By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A legislative session that began with so much promise fell apart in the last week with major legislation failing in Jefferson City.
State Senator Rusty Black, a Republican from Chillicothe, says the session ended abruptly after Republicans forced a vote on two contentious issues, then adjourned.
“We are done for this session,” Black tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “We’ll see whether we end up back to discuss, there was a budget bill not passed last week, and then also I’m confident most people know there was work being done to try to offer a package to keep the Chiefs and Royals within the state in the Kansas City area.”
Those bills died after the Senate adjourned two days early. The Missouri legislative session was scheduled for end at six o’clock this evening.
Tension had been building at the Capitol in Jefferson City and came to a head on Wednesday when negotiations between majority Republicans and minority Democrats broke down. Republicans, believing they couldn’t reach a compromise with Democrats, invoked a rarely used parliamentary procedure to cut off debate. Calling for the Previous Question is an extreme measure in the Senate, which prides itself on letting members extent debate for as long as they see fit.
Republicans approved the PQ, ending debate. That allowed the Senate to move on two extremely controversial measures. The body approved sending the abortion issue back before voters, who overturned the state’s strict abortion ban in November. The Senate also stripped the paid sick leave provisions of the minimum wage law approved by voters in November.
Black says anger over House leadership killing a $513 million capital improvement package set the tone for a very contentious last week of the session.
House Bill 19 was one of the budget bills that had to be approved by the end of the day last Friday. House Budget Committee chair, Rep. Dirk Deaton of Seneca, bypassed HB19 while reviewing the budget bills before the full House, effectively killing the measure. The budget bill would have financed construction projects throughout the state, including St. Joseph projects.
“The fact that House Bill 19 didn’t get passed last week; there were construction projects, projects for different senators in that bill that made it much more difficult to finish negotiation on these bills,” according to Black.
That became evident even as senators returned to Jefferson City to begin the final week of the legislative session.
“On Monday, when you went in there, there were people with the hair up on the back of their neck and the tension started which put a lot of pressure on these other issues,” Black says.
The abrupt end to the session dealt a fatal blow to a lot of legislation, including an incentive package to keep the Chiefs and Royals in Missouri.
Black worries Missouri could lose the teams and the economic impact they provide the state, much like when the state failed to approved a tax incentive package for a NASCAR race track. The track didn’t get built in Platte County as originally planned. It moved to Kansas. The Kansas Speedway was born along with Legends Outlet Kansas City.
Black says he has nothing against Kansas, but.
“When it comes to economic development, that tax money’s not coming to Missouri,” Black says.
Black says Gov. Mike Kehoe could call a special session to reconsider the capital improvement package as well as the Chiefs and Royals incentives.
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