By BRENT MARTIN
A veteran legislative reporter says a decision at the end of the Missouri legislature’s regular session could cast a long shadow on the special session that is underway in Jefferson City.
Missourinet News Director, Alisa Nelson, says the decision by House Budget Committee chair, Dirk Deaton of Seneca, to kill House Bill 19, the $513 million capital improvement bill, set a sour tone that just might carry over.
“I mean the session was going so well until that point,” Nelson tells KFEQmmunity. “I mean in terms of the personalities and the dynamics and things and all the different lawmakers working together in a pretty bipartisan fashion to some degree. It was going so well until then and then it just really went downhill after that.”
Nelson says tension built in the Missouri Senate even further when the House approved a tax incentive package for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals just after killing the capital improvement bill. Several senators questioned why House leadership could kill a bill funding capital improvements throughout the state, claiming the state needed to be careful about spending, then turn around and approve tax breaks for the two professional sports teams.
Then, Senate Republicans picked up a rarely used parliamentary procedure to cut off debate and force a vote on two controversial issues – sending the abortion issue back to voters and removing paid sick leave provisions from the voter-approved minimum wage law. The move further angered Senate Democrats.
The Senate adjourned two days early. The House adjourned a day early.
Nelson points to the decision by Deaton to bypass HB 19 and not bring it to a vote as the turning point. She says Deaton’s decision to kill the capital improvement package took nearly everyone by surprise and angered many.
“So, there was definitely some bad blood that occurred because of the timing of all of this and I think that bad blood and that friction and all of that will spill over into this special session.”
Nelson says Gov. Mike Kehoe must find a way to cut through that tension and bring the legislature back together if he is to steer the Chiefs/Royals incentives through the General Assembly.
The special session will also consider a much scaled down version of HB 19 along with tax breaks for St. Louis area homeowners who suffered property damage during recent severe storms.
