The Senate moved one step closer to passing a bill granting subpoena power to the President Pro Tem.

Currently, only the Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House have that power. The Senate Bill would also grant the power to subpoena records.

The approval came with little opposition by Senate Democrats, including Democratic Floor Leader Victor Callahan.

"Even if you didn't do a subpoena most of the production of records would be included probably in the Open Records and Sunshine Law," said Callahan.

The man who would benefit from this bill, Sen. Rob Mayer, R-Dexter, said the Missouri Constitution will serve as a guideline for punishing those who disobey a General Assembly subpoena. The Constitution says a person may be fined up to $300 or be held in jail for up to 10 days, or both, if guilty of disrespect to the House.

The bill needs to be approved one more time before it is sent to the House and the Senate is scheduled to discuss the subpoena bill again before the end of the month.

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The fate of Democrat Russ Carnahan's seat in Congress is in the hands of the Republican majority in the state legislature. Following each U.S. Census, the state must redraw district lines as population size changes. Missouri did not grow as fast as other states and, as a result, it is losing a seat in Congress.

Carnahan told Missouri Digital News that he has been working with other lawmakers to find common ground on this issue.

"I'm looking forward to working with folks here again to get it done right," he said.

University of Missouri political science professor Perevill Squire said that it will be difficult for Carnahan to retain his seat. Carnahan is especially vunerable "given the current political configuration in the state," Squire said.

Republicans will likely try to squeeze out Carnahan's district as they meet to redraw district lines.

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Jobs were on the agenda as Democratic Congressman Russ Carnahan traveled to Jefferson City. He spoke to industry leaders at the annual Missouri Conference on Transportation.

He says lawmakers must be more open to supporting large transportation projects.

"It is the lifeblood of our economy. In the short term, it creates jobs. In the long term, it is the very foundation of economic development," Carnahan said.

Carnahan said that for every one billion dollars invested in transportation, 35,000 jobs are created and six billion dollars are brought back to the state's economy. With the Missouri unemployment rate at 9.5 percent, he said that proposed transportation projects will bring relief to the state's unemployed.

Carnahan also addressed MODOT's budget problems.

"We've got to turn this around and we've got to do it in a challenging budget situation," Carnahan said.

The state's Transportation Department is facing major cuts and is in the process of getting slashed in half over five years.

However, Carnahan told a group of transportation industry leaders that new initiatives, such as high-speed rail and expanding the port of St. Louis, are major keys in turning around the economy.

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Democratic Representative Mary Still introduced two bills in the House Thursday raising the state cigarette tax by a dollar.

"This year Missouri became the lowest cigarette tax state in the country. South Carolina raised their tax and that put us at the bottom," says Still. Missouri's cigarette tax is 12 cents below any other state.

Still believes a higher tax would create valuable revenue for the State that is facing a $500 million budget shortfall this year. "It seems to me that it would be appropriate to ask smokers to begin to pay their own way and to view this as more or less a user tax," says Still.

Still says raising the cigarette tax would discourage new smokers. She also says she believes it will help cut down State Medicare spending caused by cigarette smoking related diseases.

Republican Speaker of the House Steve Tilley says his party will oppose this, and any other tax increases.

"I'm comfortable with our party's position that in tough times with nine and a half percent unemployment, and I'm glad that the Governor has joined me on this, that there will be no increases," says Tilley.

The bill has not yet been scheduled for a committee hearing.

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A scheduling issue led the bill requiring drug testing for welfare recipients to be put in hold until next week. House Speaker Steve Tilley says the bill should pass sometime next week.

Tilley says he thinks Missourians will support the bill, "The thought of their tax dollars going to fund someone to stay home and take drugs is just not something acceptable to them."

Tilley says almost every Republican and most Democrats in the House support this bill. St. Louis County Democratic Representative Bert Atkins says this bill sets those with substance abuse problems up for failure. Atkins says by taking money away from the drug offender it will punish the entire family.

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Lawmakers want to be able to smoke in their own offices, despite an Americans with Disabilities Act complaint filed by a Missouri woman.

Rossie Judd from Fenton, Mo. filed the federal complaint after an overwhelming vote on Jan. 13. The vote defeated an amendment banning cigarette smoking in House offices. Jones has asthma, and says she is being denied access to the House.

Republican Majority Leader Tim Jones says Republicans voted no on the amendment because there are already smoking rules in place.

"The entire House voted unanimously for the rules that we did pass, including the representative that wanted the entire smoke free ban."

St. Louis Democratic Representative Jeanette Oxford, who proposed the bill, says the decision "should never have come down to a partisan thing. The issue of secondhand smoke is a bipartisan issue. There are no democratic lungs and republican lungs. We all deserve the right to breathe safe, clean air."

Jones says lawmakers are entitled to their own freedoms.

"Because of the fact that people are elected from each of their representative districts, they also come up here with a certain degree of autonomy and a certain degree of their own personal freedoms and liberties," says Jones.

Chief Clerk Adam Crumbliss says Judd is wrong and isn't being denied access. He says House staff will accommodate people with disabilities who provide accommodation information, which Judd did not do prior to filing the complaint.

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A report issued from the Violence Policy Center declared Missouri with the highest rate of African American homicides.

Executive Director of the VPC, Joshua Sugarmann says a reason for this is because Missouri has a high concentration of urban areas and a lax policy on gun laws.

"Studies we have done prior show that states with higher gun density and lax gun laws have a higher gun death rates," Sugarmann said.

Missouri does not require a license to buy a firearm.

Sugarmann also says the studies show the homicides in Missouri involve handguns as the most common cause of the deaths.

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Missouri business owners and representatives showed their support in front of the Senate Jobs Committee Wednesday for two bills that would effectively rid the state of the corporate franchise tax.

Committee Chairman Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-St. Louis County, sponsored the two bills and spoke to his fellow committee members about the franchise tax and its impact on corporate investment in Missouri.

"The tax was instituted about 100 years ago and is an outdated tax, created before there was a corporate income tax and it's really a double tax on assets for businesses who already pay an income tax and sales tax," Schmitt said to the committee. "[Businesses] actually have an incentive to move their assets outside of the state, so this is really a disincentive for investment."

Schmitt has sponsored two different bills on the issue:

• One bill will freeze the franchise tax at the 2010 level.
• The second bill proposes to phase out the franchise tax over the next five years.

No one has testified against either bill.

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St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay testified in front of the Senate Progress and Development Committee in favor of local control of the St. Louis Police Department.

The Mayor said he wants everyone to be held accountable for their actions and the best way to do so is through local control.

Opposition to the bill was strong and the police officers say they are worried about the elimination of Chapter 84. If the bill were to pass, Chapter 84 would be eliminated leaving no written guarantee of officer's benefits staying the same.

A committee vote to decide to send the bill to the floor could take place as early as next week.

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A controversial initiative for stricter regulations on Missouri dog breeders came under fire again during a Senate hearing on Wednesday. A bill that would repeal the original proposition was introduced to the Senate Agriculture Committee.

The debate over Proposition B, an initiative concerning stricter regulations for dog breeders, was heated during election season and has since been fueled by dog breeders, the agriculture community and politicians across the state.

Sen. Mike Parson, R-Bolivar, said the wording of Prop B is loosely defined and poses a threat to agriculture. The term "pet" is used in the original proposition, causing a fear among many farmers that the initiative will allow for the regulation of all livestock, not just dogs.

"Lets talk about dogs and leave the livestock out of it," Parson said.

Hupert Lavy, a longtime dog breeder of Silex Mo., came to the Capitol to change the law and save his business. Lavy projects the current law will bankrupt his kennel by November 2.

"Proposition B will flat out put me out of business," he said.

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The House Appropriations Committee for Education heard testimony from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education regarding the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2012.

The new budget proposes across the board cuts to transportation as well as a reduction to the Parents as Teachers program.

The Committee will review the budget and reconvene next Tuesday where they will begin work on the budget.

By an overwhelming margin, the House gave first-round approval to a measure that would require a drug test of an applicant for the welfare program for lower income families of children.

Supporters argued taxpayers should not have to provide financial support for drug users. Opponents argued that taking support away from parents would only hurt their children without treating the underlying problem of drug addiction.

The program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, provides support for about 70,000 children.

The measure faces one more House vote before going to the Senate.

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Attorney General Chris Koster refused comment after a news conference Tuesday on whether he would join the ongoing lawsuit against the federal health care law.

The refusal came the same day as Republican lawmakers again urged him to join the suit. Missouri's House and Senate passed resolutions asking him the same thing earlier this month.

"The attorney general has a constitutional duty to protect the state from harms, whether that be from other states or the federal government," said Rep. Tim Jones, R-St. Louis County. "He has a constitutional duty to step up, join these lawsuits and show where Missouri is being harmed."

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The basement of Missouri's Capitol was abuzz Tuesday, as supporters and opponents of dog breeding restrictions packed a House hearing room to speak out.

Proponents of repealing Proposition B, which Missouri voters narrowly passed in November, sat on one side of the crowded room with red buttons reading, "Stop Prop B!" The other half of the room decorated themselves with dog t-shirts, earrings and buttons with sad faces of dogs in support of restrictions against dog breeders. The hearing lasted two hours, with plenty of witnesses left to testify next time.

Rep. Tony Dugger, R-Hartville, who sponsored the bill to repeal Proposition B, said he expected the large of a turnout because it's such a controversial issue.

Chairman of the House Agriculture Policy Committee, Rep. Tom Loehner, R-Koeltztown, the House Agriculture Policy Committee chairman, said he was preparing to kick all witnesses out of the hearing if there was clapping or disrepect shown while a testimonial was going on. Two Capitol Police officers waited outside the room in case things got unruly.

Dugger said he wants full "rebuilding" of Proposition B, but said he's willing to compromise. "I know that will probably not happen so I'm willing to work towards the middle and making some amendments and changes to the bill that we can all live with," he said.

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The University of Missouri System will likely ask the state for a waiver to raise tuition at its four campuses by an average of 5.5 percent, university officials said in a statement.

The board of curators will vote on the recommendation at its meeting on Thursday and Friday. The decision comes after Gov. Jay Nixon proposed cutting 7 percent of funding to the state's public colleges and universities last week. State law requires the system to seek a waiver if it wants to raise tuition more than the inflation rate, which is 1.5 percent.

“We wish we could continue to hold the line on tuition and fees as we have for the past two years," Steve Owens, interim president of the University of Missouri system, said in the statement. “But even with the increases we will recommend to the curators, the proposed 7 percent cut in state appropriations will leave about a $42 million shortfall for the University -- and that’s after we cut an additional $11.3 million in efficiencies that we identified in the process of planning for next year’s budget." 

The tuition and fee hike will be different at the system's four campuses:

• 5.8 percent at the Columbia campus
• 4.7 percent at the St. Louis campus
• 4.8 percent at the Kansas City campus
• 6.6 percent at the Rolla campus

As a follow up to his August symposium on cleaner water at the lake, Koster released a report Tuesday outlining twelve recommendations for cleaning and maintaining the Lake of the Ozarks.

While some were immediate and would cost little money, such as collaborations between the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Heath and Senior Services, other suggestions would take decades and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Five of the twelve changes fall into the category of statutory changes, or changes to Missouri's laws.

Koster says he has had some support from legislators such as Senator Kurt Schaefer, but none have officially pledged to take any of his recommendations to the floor yet.

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A Democratic House Appropriations Committee chairman has proposed a bill that would slash income tax while expanding sales tax, a proposal similar to a Republican-supported tax plan to completely abolish the income tax.

Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, has proposed a bill to temporarily expand Missouri's sales tax, lower the income tax and abolish the corporate income tax in order to collect revenue for the state.

In the last budget year the income tax generated more than $5.5 billion, the sales tax generated more than $1.8 billion and the corporate income and franchise tax generated more than $500 million, which shows an overwhelming majority of the General Revenue comes from the income tax. The sales tax would have to generate more than $4 billion in the fiscal year to make up for losses if the income tax and corporate income and franchise tax were completely eliminated.

Another appropriations committee member, Rep. Pat Conway, D-St. Joseph, said he does not support Kelly's bill because the income tax is a more reliable way to collect revenue for the state — a problem also posed by the "fair tax."

"My main concern is with the fair tax, which proposes to raise the sales tax 7 percent, and we aren't sure how to collect on that. I think we are going to have to figure out what type of government mechanism would be used," Conway said.

Kelly said there are three main problems that arise with implementing a sales tax:

• The amount of revenue the state would receive from a sales tax is unknown.
• A sales tax is regressive, meaning it will impact poorer consumers more than richer ones.
• Consumers could avoid the tax by shopping out-of-state.

However, Kelly pointed out that the bill includes a rebate for citizens based on their income, which would alleviate the strain on those with lower incomes.

A law declared unconstitutional in 2006 reappeared in the state Capitol Monday as a Senate committee heard arguments about requiring photo identification at the voting booth.

In 2006 the Missouri Supreme Court ruled a similar law unconstitutional because it "represents a substantial and heavy burden on Missourians' free exercise of their fundamental right to vote."

Sen. Bill Stouffer, R-Napton, one of the bill's sponsors, justified the renewal of the legislation with support from a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling about a case in Indiana. Stouffer said the Indiana statute was ruled to be "...amply justified by the valid interest and protecting the integrity and reliability of the election process."

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Coinciding with National School Choice week, Missouri lawmakers announce their promise to reform Missouri's education system, which includes a change that would make it more difficult for teachers to get tenure.

A bipartisan group of legislators announced their reforms Monday, which included the changes to the tenure system, elimination of social promotion and expansion of charter schools.

"The teacher tenure system I believe is broken in the state of Missouri, I think it is and has been a hindrance to educating children in the way they deserve to be educated," said Dieckhaus.

But one long-time educator in Missouri's House disagreed.

"There is a peace of mind that comes with the comfort of tenure that allows teachers to try new ideas," said Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield.

The bills are expected to be filed within the coming week.

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