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Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
Missouri lawmakers passaged a package of tax cuts on the last day of their 1997 legislative session, but filibusters blocked passage of a number of other major issues.
Among the items that died with 6pm Friday adjournment were implementation of federal welfare reform, the governor's child insurance proram and closing a loophole in the law against teenage drunken driving.
Lawmakers were able to take care of their own needs, however. One of the first items that cleared the legislature Friday was a resolution grabbing all space in the Capitol building except for the offices of governor and lieutenant governor.
Legislative leaders and the governor all hailed the legislature's accomplishments.
However, the governor harshly criticized lawmakers during his post-session news conference.
He charged that "personal agendas" had killed several major bills. And he said he was thinking with religious leaders in the state about toning down what he called a "religious war" that had arisen during the session.
We have several stories you can review for further details:
Implementation of federal weflare reform and the governor's tax-cut plan top the list of issues facing lawmakers on their final day of the 1997 regular session.
Welfare reform, defeated by House committee at the start of the week, was resurrected by the Senate by attaching the issue to an unrelated bill.
The governor's plan for a cut in the sales tax on groceries was given a breath of life when a key Catholic senator dropped his demand that the bill include a tax deduction for the costs to parents of private and parochial schools.
The session adjourns at 6pm Friday. One half hour later, the special session will start to begin work on items of the budget lawmakers failed to pass before last Friday's deadline for the budget.
No actual work in the special session will be conducted except for introduction of the two budget bills.
A House-Senate conference committee on tax cuts broke up Wednesday night after the House Speaker was accused of bigotry for opposing tax deductions for private and parochical school costs.
Before the committee is the governor's proposal to reduce the sales tax on groceries. But the Senate is demanding that the bill include a deduction for the costs parents pay for primary and secondary education costs.
When the House Speaker repeated his opposition to that idea, a Senate member accused him of bigotry for not supporting Catholic children.
For more information, see:
Missouri's House went past midnight debating and then passing by an overwhelming margin a measure that would ban all partial birth abortions.
The bill now goes to the governor who twice in past years have vetoed abortion-restriction measures.
The governor's chief of staff, who watched over the House debate, suggested this bill too could be subject to a veto -- because there were no provisions for allowing a partial-birth abortion if necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.
See the House roll call.
Lawmakers sent the governor Wednesday one of the most sweeping health-care bills in recent memory -- regulation of managed care.
Both the House and Senate sponsors called it the most significant bill of the 1997 session.
It imposes a wide range of restrictions and regulations on HMOs and managed health care plans. In addition, it gives consumers a formal process to appeal HMO decisions and sue for their injuries that arise from HMO coverage decisions.
Seee our newspaper story for further details.
Also see the House roll call.
By an overwhelming vote, the House approved a bill to hold a statewide vote on whether private citizens should have the right to carry concealed weapons.
But the vote may not mean very much.
The concealed weapons proposal was stuck on a Senate bill whose sponsor says he will not allow a Senate vote on the issue.
For further details, see our newspaper story and our radio story.
Also see the House roll call.
After nearly a full day of debate, the Senate approved the governor's proposal to set up a private foundation to offer low-cost health insurance for children.
However, Republicans stuck on an amendment blocking use of state funds for the program and another amendment that the sponsor concedes boosts the price tag to well above $100 million per year.
For more information, see our newspaper story and our radio story.
Also see the Senate roll call.
The governor's plan to cut the sales tax on groceries has stalled in a House-Senate conference committee over the issue of tax deductions for private school costs.
The Senate included the deductions for primary and secondary education costs, the House did not.
House conferees argue deductions for parochial school costs would violate the state constitutional ban on government support of religion. But Senate conferees say they will not agree to a bill without tax break for school costs.
The conference committee met twice Tuesday without reaching agreement.
For more information, see our newspaper story.
On the last day allowed for reconsideration, the House Budget Committee again defeated Senate-passed legislation to soften the impact of the new federal welfare system.
The bill had faced opposition from Republicans who argued the bill added too many new welfare programs and a few black Democrats who argued the bill did not go far enough.
Under legislative rules, Monday was the last day the committee could take up the Senate-passed bill.
Legislative leaders immediately begin looking for other bills onto which welfare reform implementation would be piggy-backed.
See our newspaper story for further details.
Gov. Mel Carnahan has called a special session of the legislature for lawmakers to finish work on the budget.
The special session will begin 6:30pm Friday - one-half hour after the regular session adjourns.
Last Friday, lawmakers failed to pass the health and mental health agency budgets because of a dispute over family planning funding.
Missouri lawmakers enter their final week of the legislative session, as staff for the governor's office review the legal issues raised when lawmakers failed to pass a budget by last Friday's constitutional deadline.
Gov. Mel Carnahan scheduled a 10am Monday news conference at which time he is expected to announce a special session of the legislature to complete the budget.
Three times the House rejected a House-Senate conference report on the budget. Anti-abortion lawmakers argued the bill was not strong enough in blocking state family-planning funds from going to Planned Parenthood.
The first two votes were near party-line votes, with Republicans voting against the budget. In the third vote, taken well past the 6pm deadline, all but a handfull of House members voted against the budget.
Meanwhile, three of the biggest issues in the 1997 legislative session remain unresolved in the legislature's final week -- health care, tax cuts and welfare reform.
Stronger state regulation of managed health care appears in the best shape for passages. House and Senate sponsors have resolved their major differences.
But tax cuts and welfare reform bills are stalled over major differences.
For more information, see our newspaper story on the managed care compromise.
Also, we have available all three roll-call votes on the health budget:
And, finally, we have a radio story on the budget crisis.