Crunch Time

With just two weeks left in the First Regular Session of the 95^th General Assembly most of the priorities passed by the Missouri House of Representatives remain lingering or stalled in the Missouri Senate.  At this time, the Missouri House of Representatives and the Missouri Senate have Republican majorities.

This session the House has identified a number of priority issues and passed the bills that express the intent of those priorities.  These priorities include:

• Drug testing for recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
• Adjust income tax brackets to give tax relief to middle class
• Eliminate the franchise tax on small businesses
• Expansion of the Castle Doctrine and the Business Premises Safety Act
• Economic development
• Four-day school week
• Prohibit illegal aliens from enrolling in higher education
• Independence Day Sales Tax Holiday
• Declare Missouri sovereignty under the 10^th Amendment
• Judicial reform
• Guarantee the right to pray in public places
• Create the crime of coercing an abortion
• Tax Payer Bill of Rights
• The Fair Tax

These bills have been passed by the House and are now in the Missouri Senate.  With the exception of the economic development bill, none of the other bills have been passed out of Senate committees and are not available for debate by the Missouri Senate, much less have the opportunity for the Missouri Senate to vote on these bills and get them to the Governor’s desk.

This legislative agenda addresses the interests and needs of Missouri families.  This agenda puts Missouri on the path to prosperity from reductions to the state income tax liability for Missouri families, reducing the tax burden of our small businesses, and improving our economic development toolkit to assist qualifying businesses to stay and locate in Missouri preserving and creating family supporting jobs. 

This agenda preserves our constitutional rights relating to public prayer to the protection and preservation of our 2^nd Amendment rights to asserting our state sovereignty under the 10^th Amendment.

The Missouri House believes taxpayers should be protected from the false philanthropy of bureaucrats and politicians with the taxpayer bill of rights and reforming our tax code to reward saving and individual industry while promoting tax simplification through the fair tax.

With two weeks left and the lack movement by the Missouri Senate on these issues time is running out.  Next week will be consumed with finalizing the state budget for the next fiscal year which must be completed by the constitutional deadline of 6pm on Friday, May 8.  After that the General Assembly must adjourn for the year by the constitutional deadline of 6pm on Friday, May 15.

It is now crunch time.  No bill should be considered dead until the gavel falls on May 15, but these bills must be passed out of committee and put on the Senate calendar to have any chance for debate and passage.