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Missouri Digital News
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Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
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Mo. Digital News
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Missouri Digital News
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Missouri Digital News
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Missouri Digital News
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Missouri Digital News
A tax break for private school costs is among the list of tax cuts the Senate tacked onto the governor's proposal to lower the sales tax on groceries.
After several days of debate and amendment, the Senate passed the proposal and sent it back to the House.
A House-Senate conference committee will work out the final version of the bill.
The Senate version provides a smaller cut in the grocery tax than the governor had recommended and the House passed. Instead, the Senate included a private pension income tax cut and an increase in the income tax dependency deduction along with a tax deduction for parents sending their children to private schools.
For more information, see:
The House Social Services Committee sent to the full House a measure to implement federal welfare reform -- but with opposition from every GOP member of the committee.
Republicans argue that rather than cutting welfare, the bill would set up new welfare programs.
Included in the bill is a provision that would have the state cover the costs of providing welfare to any legal immigrant who had been cut off from federally-funded welfare.
With Republicans just a few votes short of a majority in the House, party-line opposition can cause serious problems for passage.
For more information, see:
The Senate passed and sent to the House a measure that would legalize off-track betting on horse races.
Missouri voters legalized on-track betting more than a decade ago, but no track has been started in the state.
Supporters say off-track betting is needed to encourage development of a horse race track.
See the Senate roll call on the measure.
The Missouri Senate voted for a lower sales tax cut on groceries than the governor recommended in order to fund other cuts in the income tax.
The Senate adopted an amendment to the House-passed tax bill that would lower the sales tax on groceries to two cents per dollar. The House had approved the governor's three-cent cut.
In addition, the Senate amendment would raise the income tax dependency deduction and exempt the first $6000 of private pensions income tax.
If you're interested, see the Senate roll call on the sales tax amendment.
The House GOP leader resigned his leadership post Tuesday morning and then, a few hours later, appeared in court to plead guilty to drunken driving and child endangerment.
Mark Richardson's resignation came after two closed-door Republican caucus sessions to discuss the Poplar Bluff Republican's weekend arrest.
Richardson said his resignation was voluntary. But, several Republicans -- including some of Richardson's supporters -- said he should not continue as the party leader.
Within hours of his resignation, the campaign between the hard-line conservative and more moderate camps in the party began for Richardson's successor.
The caucus meets Monday to elect a new leader.
We have several stories you can read for further information:
With less than three weeks remaining in the 1997 session, Missouri's Senate began debate on the governor's proposal to cut the sales tax on groceries.
But after hours of debate that dragged the Senate into the evening hours, the chamber was unable to reach a final vote.
Members debated how large a cut the state could afford and what taxes should be cut.
See our radio story for more information.
The House Budget Committee endorsed the governor's prosposal to build two new prisons for the state.
Committee approval came after intensive lobbying by the governor and the governor's staff.
Earlier, several committee members indicated they supported building just one prison, so there would be more building construction funds available for higher education and other projects.
See our newspaper story for details.
House GOP leader Mark Richardson emerged from a closed-door meeting of House Republicans to announce he still was the minority floor leader.
Several Republicans had called on Richardson to step down after his weekend arrest for drunken driving. He also was charged with child endangerment because his four-year-old daughter had been riding in the care with him.
The House Republicans scheduled another meeting for Tuesday morning. And Richardson, while refusing to answer most questions, clearly implied that he had not yet reached a final decision about his political future.
For more details, see:
By a near party-line vote, the House gave final approval to the governor's measure to set up a statewide insurance pool for child health care insurance.
Under the measure, the state would solicit insurance companies to provide low-cost health coverage for children.
Although parents would be responsible for paying the insurance premimums, Republicans voiced concerns that the program was the first step to government financing of health coverage for all children.
See our radio story for further details.
Also see the House roll call.