Lauer, R-Blue Springs, said legislation on retaining jobs in the area is important.
Will they succeed this time?
“That is very hard to say,” Lauer said.
Among other issues local legislators favor:
• Rep. Tom McDonald, D-Independence, wants to find funding for a regional jail. That idea, involving Jackson County and some or all of the municipalities in Eastern Jackson County, has been kicked around for years. Officials say it would save money for all the local governments involved.
• Lauer would like a law like the Kelsey Smith law in Kansas. Smith was an Overland Park teenager abducted and murdered in 2007. The law makes it easier for police to use a missing person’s cell phone to track that person’s location. Police would not be able to use that power in every instance.
“There’s going to be some controls set up, and I think that’s the key part,” Lauer said.
• Callahan is talking to school superintendents and looking at legislation to address any possible boundary changes following the Kansas City School District’s loss of accreditation, a situation that’s created what he called a great deal of uncertainty.
“I view the Kansas City School District as multidimensional, and this is another tool in the toolbox,” he said. He said he assumes the district would prefer a “controlled landing to a crash.”
Callahan said the Independence School District took huge risks, amid great uncertainty, in 2007 with the transfer of seven Kansas City schools into the district.
The legislation he’s looking at might also affect how districts such as Center, Hickman Mills and North Kansas City would deal with turmoil in the Kansas City district.
“The suburban districts are kind of finding out now ... what Independence found out years ago,” he said.
• Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee’s Summit, wants to require the state attorney general to sue the federal government over its efforts to control immigration. “I think immigration is a pretty important issue for a lot of people,” he said.
• Callahan said he will be battling renewed efforts to make Missouri a “right to work” state and to change prevailing wage laws. “So that probably will consume a lot of time,” he said.
• Rep. Mike Cierpiot, R-Lee’s Summit, is looking at allowing cities and counties to offer amnesty – pay the bill, no penalty – to those who owe back taxes. “I’m in the process of right now of talking with the cities and counties and see what they think of it,” he said.
• Solon will again carry legislation to require voter approval if a city decides to contract with just one trash hauler or with just one per section of a city. Consumers, she said, deserve a choice. “In my opinion, it’s just nanny government,” she said.
• Kraus wants to require a photo ID when using electronic benefit transfer cards, to cut down on fraud.
• State Rep. Noel Torpey, R-Independence, wants tighter rules on legislators leaving office and immediately becoming lobbyists at the Capitol. “I think they should sit out at least one year,” he said.
• Rep. Ira Anders, D-Independence, wants to take another run at improving jury pay, currently $6 a day. One idea that’s been floated is paying nothing for the first day of service – all that most people who are called end up serving – and therefore freeing up money for those who actually sit on a jury for several days or more.
• Solon wants a requirement that insurance companies that cover the intravenous version of chemotherapy also cover the pill version of that same treatment.
• Torpey wants tighter rules on kindergarten, which is optional in Missouri. Still, he said, there’s an issue of parents enrolling their children but frequently taking them out of school. He’d like to apply truancy rules to kindergarten.
“As any educator will tell you, early childhood (learning) is the foundation of education,” Torpey said.
• Lauer wants to make it easier for an adopted person to get access to his or her own medical history.
• Cierpiot said he favors legislation, pushed in the Senate by Kraus, to do away with Missouri’s elections in February and June. That would leave municipal elections in June, the state primary in August and the general election in November. Cierpiot said the February and June elections are expensive.
“The turnout is so low it’s really not a good way to measure public support for a lot of things,” he said.
• Solon favors a senior citizen protection act, raising the amount seniors who file for bankruptcy can protect from unsecured creditors. In Missouri, that’s $15,000 on a home, among the lowest in the country. The federal standard, for example, is $120,000.
Solon stressed that this is just for unsecured credit such as a credit card.
“They’re gonna still owe what they owe on the house,” she said.
This will be the last legislative session for one area lawmaker, Callahan, whose term ends after 2012 and who cannot run again because of term limits.
It’s safe to say he will be best remembered for getting through the legislation that allowed the voters to change school district boundaries in western Independence, which they overwhelmingly approved in 2007.
“It’s been tremendously rewarding ...” he said. “The school district went a lot better than I thought it would, and it went through a lot quicker than I thought it would.”
Callahan, a former Independence City Council member and former Jackson County legislator, indicated that he likes the scale of issues in Jefferson City.
“You can be part of something bigger than yourself,” he said.
