Legislative Update, Week 3

The past week saw two important issues our members have weighed in move forward in the General Assembly.

The first issue was Senate Bill 464 which prohibits the Governor and unelected bureaucrats from establishing the Obamacare health insurance exchange unless the legislature or vote of the people have authorized it.  We covered the issue in Episode 42 of the Missouri Minute where we interviewed the sponsor Senator Rob Schaaf.

Then we issued our first Action Alert of the legislative session and nearly 1,000 members responded in the first 48 hours!  The Small Business, Insurance and Industry committee voted the bill out on a 6-1 vote last Tuesday.  Your participation helped make this a reality!

The committee also heard on the same day Senate Bill 560 sponsored by Senator Luann Ridgeway.  SB560 has the same prohibition but adds two additional elements. The first is to establish legal standing so that any taxpayer can bring a lawsuit if the provision is violated.  The second element requires that defense of any lawsuit for violation of the prohibition has to come from the budget of the department who is accused of the violation.  This is important as defense of such lawsuits are normally taken from the state legal defense fund.

You can still e-mail your senator about your support for SB464 and SB560 by clicking here. The full senate will take up the bill(s) and need to hear from you!

The second major piece of taxpayer friendly legislation passed the House and was sent on to the Senate.  House Joint Resolution 43, the Taxpayer Protection Act’s most important element limits the amount of growth in state spending based on population growth and Consumer Price Index (CPI). The House amended this limitation to include a growth of 1.5% of the previous year’s general revenue collection.  This should be eliminated by the Senate in their version of the measure.

As you might expect, those who believe there should be no limits on how much of our tax dollars should be spent were against the bill.  They believe the only limitation is how much they can squeeze out of us.  False claims about the measure putting the budget on cruise control and removing legislators from the  decision process is simply false.

HJR43 will not only keep the members of the legislature in control of how our money is spent but it will provide a sharper focus on what it is spent on.  The spending limitation will require legislators pay more attention to where the money is going rather than just a baseline add to the budget process they go through now.

Our second Action Alert of the legislative session was in support of HJR43.  We had a number of members respond quickly to the last minute notice and again were effective.

Below is the vote on HJR43.  You can readily identify those legislators, 105 of them, who side with the taxpayer and a more accountable spending process.  You can also readily identify those legislators, 54 of them, who believe they should be able to spend our money and as much as of it as they think they need to.  You decide!

AYES: 105

NOES: 054

PRESENT: 000

ABSENT WITH LEAVE: 004

Grass roots are having an impact on legislation. Sometimes it’s not always the one we want to have or the level we want but you are being heard!  We will have additional Action Alerts during the session.  Please consider weighing in with your elected representative to let them know where their constituents stand.
#Exchange