The Politics of Liberty

Health Care Freedom Act Passes House

2010-03-17T17:40:00.003-05:00

This week Missouri citizens got the upper hand for a change due to House action on two proposals.

The first win occurred on Tuesday when the House passed the Health Care Freedom Act,

which is essential in securing the rights of patients to make their own health care choices.

As I have written before, the question of patient rights has been bubbling to the surface as an issue important to those interested in keeping the relationship between patient and doctor in tact.

The essence of the proposed constitutional amendment is this, “To preserve the freedom of citizens of this state to provide for their health care, no law or rule shall compel, directly or indirectly or through penalties or fines, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in any health care system.”

The proposed amendment ensures that:

Each Missouri citizen has the right to pay for health care services with their own money,
Health care providers may accept direct payment for services rendered by Missouri citizens,
The purchase and sale of health insurance shall not be prohibited by law or rule, and;
No person will be required to pay fines or penalties if they choose to purchase their own health care and accept payment for providing health care services.

In other words, an individual cannot be forced to participate in a health care system without their consent and that individuals have the freedom to participate.

The second win for Missouri citizens occurred Wednesday when the House passed the Missouri Patient Privacy Act (HB1382). This legislation extends federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy protections to any entity that stores your personal health information ensuring that your personal health information cannot be disclosed to anyone without the written consent of the patient, except in cases where the disclosure is in connection with the performance of the official duties of the employee of such entity.

These proposals are now in the hands of the Missouri Senate. Their fate will depend upon their dedication to our fundamental liberty.

As I have said before, health care is personal, it is about us, each of us, and we deserve our rightful place in making health care decisions. The Health Care Freedom Act which I have sponsored keeps government in its place and the Missouri Patient Privacy Act which I also sponsored maintains the privacy of our personal health information in this new digital world.

Session Notes - Part 2

2010-03-03T20:09:00.001-06:00

This week the Missouri House debated three separate proposed constitutional amendments.

HJR86 – Right to Raise Animals

Upon voter approval, this constitutional amendment, in order to protect Missouri's agricultural economy, affirms the right of Missouri citizens to raise domestic animals in a humane manner without the state imposing an undue economic burden on their owners. No law criminalizing or regulating crops or the welfare of domesticated animals will be valid unless based upon generally accepted scientific principles and enacted by the General Assembly. The resolution will not prohibit or limit the right of a city or county to enact ordinances and will not invalidate a state law that makes it a crime to grow a crop that has been declared a controlled substance.

HJR76 – Birds, Fish, Game, Wildlife, or Forestry Resources

Upon voter approval, this proposed constitutional amendment requires a four-sevenths majority for voter approval of initiative petitions relating to harvesting bird, fish, game, wildlife, or forestry resources. Initiative petitions that establish, amend, or repeal sales taxes for conservation purposes will still require only a simple majority approval.

HJR48, 50, & 57 – Health Care Freedom Act

Upon voter approval, this proposed constitutional amendment prohibits any person, employer, or health care provider from being compelled to participate in any health care system. Individuals and employers may pay directly for lawful health care services without being subject to fines or penalties, and health care providers can accept payment for health care services from individuals or employers without being subject to fines or penalties. The purchase or sale of health care insurance in private health care systems cannot be prohibited by law or rule.

Also, this week the dark cloud of declining revenues grew darker. The February revenue collections are getting worse, not better, with February collections being down from last year by 14.6% bringing our year-to-date revenue collections down to a negative 12.7%. I have written extensively on my doubts that Missouri’s revenue picture would improve and that the Governor’s recommended budget was too optimistic along with the consensus revenue estimate, which now appears will have to be lowered.

The significance of the shortfall in revenue that we face this year, and next, cannot be underestimated. This is the time when the Governor, the House, and the Senate must work together to fix the structural problems in our state budget. This will require very difficult decisions, courage, and realism – it is not a time for gamesmanship and politicizing. We can no longer hope that better times will come. State government must live within its means just like the rest of us.

Session Notes

2010-03-03T20:08:00.001-06:00

Each session has a character of its own with this session having the slowest start of any session that I have been a part of since being elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 2002.

The pace of this session is both a blessing and a curse.

While, as a limited government conservative, not passing a lot of bills is good for the long-term health of our republic - and that is a good thing - I am concerned about the possible missed opportunities for good legislation that has the potential to preserve Liberty and enable individuals to pursue prosperity without government hindrance.

The House and Senate have been slowly moving legislation through the process.

To date, only ten bills and two concurrent resolutions have been passed out of the House and sent to the Senate. The Senate has managed to send twenty bills and one concurrent resolution to the House.

The Senate concurrent resolution, which rejects the state tax commission’s recommended increase in the agricultural land productive values, has passed both chambers and has saved Missouri farmers from a property tax increase. On the other hand, both chambers have passed their own versions of an insurance mandate that supporters openly admit will hurt small business owners.

While few bills have been debated by the full House, committees have been at work hearing testimony on proposed legislation. The committee process dominates the early part of each session. No bill can reach the floor for debate until it has passed through a committee. Floor time should increase significantly over the next few weeks as committees pass their work on for the consideration of the full House.

To date, there have been 1034 bills, 65 concurrent resolutions, and 52 proposed constitutional amendments offered by the 163 state representatives in the House. There have been 423 bills, 19 concurrent resolutions, and 24 proposed constitutional amendments introduced by the 34 state senators.

While floor activity has been light, the state budget has commanded the majority of legislators’ attention. The House appropriations committees have completed their grueling hearing schedule and have passed their recommendations on to the full budget committee so that they can commence their grueling hearing schedule. The House typically takes until the last week of March to send the state budget bills to the Senate.

The state budget must be completed by May 7th pursuant to the constitution. The General Assembly will remain in session until May 14th – giving the General Assembly plenty of time for mischief.

Drug Testing and Welfare

2010-02-23T16:15:00.002-06:00

This week, the Missouri House passed legislation which prevents drug-users from receiving welfare benefits. The legislation calls for the Department of Social Services (DSS) to establish a drug-testing program for work-eligible applicants and recipients of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. This is a cash-aid program and currently has NO restrictions for those who may use illegal substances. If passed and signed by the Governor, Missouri would become one of eleven states that practices drug testing provisions for welfare applicants – it’s about time.

The legislation says that to be tested, there must be "reasonable suspicion" to believe a person is using illegal drugs. After an administrative hearing, applicants or recipients who test positive will be declared ineligible for benefits for one year.

This legislation is long over-due. Most employees, including the military and federal employees, are required to take a mandatory drug test. Why shouldn’t welfare recipients who receive support from OUR hard earned tax dollars be held to the same standard?

The bill also directs the department to develop, implement, and enforce a policy requiring the immediate termination of an employee who fails to report any suspected illegal use of a controlled substance or fraud of the TANF Program by any applicant or recipient of TANF benefits.

In addition, the bill also subjects elected officials to a drug test prior to taking office and once every two years after that while they remain in office.

This legislation will help encourage people using drugs to stop and get help. It is a necessary intervention. If people want to receive welfare benefits, they have to be drug-free. The Senate needs to pass this bill and the Governor should sign it. This legislation will begin to help and enable our citizens to live a clean and productive lives rather than harming themselves and those around them.

Building Castles in the Sky

2010-02-03T17:03:00.001-06:00

Last week Governor Jay Nixon delivered the annual State of the State address to the Missouri General Assembly, the Missouri Supreme Court, Missouri Cabinet heads, and to the people of our great state.

This annual address has become the vehicle for a governor to outline his vision for Missouri and present the executive branch’s budget recommendations for the next fiscal year. It is also the event that adds definition to the agenda boundaries of each body in the legislature and the governor’s office for the current session of the General Assembly.

This year’s State of the State address did none of that. In fact, Governor Nixon dodged revealing the actual state of the state and it is now painfully obvious why after he has revealed his proposed budget to the General Assembly.

As I mentioned in a previous column, the Governor, House, and Senate budget leaders have agreed upon the revised consensus revenue estimate for the remainder of this fiscal year which ends on June 30, 2010 predicting that revenues will be 6.4% less than expected at $6.97 billion in general revenue. The fiscal year 2010 budget was passed based upon an overly optimistic revenue estimate of $7.76 billion.

They also agreed upon the consensus revenue estimate for the next budget year which begins on July 1, 2010 suggesting a growth in state general revenue collections of 3.5% resulting in $7.223 billion of general revenue.

It was revealed this week that January revenues are 22.36% less than they were in January of last year with year to date revenue collections now falling to a negative 12.55% down from 10.5% last month year to date. As a result, Governor Nixon announced another round of withholds from the current budget of $74 million.

Unlike Congress, we must have a balanced budget. The state of Missouri can’t print money to satisfy unrestrained and politically motivated spending habits – even in an election year. To have a balanced budget, the General Assembly and the governor’s office must build a state budget at or, preferably, below that target.

Governor Nixon’s budget proposal would spend $8.317 billion of general revenue, a number that exceeds the agreed upon CRE by $1.09 billion, or 15% - this is not a balanced budget proposal. The governor would pay for these excessive increases with federal “stimulus” money, which I contend is federal “dependence” money, which Missouri is expected to receive which is about $900 million dollars plus a phantom $300 million that might come from the federal government even though the legislation has not been passed by Congress yet.

After years of fiscal discipline, a budget is now being proposed that relies on significant one-time monies that may or may not materialize. Our budget difficulties earlier this decade stemmed from uncontrolled spending that relied on one-time monies. This can’t be done, but politicians are often afraid of making the difficult decisions that require discipline, because they fear unpopularity, especially in an election year like this one.

The disciplined decisions of the past few years have put Missouri in better financial position to weather this economic downturn than most states. Missouri remains one of only seven states that still have a triple-A bond ratings from the three major bond rating agencies.

The proposed budget suggests that $900 million of one-time monies be used to pay for ongoing operating costs of government and its programs. This money will not be available next year. It may be considered good politics by some, but it is lousy fiscal policy. We can’t allow the federal “stimulus” to lead us down the path to ever more federal dependency and greater threats to the pocketbooks of Missourians.

Data released this week claim that unemployment may drop to 9.8% this year, down from the current 10% unemployment rate. The data also suggests that with 5% growth in GDP throughout the year, unemployment would only drop to 9%.

How out of touch with our existing economic situation can we be to accept a budget that requires a 15% more general revenue knowing that we are currently experiencing 9.6% unemployment in Missouri? It just won’t happen – even the 3.5% CRE is too high and is setting us up for even bigger budget problems next year and years after.

This is a time for restraint, a time to prioritize, and a time to drive efficiencies into the state bureaucracy. It is a time to shed the hindrances that hold back innovation and invention, a time to empower Missourians to build dreams, not sustain them where they are.

People are outraged with the unparalleled and unabated spending spree in Washington, DC that denies the economic realities that we live in. Missouri cannot, and must not, follow in those footsteps.

This is a time when doing what is right is far more important than doing what is popular and hiding our actual state of the state. We can’t spend time building castles in the sky and hoping for a miracle. Lest we forget, hope is not a plan.

Health Care and Obligations of Citizenship

2010-02-02T12:23:00.002-06:00

As the national debate on health care continues in Washington, DC, several states across the Nation are taking steps to protect themselves and their citizens in their state constitutions. Missouri is one of those states. This week a public hearing was held on House Joint Resolutions 48, 50, and 57 which are essential in securing the rights of patients to make their own health care choices.

Even before the events in Washington, DC, the question of patient rights has been bubbling to the surface as an issue important to those interested in keeping the relationship between patient and doctor in tact.

The proposed amendment ensures that:

· Each Missouri citizen has the right to pay for health care services with their own money,

· Health care providers may accept direct payment for services rendered by Missouri citizens,

· The purchase and sale of health insurance shall not be prohibited by law or rule, and;

· No person will be required to pay fines or penalties if they choose to purchase their own health care and accept payment for providing health care services.

In other words, an individual cannot be forced to participate in a health care system without their consent and that individuals have the freedom to participate.

Think about it, there are two general obligations for citizenship in America: paying taxes and the draft. Proposals in Congress today would add a third obligation of forcing each American to purchase health insurance. Never before has the federal government used the force of the federal government to compel every citizen to purchase a product or service.

We can have the debate about whether it is responsible for someone to go without health insurance, but that is a completely different conversation than saying that every citizen must, by the force of law, purchase health insurance or enroll in a government program thereby binding them to the will of faceless bureaucrats.

Some argue that such an amendment to a state constitution is unconstitutional. They argue that the supremacy clause of the US Constitution trumps state actions. It is time that we consider another constitutional principle, that of federalism. As a constitutional principle, it is important not only to the appropriate division of powers between the federal government and the states, but also the ever important pursuit of individual liberty and limited government.

Traditionally, states have been considered laboratories of democracy and innovation. The states were able, even expected, to develop policies reflecting the widely varying local conditions of our great land, and that is especially important in health care. Today, the federal government is asserting, if not amassing, it’s authority over the American life in regards to health care, imposing a "one size fits all" policy. Now is the time to reassert the proper constitutional role of federalism so that future power grabs become more difficult and less likely.

We should allow the people of Missouri to vote on this proposed amendment, allow us to voice our belief in liberty, allow us to direct the future of our state, allow us to direct the future of health care, allow us to retain the freedom that we already enjoy. If a constitutional challenge arises, then let’s have that discussion, but let us not be intimidated into silence and inaction with threat of litigation.

Federalism is all about keeping government within the reach of the people, about keeping government in its place. Health care is personal, it is about us, each of us, and we deserve our rightful place in making health care decisions. The Health Care Freedom Act which I have sponsored keeps government in its place. As Alexander Hamilton proclaimed before the New York ratifying convention, “Here, sir, the people govern.”

State of the State

2010-01-25T19:39:00.001-06:00

This week Governor Jay Nixon delivered the annual State of the State address to a joint session of the General Assembly. This was different than the seven previous State of the State addresses that I have attended during my time in the Missouri House. Unlike previous addresses, this year’s address was a 45 minute speech without enthusiasm, without passion, without substance, and without leadership.

In the midst of 9.6% unemployment and sagging state revenues, Governor Nixon failed to cast a vision for Missouri’s future. The speech was more notable for it didn’t address than what it did.

There was no mention of the current state of the state. It lacked any serious conversation of the challenges we face in crafting the next state budget. It lacked any serious discussion of his priorities in his budget. No mention of serious tax reform, economic incentive reform, or health care reform. The Governor even failed to take a stand on the health care proposals in Congress.

This was a “safe” speech. It did not address anything controversial, nor did Governor Nixon stick his neck out backing any significant issue. He gave his office and the General Assembly all of the elbow room necessary to do anything and claim a victory – after all it is an election year.

While I did expect more from Governor Nixon’s address, he did state that:

We must keep the jobs we have, and create thousands more.
We must build a granite foundation for Missouri’s future growth.
And we must balance the budget without raising taxes.

This simple statement is a great place to start and deserves bipartisan cooperation to move Missouri forward in the coming year and decade. His economic proposals deserve our attention, we must build a budget that lives within our means without raising taxes, and we must position Missouri by simplifying our regulatory environment.

Even though the State of the State lacked substance and leadership, it did open the door for Governor, the House, and the Senate to work together this session.

In contrast to Governor Nixon’s silence on the health care proposals in Washington, DC, the Missouri House passed a concurrent resolution this week by a vote of 111 to 46 that sends a message to our congressional delegation, Speaker Pelosi, and the President opposing these measures on the grounds that they are too expensive, too big, to corrupt, and hand out too many special deals. The cost to the state of Missouri is enormous and will do nothing bend the cost curve making health insurance more affordable.

According to a Rasmussen Reports poll released recently, 55% of the American people oppose these proposals and only 40% support the federal healthcare takeover and mandate being thrust upon us by President Obama, Senator Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi. Other polls in Missouri suggest opposition among Missourians is closer to 60 - 65%.

These proposals contain provisions that obligate the states to substantially increase the amount of money that each state will be required to pay for Medicaid with the exception of special backroom deals like Senator Nelson’s Cornhusker Kickback for Nebraska that exempts Nebraska from this provision shifting their costs on the rest of the states.

The Missouri Department of Social Services estimates that the total cost to Missouri could range from $2.18 billion to $2.45 billion. This is on top of the $100 million plus per year in new funding for natural caseload growth. Our budget, along with Missouri taxpayers can not bear this new shift of costs without increasing taxes or cutting expenditures on education or other vital state services.

The weeks ahead will pose many challenges for lawmakers. Short-term fiscal policies will fail to promote long-term growth. The Missouri House of Representatives will pursue policies that will allow people keep more of their own money, allow them to make decisions for themselves and their families, and give individuals more liberty in their consumption, savings, and debt retirement.

House and Senate Priorities

2010-01-16T12:53:00.001-06:00

The second week of the session has concluded and business in the Missouri House is taking shape. As bills begin to be referred to committees and committees begin public hearings, the legislative agenda takes shape.

The most notable event of the week occurred on Wednesday when visitors from across the state crowded into the Capitol Rotunda to hold the first ever Missouri State Sovereignty Rally. The purpose of this year’s rally was prompted by the massive opposition by Americans to the federal health care proposals and encroachment of the federal government into our private lives.

Those in attendance are concerned that the federal health care proposals would create an unfair tax on individuals who do not purchase health insurance and penalize businesses that do not offer it to their employees. They oppose the massive expansion of welfare at the expense of the states and lack of fiscal restraint. Their opposition is well founded after Democrat negotiators in Washington caved and exempted union health care plans from their proposed 40% tax creating yet another special class of Americans at the expense of the rest of us.

The week was also the scene of a joint press conference by House and Senate leaders outlining a joint set of priorities for this session. First, and foremost, fiscal responsibility and passing a balanced budget will be front and center. Missouri’s revenue collections continue to lag projections and difficult choices will be in store. The fiscal priorities include:

Urging Governor Nixon to issue prompt income tax refunds;
Require legislative oversight for the spending of federal stimulus dollars;
Reduce fraud and abuse in the Medicaid system
That the state of Missouri will live within its means; and
Pledge that there will be absolutely no tax increases on Missourians.

In addition to passing a sound, fiscally responsible state budget so that Missouri continues to be solvent and viable for future generations, these priorities also include protecting our constitutional rights and Liberty; continuing to secure the health, safety, and welfare of all Missourians; and continuing to uphold traditional, common sense Missouri values. Specifically, the House and Senate recognize these issues as necessary to reach these goals:

Ensure greater transparency and strengthen ethics in government;
Oppose a bloated and expanded government, support smaller government;
Oppose the federal government takeover of our health care system;
Call upon Congress to oppose job destroying cap-and-trade legislation;
Make certain that statutes pertaining to clean water are implemented to ensure public safety of our citizens; and
Require credit agencies to withhold reporting negative information if it is caused by identity theft.

As our state continues to face budget uncertainty and Missouri’s unemployment recently inched up to 9.6%, Missouri must be wary of any proposal, state or federal, that would potentially cost Missouri financially or at the expense of our collective identify as Missourians.

These proposals are intended to allow people keep more of their own money, to allow them to make decisions for themselves and their families, to give individuals more liberty in their consumption, savings, and debt retirement. At some point, we, as Americans, will decide whether Thomas Jefferson’s maxim will prevail - will we allow Liberty to yield and government to gain ground?

Session Begins

2010-01-07T14:06:00.003-06:00

This week the Second Regular Session of the 95th General Assembly was convened. This will be my last year to serve in the Missouri House of Representatives due to term limits and I look forward to representing the interests of our communities and our state in the coming months.

It is also with great regret that I inform you that the U.S. Congress has also convened this week to work tirelessly on their behalf, and their elections, as well.

Missouri's state budget will command the most attention from lawmakers and special interest groups this session. This is the second budget year in a row where general revenue collections are less than the previous year. At present, revenue collections are down considerably from last year with year to date collections off by 10.5%.

The Governor, House, and Senate budget leaders have agreed upon the revised consensus revenue estimate for the remainder of this fiscal year which ends on June 30, 2010 predicting that revenues will be 6.4% less than expected at $6.97 billion in general revenue. The fiscal year 2010 budget was passed based upon an overly optimistic revenue estimate of $7.76 billion.

They have also agreed upon the consensus revenue estimate for the next budget year which begins on July 1, 2010 suggesting a growth in state general revenue collections of 3.5% resulting in $7.223 billion of general revenue. This will be a difficult number to beat if unemployment remains high.

Speaking of unemployment, this year begins with a staggering 9.5% unemployment rate in Missouri and 10% unemployment nationwide. The shadow of the federal government continues to darken over the states and the federal overreach into the lives of Americans is frighteningly Orwellian.

A recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece suggested, "... a civilization becomes incompetent not only when it fails to learn the lessons of the past, but also when it becomes crippled by them." The world over is strewn with the debris of failed socialist governments, despots, and the wretched human condition of those struggling for hope and liberty at the hands of those promoting "the greater good".

Yet, in Washington, Congress continues to fritter away opportunity after opportunity to provide real leadership for America, to unleash the American mind and the entrepreneur by promoting Liberty. Instead, our elected Congress and executive branch ignore the virtue of our matchless Constitution, they ignore the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness endowed to us by our Creator as recognized by our Founders in the Declaration of Independence, and they buy each other off with our tax dollars to ingratiate themselves, buy votes for unpopular legislation, and then turn around and lecture us about who is watching out for our best interests.

This is the year where states will play defense. We will dust off the forgotten notion of federalism and we will remind Congress and the President that the U.S. Constitution begins with "We the People".

The Republican majority in the Missouri House recognizes that the bedrock of the economy, the bedrock of every community, is you and your family.

It is time for government to quit trying pick winners and losers, to stop trying to tell us what is good for us, to stop trying to be God. Instead, government should recognize that, as Frederic Bastiat observed in 1850:

God has given to men all that is necessary for them to accomplish their destinies... And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgement of faith in God and His works.

Where our federal government has failed to act, the Missouri House will remain committed to seeking solutions to the problems faced by Missourians from all walks of life.

A Prescription for Health Care in America

2009-08-26T15:18:00.004-05:00

Just exactly what will health care look like in America in the coming years? Even better, who will pay for it? At this point in time these questions are very difficult to answer, but they are important questions that we should all be concerned and vocal about.

Congress and the Obama administration have decided to provide their answers to these questions and this past month in town halls all across this great land of ours and have shown just how tone deaf our elected officials in Washington, D.C. really are.

With unemployment at 9.3% (August 2009) and expecting to top 10% next year and a federal deficit growing so fast that revisions to the trillions of dollars of debt are blurring the reality of our actual financial condition, the White House has characterized our current situation as “grim”. Yet, amidst this “grim” outlook our Congress and executive branch are all about socializing American health care under the guise of “reform”. When will they understand that the problem with socialism, aside the loss of individual liberty, is that you will eventually run out of other people’s money?

So much has been written against these proposals, and Congressmen and Senators have received an earful at their town hall meetings during the August recess, that the real issue at hand in health care has been forgotten – out of control costs. Both sides of the debate have publicly stated that they favor lower costs, more choice, and reducing the number of uninsured.

We struggle today with a health care system that is price blind and quality silent, with inequitable tax treatment of coverage, extensive government regulation of benefits and marketing opportunities.

What is missing in the debate is a real conversation about the cost drivers in the system, e.g. over-utilization, technology, and the infusion of public dollars, but even these are symptomatic of other challenges, e.g. third-party payors, innovations in health care, and spending public money in hopes of solving an ill-defined problem.

Policy makers should be discussing cost drivers like friction in the system, waste, error, delay, and variance. These are all cost drivers that exist due to the lack of free market principles in American health care and they deserve more attention.

It is possible to reduce costs. It is possible to create more competition. It is possible to reduce the number of uninsured. All of this is possible without tax increases or running up our national debt or eroding our Liberty. This is possible if we allow Americans to own their health care coverage and make health care decisions with their doctor. This is known as consumer-directed health care.

Consumer-directed health care is simply defined as giving consumers the ability to have choice in their plan benefits, ownership of their plan, and have the information necessary to “shop” for their health care goods and services leading to better service and competition.

A movement in the direction of consumer-directed health care requires us to put aside the old “iron triangle” of the industrial age of cost, access, and quality and embrace a new “iron triangle” for a new health economy that addresses ownership, access, and privacy.

Our current health care finance model is extensively regulated with a substantial reliance on third-party payment systems that distort incentives. This distortion when coupled with the lack of transparency in prices and quality measures limit the effectiveness of competition. Add in the fact that societal attitudes towards health care are different from other goods and service sectors and you have an environment that is difficult to reform.

In other words, give consumers the tools they need to actively engage the health care market through the promotion of private property, i.e. the ownership of health insurance.

The key components of such a transformation will embrace the market and seek to improve it through ownership and transparency. Ownership is only possible when the market distortions are leveled for consumers in the marketplace. It will also require consumers to “come to grips” with the public consequences of their private actions.

Think about it, our car, life, and homeowners insurance have no connection to the workplace. They are purchased by individuals and are owned by them until the individual decides otherwise making these insurance products portable – who the individual is employed by is irrelevant in regards to our ownership and consumption of these insurance products.

If individuals can’t “take it with them” or have choices in their plan benefits, e.g. deductibles, coinsurance, co-pays, provider networks, and have some certainty that they won’t change on a yearly basis, then we can’t be consumers – we remain recipients borrowing or renting our health insurance from benevolent employers or worse, politicians seeking re-election.

If we don’t have control over the plan benefit options that best fit our family’s needs and we don’t have the ability to take our health insurance with us when we switch jobs, then we can never achieve ownership.

Why then should health insurance be any different?

Congress and the Obama administration should drop their belief that government is the only honest player and put their faith in the American people once again. The following proposals will promote ownership and competition while preserving Liberty:

Tax Equity. Give every American taxpayer the full deductibility of their health insurance premiums from their federal income taxes regardless of whether they have group insurance or an individual health insurance.

Portability. Make it possible for individuals to own their health insurance coverage and take it with them from job to job. One study indicated that up to 40% of workers who get their health insurance through their employer never advance their career by going to another company, they never start a small business, or engage in an entrepreneurial activity, because they are afraid of losing their health insurance. Congress should consider the loss of invention and innovation, because of such laws on the books today!

Transparency. Our health care system is price blind and quality silent. Individuals have a right to know the relative price and quality of health care goods and services. Without this information we can never make value decisions about our health and truly exercise our rights in property of our own health. We know the cost of every other good and service before we purchase it, why not health care?

Guaranteed Access. The current debate is infatuated with this notion of reducing the number of uninsured to reduce the amount of uncompensated care. The real issue is not the uninsured, but those who have pre-existing conditions and are considered uninsurable. Those individuals who are considered uninsurable, i.e. they can’t be medically underwritten for an individual health insurance policy, are more likely to contribute to uncompensated care. Affordable, publicly subsidized high risk pools should be promoted and funded in each state.

Interstate Commerce of Health Insurance. Remove barriers to allow individuals to purchase health insurance policies across state lines from any insurance company in any state. This would allow consumers to purchase plans that best suit their needs, instead of the interests of local politicians, by escaping expensive mandated benefits and extensive regulation, e.g. a family in New York with extensive regulations, e.g. guaranteed issue and community rating, will pay about $12,254 for a policy versus a family policy in Missouri for $5,535 which does not require guaranteed issue or community rating.

Health Banking. It is time to give consumers ownership of their health care records. Consumers already manage their own bank accounts, investments, and purchases. In this new information age consumers deserve to have the same authority over their own medical records. Consumers should have the ability to designate who may see their private information. Consumers should be able to legally own and be protected through privacy laws a copy of their complete, lifetime medical record.

These proposals will transform American health care into an even better system than we have today by reorienting our state and federal health care policy toward the objectives of the individual and away from the employer, the insurer, providers, and government through portability and fairer tax treatment among all consumers of health care goods and services.

Once individuals own their own health insurance and take control of their own health care needs, then transparency of prices and service will be demanded by consumers. As Milton Friedman so aptly pointed out, “…if you want efficiency and effectiveness, if you want knowledge to be properly utilized, you have to do it through the means of private property.” After all, “Nobody spends somebody else's money as carefully as he spends his own.”

A Day of Remembrance

2009-05-21T11:30:00.008-05:00

Memorial Day, a day set aside for remembering those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of Liberty, not just any liberty, but our Liberty, the Liberty that binds us together as a Nation.

What began from many different quarters by decorating the graves of Confederate dead in the 1860’s has grown to an annual remembrance by the 1200 soldiers of the 3rd US Infantry decorating each of the 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery with a small US flag and then patrolling the grounds 24 hours a day during the Memorial Day weekend to make sure that each flag remains standing.

Closer to home in St. Louis, the Boy Scouts of America and the Cub Scouts place flags on the 150,000 graves at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery as an annual Good Turn, a practice that began in 1951 and continues to this day.

While many towns and cities pay tribute each year with speeches, parades, and fireworks, for many the “Memorial” in Memorial Day has been either ignored or forgotten. We are the beneficiaries of the sacrifices made by the soldiers, sailors, and airmen of yesterday and today.

Last year, I remember hearing on the radio a former Green Beret say that warriors exist to protect women and children – what a simple, yet significant statement. For those who do not come back from their mission, we cannot forget the charge mentioned by General John Logan in his General Order No. 11 on May 5th, 1868:

...gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime...let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sacred charges upon the Nation's gratitude, - the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan.

We can observe Memorial Day as it should be observed, as a day where we actively remember our forefathers, family members, loved ones, and those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice:
- By visiting cemeteries and placing flags or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes.
- By visiting memorials.
- By flying the US Flag at half-staff until noon.
- By flying the “POW/MIA Flag (Section 1082 of the 1998 Defense Authorization Act).
- By participating in a "National Moment of Remembrance": at 3 p.m. to pause and think upon the true meaning of the day, and for Taps to be played.
- By renewing a pledge to aid the widows, widowers, and orphans of our fallen dead, and to aid the disabled veterans.

On this Memorial Day, let us not forget, as Moina Michael writes in reply to John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields”:

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies

May God bless our men and women in uniform on missions throughout the world serving on our behalf and may He comfort those whose loss runs deep that we should always remember that the “blood of heroes never dies”.

Crunch Time

2009-04-30T13:37:00.001-05:00

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.

Stimulating Tax Policy

2009-04-25T14:13:00.002-05:00

One vexing problem with the state of politics today is the lack of concern for the long-term. Politicians find themselves more concerned with the short-term to get them past the next election, instead of looking at the long-term for the benefit of the next generation. Our current economic situation in Missouri and across our great Nation is no exception.

It is troubling when high level staff members begin salivating over an economic crisis to make political gain and fret over the possibility of losing such an opportunity to promote an agenda that is anathema to our uniquely American experience.

The federal government, under administrations from both major political parties has embraced a form economics which, in simple terms, says that governments should spend money that they don’t have and that this spending is the pavement on the road to prosperity. This brand of Keynesian economics is named after John Maynard Keynes whose economic theory assisted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to prolong what we now know as the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

The federal government has also promoted the Broken Window fallacy as part of its economic policy by promoting what is seen versus what is unseen. As French economist Frederic Bastiat explained, "There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: The bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen."

Keynesian economics combined with the Broken Window fallacy may reap a short-term benefit to some, but it will fail to achieve long-term prosperity for a Nation.

Missouri is expected to receive up to $4 billion from the federal government through the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009. Of that $4 billion, approximately $1.2 billion is available without too many strings. Missouri state government, compared to other states, is weathering this economic downturn. We don’t need this money to stay afloat and Missouri has met the “maintenance of effort” requirements of the federal act allowing us flexibility in the use of that money.

We now have three basic choices: return the money to Washington, spend it on pet projects, or return the money to the people of Missouri in the form of a rebate.

There are advocates for each of these alternatives. Returning the money isn’t an option, because it will be directed to other states and still get spent by Washington saving us nothing.

Spending the money on pet projects will do little, if anything, to create jobs. Government doesn’t create jobs, people do and we should not lose sight of that. Unfortunately, many politicians believe otherwise. Most of these pet projects are capital improvement projects which benefit only one industry and then only marginally. Government “make work” projects are temporary and will not achieve the fabled “multiplier effect” sought after by the Keynesian.

On the other hand, there are a few capital projects that need our attention, e.g. a statewide interoperability system. A project such as this is a long-term asset for the public good, but these projects should be few in any spending plan.

This brings the discussion of using a sizeable amount of the $1.2 billion to put money back in the pockets of Missourians in the form of a rebate. This is exactly what Washington does not want us to do with the money, which means it is probably the best route to take.

Admittedly, a rebate by itself won’t work in stimulating the economy due to its temporary nature in a families’ disposable income. The last federal rebate did not increase consumption or stimulate aggregate demand. It did help families with meeting monthly expenses, paying down some debt, or putting the money into savings - all good things.

This money gives Missouri an opportunity to provide real stimulus for Missourians. A rebate, coupled with a permanent tax cut will stimulate Missouri’s economy and help Missouri families. This past week, the Missouri House passed a permanent income tax cut and that bill is now in the Senate for consideration.

The General Assembly has an opportunity to put into place a stimulus package that will work by combining a one-time tax rebate for each Missouri income tax filer and passing a permanent income tax cut. This approach is lasting; a permanent income tax cut isn’t a blip on the screen for Missouri families’ disposable income. It is pervasive throughout the economy benefiting individuals and businesses, especially small businesses in each of our communities and denies the government from picking winners and losers.

It is also predictable in the long-term, Missouri families and businesses will know what to expect in the years to come. There will not be a question of whether a government check will come in the mail alleviating the erratic, politically driven government interventions seen to date, the tax code will remain beneficial to our pocketbooks beyond the rebate check.

Short-term fiscal policies will fail to promote long-term growth. These proposals are intended to allow people keep more of their own money, to allow them to make decisions for themselves and their families, to give individuals more liberty in their consumption, savings, and debt retirement.

The Fair Tax

2009-04-16T14:34:00.002-05:00

An old adage tells us that high tax rates don’t redistribute income as much as they redistribute people. In the next census, it is expected that Missouri could lose a congressional seat. These seats are apportioned by population and this would indicate that Missouri is not growing as fast as other states. This loss of a congressional seat would reduce Missouri’s representation and ability to influence Washington.

Where are these people going? Over 20,000 people a day are relocating from one state to another. Americans are leaving the Northeast and the Midwest in favor of Southern and Western states. While a number of factors come into play like climate, quality of life, and housing prices to name a few, it is also true that taxes are a motivating factor.

Of the 12 top states netting new residents, eight of them do not have a state income tax. Those on the Left would tell us that people are willing to pay more taxes to get better government services, but the migration patterns strongly suggest otherwise. Interestingly, the people who tend to be the most mobile tend to be the most educated and motivated, or to put it bluntly, are taxpayers – tax them too much and they may not be here in the future to tax at all.

The Missouri House is taking steps to reverse this trend by reducing our state income tax burden. One proposal (HB64 & 545) would increase the dependency exemption to $1600 per dependent, increase the deductibility of your federal income tax liability ($5000 to $7000 for an individual and $10,000 to $15,000 for married taxpayers), and reduces the income tax rate from 6% to 5½% for all Missouri taxpayers on their income between $8000 and $50,000. This legislation is pending before the House.

This week the Missouri House passed the Fair Tax (HJR36) which would replace the individual and corporate income taxes and sales and use taxes with a sales tax on retail sales of new tangible property and taxable services at a rate of 5.11%. This legislation is in the form of a constitutional amendment and would require approval by the voters of this state to become effective.

If approved, the Fair Tax would begin January 1, 2012. Missouri taxpayers would no longer pay state income taxes, but instead would be taxed on the goods and services they purchase. The proposed amendment includes a provision to establish a rebate for low-income households. The rebates provided with the Fair Tax would greatly benefit lower-income Missourians who would keep more of their paychecks and have most of their paid sales taxes refunded to them.

The Fair Tax would provide wage earners with an immediate increase in disposable income as there would no longer be state withholdings from their paychecks. Taxpayers will be able to decide whether to save or spend giving themselves more discretion and decision making power in deciding how much to pay in taxes.

Drug Testing and Welfare

2009-04-09T17:07:00.001-05:00

This week, the Missouri House passed legislation (HB30) which prevents drug-users from receiving welfare benefits. The legislation calls for the Department of Social Services (DSS) to establish a drug-testing program for work-eligible applicants and recipients of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. This is a cash-aid program and currently has NO restrictions for those who may use illegal substances. If passed and signed by the Governor, Missouri would become one of eleven states that practices drug testing provisions for welfare applicants – it’s about time.

The legislation says that to be tested, there must be "reasonable cause" to believe a person is using illegal drugs. After an administrative hearing, applicants or recipients who test positive will be declared ineligible for benefits for one year. The bill provides help to those suffering from substance abuse. The legislation requires DSS to refer the positive testing individual to a substance abuse treatment program approved by the Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse.

This legislation is long over-due. Most employees, including the military and federal employees, are required to take a mandatory drug test. Why shouldn’t welfare recipients who receive support from OUR hard earned tax dollars be held to the same standard?

This legislation will help encourage people using drugs to stop and get help. It is a necessary intervention. If people want to receive welfare benefits, they have to be drug-free. The Senate needs to pass this bill and the Governor should sign it. This legislation will begin to help and enable our citizens to live a clean and productive lives rather than harming themselves and those around them.

House Budget Action

2009-03-25T19:34:00.001-05:00

The Missouri House sent its budget the Senate this week granting approval to a $22.8 billion budget, a 1.8% increase in total appropriations over the existing state budget. This budget once again reflects the top priorities of the Missouri House, by increasing investments in Missouri’s schools, working families, and senior citizens as well as a continued commitment to provide health care to the most vulnerable Missouri citizens.

States across the country continue to face budget shortfalls on an unprecedented scale. Due to our past decisions Missouri has one of the lowest shortfalls in the country. Many states are seeing double-digit general revenue shortfalls which are leading to deep cuts in education funding, massive spending reductions in public safety operations and correctional facilities and, according to the Wall Street Journal, over half of the states are cutting Medicaid eligibility.

Missouri taxpayers should be relieved to know that this budget does not use federal dependency monies to create or expand programs that will undoubtedly be unsustainable in the future. Much like working families today, tough decisions had to be made in order to balance decreasing revenues and spending priorities. These priorities include:

Increased funding for elementary and secondary education by fully funding the fourth year of the foundation formula phase-in, an increase of $63 million.
Over $410 million in federally directed funding for Title I, the Individuals with Disabilities Act and school based technology.
Kept higher education institutions at their FY 2009 funding levels, guaranteeing no tuition increases for college students and working families.
An increase of over $235 million for the MO Healthnet program. This money will continue to fund access to healthcare for the neediest Missourians.

In these uncertain economic times we must stick to our fiscally responsible philosophy and do the right thing for the people of the State of Missouri.

In an unbelievable display of contempt for our First and Second Amendment rights, a shocking report from the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) was made public last week. The report is a clear alarm that our Liberty and basic rights are now being bullied by our state government through the Department of Public Safety.

As part of the Department of Public Safety's intelligence gathering and dissemination of their analysis to law enforcement agencies, the MIAC released a report with instructions on how to identify members of the modern militia movement who may be considered domestic terrorists. The report, printed on state letterhead, blatantly posits that those Missouri citizens who support smaller government, Second Amendment rights, those who are pro-life, or those who voted for Ron Paul, Bob Barr, or Chuck Baldwin in the November 2008 election of being possible threats to our society. This means, if you drive down the street with a pro-life, pro-gun, or pro-third party candidate sticker on your car, you may be considered for criminal profiling by Missouri’s public safety officials and other citizens who may not believe the way you do.

We live in a Nation founded in Liberty; the freedom of speech, the freedom to have our own opinions and voice those opinions, and the freedom of religion. We should not be fearful that our beliefs regarding abortion (pro or against), the size and role of government, or other social issues should separate us into terrorist categories.

Unfortunately, the Governor outwardly defends this practice stating, “Getting information, especially public information, out of our fusion center out to local law enforcement agencies is what we do every day and what we’re going to continue to do. Any way they take that information and can analyze what the threat levels are is important to make sure the public stays safe.”

This week, Lieutenant Governor Kinder called for the Director of Public Safety, John Britt, to take administrative leave pending an investigation into this despicable political profiling done by MIAC. We can only hope Director Britt will follow his call. The Missouri House also restricted funding for the MIAC to prohibit the agency from engaging in political profiling activities.

Regardless of our economic conditions, we still live in the greatest country in the world. It is a privilege to be a U.S. citizen and to freely exercise our Liberty backed by the Bill of Rights. We are free to have different beliefs, different ideas, and different ways of life; all without fear of persecution. Others in this world are not so lucky.

We should be mindful of Benjamin Rush’s words, “[E]very citizen of a republic ... must watch for the State as if its liberties depended upon his vigilance alone.” We should never compromise the ideals that our Nation was founded upon. I can assure you, the Missouri House will not stand by and watch our constitutional rights be ignored and abused by our state government.

Budget Work Begins

2009-03-05T16:47:00.000-06:00

This past week the House Budget Committee began meeting as a whole. Prior to this week the six House appropriations committees had been meeting to review the Governor’s recommendations, the various executive department’s requests, and to begin the process of forming the House version of the state budget. The Budget Committee will now take the recommendations from the appropriations committees and begin formal debate on the state budget. This committee will decide which programs and departments to fund, as well as, which must be cut back to balance the budget.

In these trying economic times, revenues coming into the state are lagging last year’s expected growth. The consensus revenue estimate was set at 1%, or approximately $7.7, billion in general revenue for the next fiscal year.

This year, Missouri is facing a budget shortfall of $542 million which is much less severe than many states in the Union. Fortunately, last year’s budget decisions have yielded a $281 million savings. So, unlike Iowa who is facing $750 million deficit for the next fiscal year or Kansas who is facing a $1 billion deficit or our neighbor to the east, Illinois, who is facing a $9 billion deficit, Missouri is weathering this economic climate with the need to trim our state spending by $261 million.

Although with many difficult, and sometimes controversial decisions, the House is committed to Missouri taxpayers by building a reasonable and responsible budget that will keep our state on a solid financial foundation by eliminating our reliance on hundreds of millions of dollars in one-time revenue sources from the federal dependency package that are intended to forever alter our relationship with the federal government and, once again, force our state government to live within its means without raising taxes.

The House has the following approaches to tackling Missouri’s budget problem at its disposal: tax and spend our way to a balanced budget (this was the 1990’s approach that got us where we are today), spend and then tax our way to a balanced budget (this was attempted during Governor Holden’s term), take all of the money from the federal dependency package to pay for ongoing expenditures with one-time monies setting up our state for revenue shortfalls in future years (this is Governor Nixon’s plan), or don’t spend more than the state expects to take in (this is how our families are expected manage our finances).

The education of our children is imperative to a successful future. The House will meet the phase-in payments for the foundation formula to fund our public elementary and secondary schools. This is an enormous win in the economic times that we live in. While other states are stopping Medicaid reimbursement to doctors and stopping income tax refunds from making back to those who overpaid their taxes, Missouri is keeping its promise to public education.

In order to keep our financial house in order, not every state program will remain unscathed – budget cuts will have to be made. Unlike Congress, we must have a balanced budget. The state of Missouri can’t print money to satisfy unrestrained and politically motivated spending habits.

While some budget cuts are looming, vital services will remain. Missouri is emerging nationally as a fiscal leader. It is imperative that we continue to practice restraint and an eye towards efficiency and productivity in state government. Not all of the decisions made by the House will be popular, but they will be necessary to preserve public education and caring for the most vulnerable among us.

Some wish to sell us on a “champagne budget” - one that offers little sustenance, but makes us feel much better. This plan rejects the status quo of self-denial of our present circumstances and the demands it places on future generations. Unlike Governor Nixon, the Missouri House of Representatives will not burden our children and grandchildren with greater debt simply to satisfy special interests for political gain.

Don't Worry, Your Kids Will Pay for It

2009-02-26T22:04:00.001-06:00

Last weekend governors from across the Nation met in Washington, DC to learn about the federal dependency package recently lashed onto the backs of taxpayers present and future. As the details of this anti-federalism approach to the woes of our Nation become known, the strings attached are beginning to lift the skirt on the real intentions of Congress.

It is already well known that the vast majority, two-thirds, of the $787 billion is not intended to stimulate the economy, but to help make people more comfortable in their misery. Shame on Congress for feeding crumbs to a hungry man to satisfy the immediate pangs in his stomach, while doing nothing to unburden his load that holds back his ability to innovate, to invent, and to empower him to build a dream. The path that returns us to prosperity begins with these tenants in mind. This is big government at its worst.

States should not, and can not, view this “windfall” of “free” money as the medicine that heals their budget woes. Have we forgotten to ask, whose fault is it when a state spends more than it takes in?

The strings attached to the federal dependency package appear to be strong and many. These strings will require states to change their own state laws to receive some of the federal funds, which is a dangerous endeavor. Congress has made it clear that they want more control over the states and that they know what is better for you and me, instead of your state legislature.

The monies available from the federal government for health care, welfare, and education, to name a few, are only available for two years. What will a state have to do to replace that money when those two years expires? The answer is raise taxes or go hat in hand back to Washington and beg for more.

The cycle of dependency will either begin or end here.

An example of how Washington intends to extend its reach further into our affairs is the unemployment insurance portion of the package. Missouri is expected to qualify for $133 million to prop up our unemployment insurance program, a program that is facing significant fiscal hardships, but only if we change our state laws to significantly expand the program.

The first $88.8 million is only available to Missouri if we agree to cover unemployed people who are seeking part-time jobs, instead of full-time work; to cover people who voluntarily leave their job for family reasons, including the illness or disability of a family member, domestic violence, or to accompany a spouse who has taken a job elsewhere; to extend benefits for an additional 26 weeks, after their regular jobless benefits expire, to people who are in job training programs; and to add $15 a week to the benefits of unemployed people with dependents, such as parents with children at home.

An additional $44 million would become available if we change our unemployment insurance laws to change the time period in which a worker’s wages are analyzed to determine unemployment benefits.

Under our current unemployment insurance law only employees fired without cause are eligible for jobless benefits. The proposed revisions will take away the power of the state to decide its own future.

If the state went along with this, it is estimated that Missouri would have to spend somewhere between $28.1 million to $93.7 million of it’s own money to get the $133 million from the federal government. Where is that money going to come from? How will the state make up for the $133 million in later years? Again, either raise taxes or go hat in hand back to Washington while costing Missouri jobs.

This is an example of how the federal government is willing to bribe states to expand welfare systems making more and more people dependent on government thereby consolidating more and more power in Washington, inhibiting our ability as a state to chart our own future, and further erode our Liberty.

The Republican House and Senate remain cautious and skeptical about the federal dependency package and will continue to do our due diligence.

By contrast, Governor Nixon through all caution to the wind last Sunday on C-SPAN when responding to the Republican concerns stating, “Missourian’s paid their taxes and if there’s a debt, Missouri’s kids and grandkids will pay that debt off. We are here to take the money…” I have always contended that federal monies to an elected official is like crack cocaine – its fairly easy to get and becomes habit forming instantaneously.

As I have stated before, we will not balance our state budget on monies that may or may not come in the mail - we refuse to rely on a federal welfare check to meet the needs of our state. It may be considered good politics by some, but it is lousy fiscal policy. We can’t allow the federal “stimulus” to lead us down the path to ever more federal dependency. This is a time for restraint, a time to prioritize, and a time to drive efficiencies into the state bureaucracy.

Committees at Work

2009-02-19T18:34:00.000-06:00

This time of year in the Missouri House one finds most of the work being accomplished in committees. It during this time that bills are heard by a small group legislators who review the bill in detail, discuss it’s merits, make amendments, and hear testimony from the public. The hearing process is the time when the public has the opportunity to be on record “for” or “against” any bill before the House or Senate. Hearing schedules can be grueling with most legislators sitting on three to five committees that meet at least once a week for hours at a time.

Once a bill has been vetted in committee and voted “DO PASS” it may advance to the House calendar for debate before the entire body. At this time, few bills sit on the House calendar. That number will increase significantly over the next two to three weeks, when the time demands will shift from committee work to floor debate.

This past week the House Committee on Homeland Security passed a concurrent resolution that aims to protect Missourians from the dangers associated with the closing of Guantonamo Bay as ordered by President Obama. The destination of these suspected terrorists is still in question. This resolution would oppose the use of Missouri’s airports, highways, railways, and waterways for the transportation of these terror suspects. It also would express opposition to the sheltering of these terror suspects in our state as they are being transported to detention centers. Additionally, the resolution opposes granting these prisoners asylum in Missouri. The Missouri House is committed to keeping terror suspects out of our state.

Once again this session, the House passed the Teacher Protection Act, to change the laws regarding school employee liability, safety practices, and reporting acts of violence. It gives teachers the ability to maintain order as long as they follow established school policy. Most importantly, the bill allows school employees to focus on teaching without worrying about litigation.

In addition, the bill makes aware to all teachers and administrators of acts of violence throughout the school. Suspended students would not be allowed on school property without specific permission and would be prohibited from attending off campus, school sponsored activities. It requires a notice of reportable offenses to be attached to an offending student's record and transcript.

The Teacher Protect Act exempts unqualified employees who refuse to administer medication or medical services from disciplinary action and exempts qualified employees from any civil liability for administering medication or medical services. Teachers should be able to take the necessary steps to protect their student’s health.

All of these provisions are aimed at ensuring a safe learning environment for Missouri students.

Also, this week the Real ID and Personal Privacy Committee passed the concurrent resolution that claims sovereignty for the states under the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution for all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government under the Constitution.

In other news, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the controversial federal dependency package. This $787 billion dollar package is the largest amount of tax dollars ever spent at one time by Washington. It is unfortunate that we have elected leadership in Washington that has decided to play on America’s financial insecurity to create evermore dependence on the federal government.

From what little that has been communicated to the state, a quick look at, as Senator Chuck Schumer described, the “porky” bill shows us that out of the $787 billion dollar package, $509 billion of our money will be used to expand and grow federal and state welfare programs, create temporary government project jobs that will not receive the same funding in future years, and gives tax cuts to people who don’t pay income taxes, in other words, it redistributes wealth.

Now that the bill has passed, Governor Nixon and the Missouri General Assembly have significant decisions to make. Missouri is expected to receive about $4.3 billion from this package. Our total state budget is about $22 billion, so this federal give-away is equivalent to increasing our spending by nearly 20%. Washington’s ways cannot be Missouri’s ways. The Missouri House is committed to using one-time dollars for one-time expenditures. We refuse to put ourselves in a position to spend money today that we will likely not have in the future.

Enumerated vs. Reserved Powers

2009-02-11T17:56:00.001-06:00

Federalism isn’t something that we here much about these days. That’s too bad, because it is federalism that allows us to govern ourselves at the state level while retaining the protections of a federal government. It ensures that “We the People” have the greatest latitude in determining our own destinies by retaining our state sovereignty while constitutionally sharing power with our federal government in Washington, DC.

The relationship between state governments and the federal government has been evolving since the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. Unfortunately, this evolution has resulted in less Liberty and more centralized government.

The Constitution sets out in Article I, Section 8 a list of enumerated powers that include such powers as the right to levy taxes, declare war, regulate interstate and foreign commerce, coin money which they are doing a lot of these days, and borrow money on the credit of the United States which they are also doing a lot of these days to name a few.

Those powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the people or the states. It is here that states like ours have the ability to govern ourselves in such a fashion that suits our specifics needs. It is also here where conflict occurs.

The Necessary and Proper Clause in Article I, Section 8 gives the federal government an implied power to pass any law “necessary and proper” for the execution of the enumerated powers. While on the surface this appears to restrict Congress from meddling in the affairs of the states, it has been used to usurp the authority of the states time and time again.

Recent usurpations have included everything from the No Child Left Behind Act to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. They manifest themselves as unfunded mandates from the federal government to the state and local governments, especially in welfare, education, and environmental programs.

Other violations occur when state and local governments look to the largesse of the federal coffers to subsidize local initiatives and programs. These federal dollars always come with strings attached which entangle state and federal officials in a Gordian knot of unfunded mandates and unjustifiable subsidies leaving taxpayers with more debt and less Liberty – in other words, beware of the federal dependency package being fast tracked through Congress.

The Missouri House is considering a resolution to be sent to the President and Congress reminding them that Missouri has read the Constitution and affirms our 10th Amendment rights. We wish to serve as Notice and Demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of the constitutionally delegated powers and that all compulsory federal legislation which directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed.

In other words, unshackle us.

In a similar move the Missouri House passed a resolution which strongly opposes any enactment of the federal Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). FOCA undermines the right and responsibility of the states and the people to debate, vote on, and determine abortion policy. The protection of women's health through state regulation on abortion is a state interest that should not be abolished by Congress. If this legislation was passed by Congress and signed into law it would overthrow numerous commonsense protective laws properly enacted by Missouri including the ban on partial birth abortions.

Our Founding Fathers understood that state governments possess inherent advantages in the governance of our home concerns whether they are education, health care, transportation, business regulation within our state’s borders, agriculture, corrections, and even the management of our fish and wildlife.

Traditionally, states have been considered laboratories of democracy. The states were able, even expected, to develop policies reflecting the widely varying local conditions of our great land. Today, the federal government is asserting, if not amassing, it’s authority over the full range American life, imposing a "one size fits all" policy. Now is the time to reassert the proper constitutional role of federalism so that future power grabs become more difficult and less likely.

The federal government must be reminded, in Alexander Hamilton’s words that, “Here, sir, the people govern.”

Family Recovery Plan - Plank 1 - Jobs

2009-02-06T14:24:00.000-06:00

When Governor Nixon delivered his first State of the State address one topic of concern was job loss. With 219,000 Missourians out of work, this number represents the highest unemployment figure in 25 years. He said, “We believe in the value of a hard day’s work. But too many Missourians are unemployed – or fear they may soon become unemployed.” This is a concern shared by all members of the General Assembly regardless of party affiliation.

The first plank of the Family Recovery Plan is about job creation and retention, but as I have stated before government doesn’t create jobs, people do. In recent years, Missouri has benefited from an innovative program called the Quality Jobs Act, a program that is measurable and accountable, and it focuses incentives on family supporting jobs.

This past week the House passed legislation intending to expand this proven, successful program responsible for thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars of new investments in Missouri.

The nation’s economic downturn has stymied the healthy job growth Missouri enjoyed just a few years ago. Since its creation in 2005, the program provided incentives for more than 22,000 jobs in more than 65 municipalities. It has also helped our state retain nearly 2,500 jobs. As the name implies, the jobs that have been created and retained are quality jobs that pay above-average wages and provide health insurance. According to the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the average wage of the jobs created by the program is in excess of $53,000 annually and the average annual wage of those retained is nearly $74,000. In total, Quality Jobs projects contributed more than $2.5 billion in new investment in our state in the first three years.

The results produced by the program have been impressive. The legislature increased tax credit caps in 2007 and again in 2008 to allow more projects to be approved and demand has continued to exceed supply. The bill approved this week removes the tax credit caps in order to approve projects all across the state. The Quality Jobs Program has proven to be the most powerful economic development and job creation tool in Missouri.

An additional piece of this legislation also targets small businesses and entrepreneurs. Our small businesses create two-thirds to three-quarters of all new jobs and in economic downturns we generally see a spike in new business starts. This legislation creates the Small Business and Entrepreneurial Growth Act which provides incentives for the smallest of Missouri’s small businesses to expand and grow. These incentives will assist small businesses that grow beyond the four person size and assist them to take on new employees.

The Family Recovery Plan is intended assist Missouri not only in these difficult times, but in good times as well. The House has now sent the first piece of the Family Recovery Plan to the Senate. I look forward to getting the tax relief, health care, and energy bills passed by the House in the weeks to come.

Here We Go Again

2009-01-30T10:53:00.001-06:00

This past week Governor Jay Nixon delivered the annual State of the State address to the Missouri General Assembly, the Missouri Supreme Court, Missouri Cabinet heads, and to the people of our great state.

This annual address has become the vehicle for a governor to outline his vision for Missouri and present the executive branch’s budget recommendations for the next fiscal year. It is also the event that adds definition to the agenda boundaries of each body in the legislature and the governor’s office for the current session of the General Assembly.

Last week the consensus revenue estimate (CRE) was staked out at 1% or approximately $7.7 billion. The CRE is the amount of growth in general revenue that the state expects to collect in the next fiscal year. Once that number is determined, the House and Senate use that number as the ceiling throughout the appropriations process.

Unlike Congress, we must have a balanced budget. The state of Missouri can’t print money to satisfy unrestrained and politically motivated spending habits. To have a balanced budget, the General Assembly and the governor’s office must build a state budget at or, preferably, below that target.

Governor Nixon’s budget proposal would spend $8.8 billion of general revenue, a number that exceeds the agreed upon CRE by $1.1 billion, or 14% - this is not a balanced budget proposal. The governor would pay for these excessive increases with federal “stimulus” money, which I contend is federal “dependence” money, that Missouri is expected to receive which is about $809 million dollars.

After four years of fiscal discipline, a budget is now being proposed that relies on significant one-time monies that may or may not materialize. Our budget difficulties earlier this decade stemmed from uncontrolled spending that relied on one-time monies. This can’t be done, but politicians are often afraid of making the difficult decisions that require discipline, because they fear unpopularity. The disciplined decisions of the past four years have put Missouri in better financial position to weather this economic downturn than most states.

The Missouri House has pounded its first stake in the ground. We will not balance our state budget on monies that may or may not come in the mail - we refuse to rely on a federal welfare check to meet the needs of our state. It may be considered good politics by some, but it is lousy fiscal policy. We can’t allow the federal “stimulus” to lead us down the path to ever more federal dependency.

How out of touch with our existing economic situation can we be to accept a budget that requires a 14% increase in economic growth knowing that we average 3.5% growth in Missouri in typical years?

This is a time for restraint, a time to prioritize, and a time to drive efficiencies into the state bureaucracy. It is a time to shed the hindrances that hold back innovation and invention, a time to empower Missourians to build dreams, not sustain them where they are.

This is a time when doing what is right is far more important that doing what is popular, because what is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.

Lessons Learned - Or Not?

2009-01-21T22:33:00.002-06:00

“History in par, repeats itself”. I’m sure Mr. Kuhlman would be pleased to know that I was listening and learning in his World History class in high school. It is to our detriment that Congress and the old and new administrations have not learned the same.

In 1939, the Secretary of the Treasury under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry Morgenthau, acknowledged after 10 years of economic depression and slightly fewer than that of the New Deal, “We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work… After eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started . . . . And an enormous debt to boot!”

The numbers are enormous, so large that it is difficult comprehend their magnitude. An additional federal stimulus package that could top $1,000,000,000,000 – that’s a trillion – is now under consideration in Washington. The predominant thought is that government can spend us out of recession, but at what cost?

The Great Depression years, which were also the years of the New Deal, where not times of plenty. Unemployment remained stubbornly high ranging from 15% to 25%. Prices and wages were falling, not growing. The response was more government programs which crowded out private enterprise and elongated the pain.

The New Deal resulted in more government, higher taxes, and less Liberty. It hurt businesses, especially small businesses, stifled innovation, drove competition from the marketplace, dictated how to buy and sell chickens, and wreaked havoc with our monetary policy with global consequences.

History in par, repeats itself and today America looks at the black and white images of the Great Depression/New Deal Era and I have to ask – Why would we want to go back?

The New Deal Era saw the top marginal tax rates go from 25% to 79% with corporate income taxes increasing from 12% to 24% (today they are 35% - the highest in the world). There were also excess profits taxes – sound familiar? – and undistributed profits taxes, taxes on dividends and new payroll taxes, aka, Social Security.

The New Deal simply reallocated money from the private sector to the public sector. The New Deal sought to create “work”, instead of family supporting jobs that create “wealth”. It effectively took resources from one part of our economy to redistribute them to another leading to a planned economy – an economy where oligarchs rule and the citizenry suffers. America is a land of opportunity, not a land of subsistence.

As it stands today, the federal stimulus package has about $550 billion in new spending and $275 billion in tax relief. This spending includes $79 billion to bailout states that made bad decisions (Missouri was not one of them), $87 billion to states to pay for Medicaid – a program they can’t afford anyway, only $30 billion for highway infrastructure, and billions more for a cadre of government expansions.

We know what works. Broad based permanent tax relief works. Money should stay with the people who earn it. It inspires them to innovate further, take more business risks, creates more jobs which, in turn, creates more wealth.

Doesn’t the Preamble of our U.S. Constitution begin “We the People” and sets out to define why we “ordain”-ed and “establish”-ed the Constitution stating among those reasons that it was to “…secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity”? Or has Washington relegated you and me to become Sumner’s “Forgotten Man”?

Shouldn’t Congress, the Federal Reserve, and the Executive branch seek solutions to empower individual liberty, instead of dictating individual actions? Shouldn’t they leverage American’s ingenuity and rugged individualism to help solve our problems, instead of harnessing our insecurity to fundamentally alter each American’s relationship with the State?

As we move forward in 2009, we must be mindful that 1939 was not a pinnacle of successes for government “solutions”. No government program can replace, or replicate, the American will to succeed. Government does not innovate, people do, government does not create jobs, people do, unshackle them from repressive tax policies and burdensome regulations and we will succeed.

The resiliency of the U.S. Constitution and the American people who are hard working, honest, and devoted to their families and communities will ultimately bring us out of these economic times in spite of what takes place in Washington, DC. Where Washington has faith in itself, I have faith in the American people, in other words, the Forgotten Man lest we forget that, “…he works, he votes, generally he prays – but he always pays…”

Rep. Doug Ervin Selected to Chair House Small Business Committee

2009-01-18T16:32:00.005-06:00

JEFFERSON CITY – House Speaker Ron Richard, R-Joplin, today selected Rep. Doug Ervin, R-Kearney, to serve as chair of the House Small Business Committee for the 95th General Assembly. Rep. Ervin also served as chair of the committee for the 93rd and 94th General Assemblies.

“Rep. Ervin has done an outstanding job in leading this committee during the course of the last four years. He is the only choice to continue to serve as chair and I have every confidence in his abilities,” said Speaker Richard. “Our small businesses are the lifeblood of Missouri’s economy and we must do everything we can to ensure they are given every opportunity to grow and thrive. I know Doug will be a strong voice for Missouri small businesses as his committee addresses the issues they face.

The House Small Business Committee considers and reports upon bills and matters referred to it relating to the establishment, growth, development, expansion, retention and operations of small businesses in the State. As chair of the committee, Rep. Ervin will preside over committee hearings and be responsible for all legislation referred to the committee.

“It’s an honor to be able to continue my service as chair of this committee and I thank Speaker Richard for the opportunity,” said Rep. Ervin. “During this current economic downturn, it is vital that we find ways to promote job creation and provide opportunities for our small businesses to grow and expand. I look forward to working with the members of my committee to address the issues faced by our small business owners as we work to revitalize our economy.”

In addition to his chairmanship responsibilities, Rep. Ervin was selected as the Vice-Chair of the Special Committee on Children and families. He was also appointed to the Healthcare Transformation Committee and Ways and Means.

The Healthcare Transformation committee is tasked with covering such issues as consumerism in health care, transparency, health banking, the role of information technology in health care, patient safety, and examining the cost drivers in health care.

The Ways and Means committee is a new assignment and one that I am particularly looking forward to. This committee considers bills and all matters relating to taxes, tax credits, revenue and public debt, and the administration of the taxation and revenue laws.

Opening Day

2009-01-07T21:38:00.006-06:00

Today, the First Session of the 95th General Assembly was convened and I am looking forward to tackling the challenges before us on your behalf. It is also with great regret that I inform you that yesterday, January 6th, the U.S. Congress also convened to work tirelessly on their behalf.

At the beginning of each new General Assembly which occurs every two years, the first order of business after the legislators are sworn in is the election of a new Speaker of the House. I am very pleased to have supported and voted for Rep. Ron Richard from Joplin to this important post. He takes this position at a challenging time in Missouri and our Nation.

While Congress has frittered away opportunity after opportunity and readies our descendants for untold trillions of dollars in debt to a seemingly endless line of special interests representing about every industry our Nation has to offer, Speaker Richard outlined a new vision.

Instead of rewarding the poor decisions of individual business leaders and lining the pockets of favored industries under the guise of “the greater good”, the Republican majority in the Missouri House recognizes that the bedrock of the economy, the bedrock of every community, is you and your family. So, today Speaker Richard outlined a four point plan known as the Family Recovery Plan.

The Family Recovery Plan starts with continued efforts to make Missouri a job-friendly state. We recognize that the oldest social program known to man is a family supporting job. This plan calls for a modest tax cut that will keep more of your hard-earned dollars in your pocket where they belong. The plan pursues free-market solutions to promote ownership, better access, affordability, and privacy in health care while making it more transparent and ensuring that it is free of the waste, fraud, and abuse that has plagued it in the past. Finally, this plan will explore ways to promote the development of our alternative energy sources such as clean coal, wind farms, hydroelectric, and nuclear power.

The Family Recovery Plan is essential to provide Missourians with the assistance they need during these tough economic times. The plan, along with sound budget planning, will be the cornerstone on which our legislative successes will be built. It is time for government to quit trying to pick winners and losers. Where our federal government has failed to act, the Missouri House will remain committed to seeking solutions to the problems faced by Missourians from all walks of life.

A Christmas Message

2008-12-26T21:33:00.010-06:00

In just a few days people around the world will be celebrating Christmas and families will gather bearing gifts for one another and likely sharing a bountiful feast. Families will come together from across town, across the street, another state, and the far corners of the earth to celebrate together, and forty years ago this Christmas Eve the world even celebrated from the heavens.

This Christmas season has become a time of economic unrest, bailouts, and dwindling 401(k)’s. It is a time when the Federal Reserve can’t make up its mind whether its function is central banking or central planning, where monetary policy could easily be confused with the whims of weather vane, a Congress more intent on approving its own stimulus package, and a new administration just on the horizon with the promise of “change”.

Forty years ago the national mood wasn’t any better. America and the world were rocked by war, racial violence, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. President John F. Kennedy had called for America to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, only to have suffered the tragic loss of three astronauts (Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee) during a ground test in 1967. To complicate matters the CIA believed (wrongly) that the Soviet Union was about to launch a manned lunar mission that, if successful, would beat the United States to the moon after first beating the United States into orbit.

The importance of Apollo 8 could not have been greater. It was the first mission to send a crew – Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders – from the Earth to orbit the moon and return to the Earth. It was not without its challenges. The big Saturn V rocket needed to propel the Apollo 8 to the moon had suffered a number of setbacks and instrumentation problems during its test flights.

This mission, among all of the Apollo missions, was the most important. Its success, or failure, could determine the fate of the American space program and Kennedy’s challenge to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade - and give hope to a Nation.

It launched on December 21, 1968 and reached lunar orbit on Christmas Eve as millions watched and listened around the world.

After the third lunar orbit the spacecraft was turned slightly and gave the astronauts the first view by human beings of the Earth rising over the lunar surface.

The broadcast that night ended by the crew taking turns reading from Genesis, a stark contrast to the Soviet Union’s Nikita Khrushchev engaging in atheistic, communist propaganda saying, “Why should you clutch at God? Here is Gagarin who flew into space but saw no God there.”

The reading began in Genesis 1:1:

[Bill Anders]
"We are now approaching lunar sunrise. For all the people back on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you."

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

[Jim Lovell]
"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

[Frank Borman]
"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas: and God saw that it was good."

Frank Borman later recalled of the lunar sunrise, “It was the only thing in space that had any color to it. Everything else was either black or white, but not the Earth." Jim Lovell said that Earth was "a grand oasis in the vast loneliness of space."

Apollo 8 was a triumph of our understanding of astrophysics, gravity, trajectory, combustion, aeronautics, engineering, and American “know how”. America ended a troubled year with great achievement and presented her with three more heroes.

Christmas gives us hope in good times and in bad regardless of the economy, Washington, or the Federal Reserve. It is a timeless message of love and mercy born in manger, a young child that changed the world and continues to change hearts today.

Frank Borman concluded that Christmas Eve broadcast saying, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth."

Merry Christmas!

The Miraculous Missouri Turnaround

2008-10-22T16:27:00.003-05:00

Amidst the daily dose of bad news about gas prices and food prices along with a debate about whether we are, or are not, in a recession it is easy to overlook just how far we have come. In the past four years Missouri has improved itself and fares better than at least 40 other states in the Union.

This month I would like to share with you some of the advances made in our state that you probably won’t hear from the mainstream media.

Cutting Taxes: The Senior Tax Justice Act
Tax cut on Social Security and public pension benefits (teachers, veterans, policemen, and firefighters). Over 300,000 Missourians will benefit from this $153.8 million tax cut.
Missouri has been able to cut taxes and still produce surplus revenue.

Helping Missouri’s Most Vulnerable Citizens
Here’s a sample of increased public assistance made to our most vulnerable citizens:
Funding for the Autism Program has increased by $7,369,240.
Funding for SCHIP has increased by $30,290,680.
Funding for the First Steps Program has increased by $1,140,000.
Funding for Utilicare has increased by $6,440,785.
Funding for Sheltered Workshops has increased by $2,600,000.
The General Assembly has been able to increase funding for these vital programs, something that was unheard of when our economy and budget situation were poor just a few years ago. These programs go far to help protect and aid some of Missouri’s most important and vulnerable citizens.

Decreasing Methamphetamine Production
Legislation limiting the sale of methamphetamine producing drugs has resulted in a dramatic drop in methamphetamine-related incidents:
2003: 2,860
2004: 2,807 -53
2005: 2,170 -637
2006: 1,288 -882
Missouri went from the number one methamphetamine producing state in the nation to a 55% drop in methamphetamine related incidents – now that is real progress!

Improving Transportation
Missouri has gone from having the 3rd worst pavement on major roads to the ninth best.
The $5.7 billion spent on transportation has resulted in $20.52 billion in economic activity creating family supporting jobs throughout the state.
Safety improvements on major highways have resulted in 161 fewer people losing their lives in 2006 compared to the previous year.
Missouri leads the nation with the largest drop in traffic fatalities.
Missouri has the 3rd lowest administrative costs per mile.
Bottom line - MODOT went from politics and broken promises to putting money towards improving roads – now let’s hold them to it.

Since 2003, we have gone from losing jobs to creating jobs, from cutting programs to cutting taxes, and for the first time in anyone’s memory the state bureaucracy is not growing, but is now shrinking.

That is what I have set out to do by representing you in Jefferson City. By making myself available to discuss the issues that are important to you, I will continue to work towards restoring trust in state government, lowering taxes, improving access and affordability in health care, fighting wasteful spending, encouraging and building up the traditional family, and removing barriers so that business can flourish so that we will be able to provide excellence in education, continue to improve our roads and bridges, help the most needy in our society, and make government accountable to the people.

Independence Forever

2008-10-22T16:20:00.005-05:00

In our day the Fourth of July, or simply “the 4th”, has become a day of festive activities replete with barbeques, fireworks, parades, summer fun, and extended vacations all dressed in a patriotic red, white, and blue.

Since the early days of our Nation’s founding America has celebrated its birthday while the rest of the world watches – some jealously, some with disdain, and others with awe. The birth of America – the “Great Experiment” in self-government – is still a strange notion in many parts of the world.

For me, the Fourth of July is indeed a time of celebration, but it is also a time of remembrance and thanksgiving. It is more than just a date on a calendar, it is “Independence Day” – a day when a small group of men gathered on a hot, steamy day in a horsefly ridden room stood together and declared that they were free and were prepared to take up arms to defend that freedom against the mightiest military power of their day.

On July 2, 1776 the Second Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence which called for a complete separation from Great Britain. It was two days later, on July 4 that the draft of the Declaration was signed by two individuals: John Hancock, the President of Congress, and Charles Thompson, Secretary of Congress.

Four days later, on July 8, the members of Congress read the Declaration of Independence from the steps of Independence Hall proclaiming it to the city of Philadelphia. Afterwards, the Liberty Bell was rung. I find it fitting that the inscription around the top of that bell reads, “Proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants thereof”.

On August 2, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed by the members of Congress. William Ellery of Rhode Island stood at the table to see the face of each delegate as he courageously put his name to the document. He witnessed some men sign quickly "but in no face was he able to discern real fear." He watched as Stephan Hopkins, also of Rhode Island and a man in his sixties, put his signature to the document with a shaking pen while declaring, “My hand trembles, but my heart does not."

The first shots of the American Revolution had been fired the year before at Lexington and Concord. News coming in from General Washington was not encouraging and British ships were at anchor in the New York harbor, but still our Founders put their names to a document - their death warrant - that ended with a firm resolve “…for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor”.

While we celebrate today, the solemnity of that day was recorded by Dr. Benjamin Rush in a letter to John Adams in 1781:

Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the House when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe to what was believed by many at that time to be our death warrants? The silence and gloom of the morning was interrupted, I well recollect, only for a moment by Colonel Harrison of Virginia who said to Mr. Gerry at the table: 'I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing... From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead.' This speech procured a transient smile, but it was soon succeeded by the solemnity with which the whole business was conducted.

These men had a solemn understanding that freedom is not free.

For the first three years of the Revolution no country would give a loan to this fledgling nation to fight the British. Robert Morris of Pennsylvania was the financier of the war and used his personal fortune and his own credit to keep the Continental Army equipped and on the move. Even after foreign powers began providing financial assistance money remained in short supply.

In 1781, General Washington was planning the campaign against Cornwallis at Yorktown. He turned to Judge Peters of Pennsylvania and asked, “What can you do for me?”

“With money, everything, without it, nothing,” came the reply.

General Washington anxiously turned to Mr. Morris who replied, “Let me know the sum you desire.” It has been commented that the campaign of 1781 resulting in Cornwallis’ surrender and virtually ending the Revolutionary War (the peace treaty would not be signed until 1783) was possible wholly on the credit of one individual. In the end, the new government in America was unable to repay Mr. Morris and yet he never complained, because he had given his word.

The personal sacrifice of Robert Morris was not unusual for the signers. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence:

Nine died of wounds and other hardships during the war.
Five were captured, imprisoned, and brutally treated.
Several of these men lost their wives, their sons, or their entire families. One, John Hart of New Jersey lost his wife and never saw his 13 children again.
Twelve had their homes completely burned by the British.
Seventeen lost all that they owned.

Freedom is not free; it is bought with blood and washed with tears.

John Adams commenting on the signing of the Declaration reflected:

You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration… Yet through all of the gloom I can see rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all of the means; that posterity will triumph in that day’s transaction, even though we may regret it, which I trust in God we shall not.

Our Founding Fathers have passed the torch to succeeding generations; let us not allow it to go out. This Independence Day remember the sacrifices of those who have gone before us in defense of, and to preserve, our Liberty. Give thanks to God and, like John Adams celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, raise your glass in a toast proclaiming, “Independence forever!”

May God bless our men and women in uniform on missions throughout the world serving on our behalf and may He comfort those whose loss runs deep.

Session Wrap Up

2008-05-27T19:51:00.001-05:00

The final days of the 2nd Regular Session of the 94th General Assembly came to close at 6pm on May 16, 2008. Each session brings with it numerous opportunities and challenges and this session was no different. The top three issues addressed by the General Assembly this year were property tax reform, illegal immigration, and economic development.

Property Tax Reform (SB711)
Judging by the contacts I receive from constituents, property taxes have become a number one priority of the people in Clay County. I have heard from many of you who are struggling to afford to stay in your homes due to steep increases in assessed valuation that in turn lead to a large increase in your property tax bill and the arrogance of our county to make us pay for penalties and interest due to an error of their own making. The legislature was successful in passing legislation that requires that property tax increases exceeding inflation be automatically rolled back to the previous year’s tax rate. Additionally, this legislation requires that counties refund fees or interest charged when the county was at fault. Additional property tax relief will also be available to seniors and the disabled with incomes up to $30,000 for a single homeowner and $34,000 for married couples by increasing the “circuit breaker” tax credit up to $1,100.

Illegal Immigration (HB1549)
Under new legislation the state of Missouri will pick up where the federal government has failed. Inadequate enforcement of our immigration laws by the federal government gave Missouri cause to empower our law enforcement, protect taxpayer benefits, and remove the magnets that attract illegal aliens to Missouri.

This comprehensive legislation requires the Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies to verify the immigration status of any person arrested and inform the federal authorities if a person is found to be here illegally and allow additional Missouri law enforcement officers to receive training to enforce federal immigration laws. In addition to empowering law enforcement, this legislation also makes it clear that illegal aliens will not have access to taxpayer benefits, such as state-provided health insurance and food stamps. This will help add greater accountability to our public benefit programs while saving taxpayers money. In addition, this legislation prohibits sanctuary cities designations and criminalizes those who transport illegal aliens in violation of human trafficking laws. Employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens or who intentionally falsify the classification of employees as contractors will also face sanctions and penalties.

Economic Development (HB2393)
Job creation remains a top priority for the legislature. This year, the legislature expanded the Quality Jobs Act and the Enhanced Enterprise Zones program to further attract and retain family supporting jobs. The legislature also approved a “mega project” plan to attract an aircraft assembly plant in Kansas City. This project has the potential to directly employ 2,100 people with many additional ancillary jobs that could double that number. In addition, a proposal was approved to finally clear the way for new development around KCI that could attract new warehousing and light manufacturing opportunities for our region.

In addition to these major initiatives, a wide range of legislation dealing with everything from agriculture to education to autism health care and scrap metal theft were also addressed.

Mortgage fraud legislation passed this session lets those looking to take advantage of homebuyers know that Missouri will not tolerate mortgage fraud. The legislation places local prosecutors on the same footing as federal investigators who were the only ones that were able to prosecute offenders and were extremely inefficient. It also creates civil and criminal penalties for residential mortgage fraud.

Legislation was also passed to create the "Missouri Returning Heroes' Education Act" to assist veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan by limiting the tuition public universities can charge. It also creates a tuition grant for survivors of veterans who are disabled or killed in combat and seeks to improve educational opportunities for the sons and daughters of military personnel by removing barriers placed on them caused by frequent moves.

A Day of Remembrance

2008-05-22T18:49:00.005-05:00

Memorial Day, a day set aside for remembering those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of Liberty, not just any liberty, but our Liberty, the Liberty that binds us together as a Nation.

What began from many different quarters by decorating the graves of Confederate dead in the 1860’s has grown to an annual remembrance by the 1200 soldiers of the 3rd US Infantry decorating each of the 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery with a small US flag and then patrolling the grounds 24 hours of day during the Memorial Day weekend to make sure that each flag remains standing.

Closer to home in St. Louis, the Boy Scouts of America and the Cub Scouts place flags on the 150,000 graves at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery as an annual Good Turn, a practice that began in 1951 and continues to this day.

While many towns and cities pay tribute each year with speeches, parades, and fireworks, for many the “Memorial” in Memorial Day has been either ignored or forgotten. We are the beneficiaries of the sacrifices made by the soldiers, sailors, and airmen of yesterday and today.

Last year, I remember hearing on the radio a former Green Beret say that warriors exist to protect women and children – what a simple, yet significant statement. For those who do not come back from their mission, we cannot forget the charge mentioned by General John Logan in his General Order No. 11 on May 5th, 1868:

...gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime...let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sacred charges upon the Nation's gratitude, - the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan.

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies

One Man, One Vote

2008-05-11T11:13:00.001-05:00

Elections require candidates or issues to be on the ballot. They also require registered voters to show up at the polls and cast their vote. America is known for its claim to “one man, one vote”. Voting is a treasured right that allows a citizen to participate, to give voice and influence, at all levels of government, but it is only effective when we can ensure it is free from fraud and corruption. Each vote cast by each voter should have equal weight when compared to the votes of friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. The consequences of elections are immense giving some unscrupulous individuals motivation to try to manipulate the system, thereby lessening the importance of your vote.

There have been numerous examples of voter fraud that have occurred around the country and here in our own state. One of the most outrageous occurrences happened several years ago in St. Louis where Ritzy Mekler was registered to vote. Regardless of her party affiliation and knowledge of the issues and candidates she should never have been allowed to vote. Ritzy’s ineligibility to vote had nothing to do with her residency or that she was a concerned Missourian – no, her problem was that she was a dog. If it wasn’t so true, it could be funny, but if Ritzy would have been required to produce photo identification, she would not have been allowed to vote.

Voter fraud like this diminishes the power of your vote and the votes of all registered voters in Missouri. For that reason, it is critical that we preserve the integrity of the voting process by ensuring it is safeguarded against attempts of fraud. Our system must be one that guarantees only those who are legally entitled to vote are able to participate in the process. Of course, that excludes dogs, even cats, as well as felons, non-residents, the deceased, and the countless other examples of attempts at defrauding the system.

One of the most important things we can do to protect the voting process is to require voters to identify themselves with photo identification. This simple requirement would help deter fraud and ensure that those voting are not doing so under a false pretense. The General Assembly approved this requirement in 2006 and it was signed into law by Governor Blunt. Unfortunately, the Missouri Supreme Court later tossed out that law ruling the law violated the state constitution by imposing too great of a burden on voters. Despite the fact such a requirement is not a burden, it is arguably the cheapest and most effective way to keep a corrupt few from stealing an election – the Missouri Supreme Court thought otherwise.

The good news is that a recent ruling by the United States Supreme Court has re-opened the door for a photo identification requirement by upholding a similar law in Indiana. While that decision doesn’t have a direct impact on Missouri, it does demonstrate that our attempt to provide for free and fair elections was appropriate and does not create an undue burden on registered voters.

The General Assembly is working to pass HJR48 to give voters the opportunity to amend our state constitution to require Missourians to present government-issued photo identification to election officials before voting. For those without any form of photo identification the legislation would require the state to provide these individuals with at least one form of identification at no cost. This proposed constitutional amendment would better protect the voting process from fraud while also ensuring that Missourians who want to vote are not prevented from doing so.

With just five legislative days remaining in this session timing is critical to secure passage in both chambers before time runs out. This legislation was passed by the Missouri House today (May 8, 2008) and is now in the hands of the State Senate. Asking a voter to provide a simple form of photo identification is not an unreasonable request and now we also know that it is not unconstitutional. Voting is one of the most fundamental rights we have as citizens of this republic and we must take this step to further protect that right so the importance of each vote is never diminished or negated.

Virtual Schools - An Update

2008-04-28T21:26:00.000-05:00

In 2006, the Missouri General Assembly enabled the establishment of virtual schools with the passage of SB912. I argued then that this was one of the most significant innovations that could be made in education.

The Missouri Virtual Instruction Program (MoVIP) has nearly completed its first full year of operation and it has been hailed by other states as one of the most innovative models in virtual-technology education. The MoVIP school introduces a virtual-technology alternative to enhance traditional classroom learning for thousands of Missouri students. The program is “state of the art” and is operated by the Department of Elementary & Secondary Education with state-certified teachers and meets our rigorous state standards.

Today, the MoVIP school offers on-line education for elementary (K – 5th grade) students and high school (9th - 12th grade) students, with plans for the middle school to be added in the fiscal year 2009. The program serves over 2,000 full-time and part-time students enrolled in over 11,000 classes.

How does it work?

This program integrates on-line learning, textbooks, hands-on lab work, along with “old-fashioned” paperwork to satisfy the curriculum. The elementary teaching staff is based in Jefferson City and the high school is based at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville. The virtual high school has its teachers and students located throughout the state. All teachers have daily contact with students through voice, text messaging, video, email, and real-time technology. Students are required to meet state standards and recently the MoVIP students completed their state MAP testing.

MoVIP offers education access that is nearly unprecedented.

While many rural school districts are struggling to hire or attract qualified and state-certified science and math teachers, others are taking advantage of the MoVIP school for their students for specific courses. It has also become a tool for struggling inner-city schools.

St. Louis and Kansas City schools have struggled for years to maintain accreditation and provide a quality education for those children. The MoVIP school is available to serve our inner-city students allowing them to overcome large class-room sizes and avoid the violence and pressures facing our inner-city neighborhoods. Students can learn safely from home, at their own pace, and receive that special attention that will give them a true head-start to success.

The MoVIP program is also assisting students around the world. Military families who find themselves stationed anywhere outside of Missouri, but choose to retain their Missouri residency are taking advantage of MoVIP. They are able to give their child a quality education without having to switch schools after each move enabling them to develop a relationship with their teachers and grow as students.

There is even one Missouri family serving in New Guinea as missionaries with children enrolled in the MoVIP giving them an alternative over sending their children to a boarding school. Several students who are home-bound due to a severe disability or illness are also enrolled in the MoVIP school and receiving quality public education.

Is all of this worth it? The cost of educating a full-time student in the MoVIP is less than $5000 per student. This is well below the 2007 state average expenditure of $8687 per student. Once the MAP testing results are available, the state will be able to determine the value of the MoVIP school.

When Washington Stumbles

2008-04-12T16:21:00.000-05:00

A nation founded on the fundamental principle of the rule of law must at times remind itself that no one is exempt from that principle. In fact, it is contrary to this founding principle to accept that those who enter this country illegally should be afforded those same privileges under the Constitution and laws of the land as citizens and legal immigrants.

Illegal immigration creates a problem in our state, because it threatens the job security and services available for Missourians. The General Assembly is taking action that will make Missouri’s stance on illegal immigration clear. Last week the Senate passed SB858 and this week the House passed HB1549 which institutes policies that keep our state from becoming a safe-haven for illegal aliens.

Illegal immigration is a growing problem in our country and Washington has failed to act to protect our borders. Missourians are directly affected by the growing population of illegal aliens. The U.S. Census Bureau’s March 2005 population survey suggests that there are between 35,000-65,000 illegal aliens living in the state of Missouri. An Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) estimate from 2000 found that the illegal alien population in our state rose 38% in a four-year period and 175% in a ten-year period. In 2007, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 8,900 illegal aliens from a six-state area that included Missouri.

Proposals under consideration in the legislation moving through the General Assembly are designed to deter illegal aliens from coming to Missouri. While some cities throughout the nation have adopted policies that would give illegal aliens sanctuary, Missouri will make it clear that this practice will not be tolerated. This legislation would prohibit municipalities within our state from granting sanctuary to illegal aliens. Any city, town, or village that does adopt such a policy would not be able to receive any state grants.

Allowing illegal aliens to receive a driver’s license wrongly validates their residency in this country. Other states have considered schemes that would allow illegal aliens to receive a driver’s license. Legislation this year will prohibit illegal aliens from obtaining a driver’s license from the Missouri Department of Revenue and specifies that a driver’s license issued to an illegal alien in another state would not be valid in Missouri. It also stipulates that commercial driver’s tests must be given in English without the benefit of a translator being present.

Our state provides public benefits such as housing assistance, food assistance, and unemployment for Missourians struggling to make ends meet. This legislation would require public assistance recipients to prove residency before receiving any benefits. The bill would work to make sure that illegal aliens in Missouri are not able to collect non-emergency public benefits.

This legislation also makes Missouri less appealing for taking advantage of illegal aliens for cheap labor. The legislation specifically states that employers are barred from employing unauthorized workers. Businesses that continue to do so would be subject to the suspension of their business permits and licenses. Violators under contract with the state would have their contracts voided and be barred from contracting with the state for three years. Contractors that continue to violate the measure would be permanently barred from contracting with the state. The bill also requires employers on state contracts or using state grants, loans, or tax credits to participate in a federal work authorization program in order to be eligible for state contracts. Public employers would also be required to participate in the program. These provisions also apply to general contractors and subcontractors and would make them potentially liable for instances such as illegal hiring fraud.

Unfortunately, Missouri cannot afford to wait for Washington to act on the issue of illegal immigration. Lady Liberty will continue to hold her lamp of freedom high with an outstretched arm to light the way “beside the golden door” that millions have already passed through legally. America will always welcome those who honor the fundamental principles of our Nation’s founding, but she will always recognize in Theodore Roosevelt’s words that, “Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all.”

Progress in Missouri

2008-04-07T21:56:00.001-05:00

This past week was a very busy week for the House and the Senate. The House worked into the early morning Thursday to pass over 70 bills that are considered “consent”, i.e. bills that are not controversial, do not come with a cost to taxpayers, and have no penalties associated with them. In addition, legislation passed both chambers that could have a significant positive impact for Missouri.

Property Taxes - HJR43
As I mentioned earlier in the year, the General Assembly is considering a number of ways to help people suffering from the financial strain caused by excessive property taxes. The House has passed a proposed constitutional amendment that, upon voter approval, changes the rollback requirement for the Hancock Amendment by requiring the current levy, instead of the voter approved maximum levy, to be reduced in a reassessment year. These rollbacks are intended to protect property owners from sharp tax rate increases and prevent windfall revenues by taxing entities in reassessment years. If approved by the Senate, it will be on the ballot for voters to approve in November 2008.

Judicial Taxation – HJR41
While we can’t control the actions of federal judges, we can ensure Missouri judges don’t overreach and stake a claim on the power to tax. The House gave approval this past week for a proposed constitutional amendment that would clearly state that the judiciary does not have the power to tax through court order. Specifically, this proposed amendment prohibits the Missouri Supreme Court or any other court of the state from ordering the state, a county, or any city to increase taxes. The amendment also prohibits any Missouri court from controlling how the state, a county, or any city spends, allocates, or budgets, except as expressly authorized by legislation or approved by Missouri voters. If approved by the Senate, it will be on the ballot for voters to approve this November.

Illegal Immigration – SB858
The Missouri Senate kept itself busy this past week by approving legislation dealing with the problem of illegal immigration. The bill has a number of provisions including: prohibiting illegal aliens from obtaining a driver’s license; prohibiting the creation of sanctuary cities in the state; requiring verification of the legal employment status of every public employee; allowing for the cancellation of state contracts for contractors if they hire illegal immigrants; requiring public agencies to verify the legal status of applicants before providing welfare benefits; criminalizing the transportation of illegal aliens for the purposes of human trafficking, drug trafficking, prostitution, or illegal labor; and enacting provisions to punish bad acting employers who hire illegal aliens. This bill is now under consideration of the House.

Protecting Missourians from excessive property taxes; strengthening our Constitution by further defining the roles of the judicial, legislative, and executive branches; and taking leadership to protect our national sovereignty – not a bad week, not a bad week at all.

Ervin Introduces Comprehensive Health Care Initiative

2008-03-29T19:36:00.005-05:00

Jefferson City – It should be easier for many of the estimated 700,000 uninsured Missourians to afford health insurance and have a better idea of what health care goods and services cost under legislation sponsored by Rep. Doug Ervin (R-Holt).

“Building upon our tax equity and portability successes from last year, we are now in a position to continue making market-based reforms to improve access to affordable coverage for those who are unable to be medically underwritten and to low-income individuals. It is also time that Missourians be given the information necessary to be informed consumers and not just participants in their health care. We have a right to know the cost and quality of health care before those services are provided,” said Rep. Ervin. “This legislation takes steps to change things, to move the state in the right direction, to redirect our state’s health care policies to meet the needs of its citizens instead of the needs of employers, government, insurers, and providers.”

Transparency
Ervin believes that people have the right to know what health care costs and have some idea of the quality of that care before the care is provided. “All of us, at one time or another has driven across town to save a penny or two per gallon of gas or spent time clipping coupons, yet we don’t think twice about the price of health care,” Ervin said. “As consumers of health care we act irrationally, especially when it is paid for by a third party. This is largely due to the lack of price and quality information available to consumers.”

Ervin’s plan ensures that people have the right to request an estimate of the costs of their care in non-emergency situations before that care is provided. “It is not that we don’t care about what something costs or how good our doctor is, but simply that we have never been given the opportunity to find out. Let’s face it, we have a health care system that is price blind and quality silent, patients demand and deserve better than that.”

The Missouri Health Insurance Pool
Under Rep. Ervin’s plan, the medically uninsurable will be provided affordable health insurance through the high risk pool known as the Missouri Health Insurance Pool (MHIP). The MHIP serves individuals who have medical conditions that insurers won’t provide coverage to in the individual health insurance market. These individuals typically do not qualify for public assistance and do not have an employer health insurance plan available to them. It is estimated that one to two percent of Missouri’s population is considered medically uninsurable.

Currently, individuals qualifying for the high risk pool pay 150% of the standard market rate for coverage. Ervin’s bill would lower that rate to the standard market rate for lower income enrollees and cap the rate at 125% of the standard market rate for higher income enrollees. The plan also authorizes the MHIP to create a low-income premium subsidy program to assist low-income enrollees.

Small businesses find the cost of providing employees with employer-sponsored health insurance to be excessively prohibitive, especially when an employee or dependent has a significant health problem. Ervin’s bill would create a pilot program to allow insurers to transfer the high risks from the small group to the MHIP through a risk transfer product with the intent to stabilize rates for the small group. It is estimated that half of Missouri’s uninsured population work for small businesses.

Insure Missouri
Another provision in Ervin’s plan would establish the Insure Missouri program. This program will provide premium assistance to low-income Missourians allowing them to purchase individual health insurance policies. The program is intended to assist at least 71,000 low-income, working adults.

Each Insure Missouri policy holder will be required to make a monthly contribution, based upon income, to a separate account to pay for deductibles and co-pays. Failure to make the monthly contribution will cause the individual to be removed from the program.

“The Insure Missouri plan allows those qualified individuals to purchase an individual health insurance policy while promoting personal responsibility and ownership of their health, leveraging private market innovations, focusing on prevention and wellness, and using existing revenues to pay for the plan eliminating the need to raise taxes,” explained Ervin. “This plan helps eliminate the hidden tax that each of us pay due to uncompensated care from the uninsured and uninsurable populations.”

Ervin recently introduced HB2394 relating to price and quality transparency in health care and HB2413 relating to access and affordability of health coverage through the MHIP and Insure Missouri program.

Feel Good Economics

2008-03-14T20:23:00.000-05:00

Apparently, Congress is unaware of the economy that you and I live in. Just yesterday (March 13, 2008) Congress passed a non-binding budget resolution that ends the tax cuts from earlier this decade to pay for questionable pork barrel projects (which poses another question: why can’t Congress do anything for the people of this land that IS binding?).

Since when do tax increases help a struggling economy? How can Congress talk about economic “stimulus” packages out of one side of their mouth and job killing tax increases out of the other? Why does Congress want us to believe that a one-time tax rebate is good for us, but a permanent tax cut it is not? Is Congress more concerned with central planning of the economy, than the prosperity of its citizens?

Missouri’s constitution does not allow for deficit spending and requires the General Assembly to pass a balanced budget each and every year for the protection of taxpayers. Unfortunately, we have no such protection from Congress.

Politicians in Washington have opted for a politically expedient “stimulus” package that will do little, if anything, to stimulate the economy, but may be enough to stimulate their re-election campaigns. When the rebate becomes available, take it – it may be the only thing you’ll get from Congress, unless you have a personal “earmark”.

What is a state to do?

The General Assembly is already working on legislation to curb illegal immigration – a job that belongs to the federal government. The General Assembly is working to provide better access and affordability in our health care markets, but the federal government has put up barriers that stifle innovation and our ability to do so. The General Assembly is working to improve public education, but again the federal No Child Left Behind Act has too many strings attached.

Once again, what is a state to do? How can Missouri compete on the national and global playing field when Washington fails?

To add insult to injury, an old adage tells us that high tax rates don’t redistribute income as much as they redistribute people. In the next census, it is expected that Missouri will lose a congressional seat. These seats are apportioned by population and this would indicate that Missouri is not growing as fast as other states. This loss of a congressional seat will reduce Missouri’s representation and ability to influence Washington.

Where do people go? Over 20,000 people a day are relocating from one state to another. Americans are leaving the Northeast and the Midwest in favor of Southern and Western states. While a number of factors come into play like climate, quality of life, and housing prices to name a few, it is also true that taxes are a motivating factor.

Of the 12 top states netting new residents, eight of them do not have a state income tax. Those on the Left would tell us that people are willing to pay more taxes to get better government services, but the migration patterns strongly suggest otherwise. Interestingly, the people who tend to be the most mobile tend to be the most educated and motivated, or to put it bluntly, are taxpayers – tax them too much and they may not be here in the future to tax at all.

Missouri should take steps to reverse this trend by reducing our state income tax burden. One proposal (HB1340) would phase in the full deductibility of our federal income tax liability from our state income taxes. There is also a bill (HB2112) which requires the state to develop a way to replace the state income tax with a state sales tax. Another proposal, to be introduced by the end of the month, will reduce the top state income tax by up to 15% providing real tax relief for Missourians, especially the middle class.

These proposals are intended to allow people keep more of their own money, to allow them to make decisions for themselves and their families, to give individuals more liberty in their consumption, savings, and debt retirement.

By contrast, House Democrats have introduced a bill (HB2131) this year that will deny citizens more liberty in their consumption, savings, and debt retirement. This bill increases income taxes by up to 50% for middle class families in a time when families need to keep more of their hard-earned income, not less. Apparently, some believe government knows how best to spend your money than you do.

If we continue to ignore the long-term benefits of lower taxes and instead, embrace the “feel good economics” of Washington where Americans are baited into a $600 tax rebate check while imposing a tax increase roughly twice that size, not only will Missouri continue lose representation in Washington, but the individual liberty of each Missourian will be eroded. Let’s be thankful, as Will Rogers observed that we are not getting all of the government we are paying for.

Identity Theft

2008-03-06T20:31:00.000-06:00

On Wednesday, the Missouri House passed HB1384, giving Missourians a new weapon to help fight identity theft. We don’t have to spend much time watching television or listening to the radio to see or hear one of the many commercials offering free credit reports or credit card security services designed to protect us from the threat of identity theft. While the ads are often humorous and the jingles are usually catchy, they shed light on a serious problem that is no laughing matter to the millions of Americans victimized by identity thieves each year.

Innocent Missourians have been the victims of crimes ranging from someone using an existing credit card account to purchase goods to an individual opening multiple accounts using stolen personal information to someone using a stolen identity to secure a business or home loan. The methods for perpetrating identity theft are many and that is why it is important that Missourians are provided with adequate protection from these devastating and very personal crimes.

Identity thieves work hard to steal information about us from online transactions, looking over one’s shoulder at an ATM, to going through our trash. Our trash is a potential treasure trove information if credit card offers and various other mailings with personal information are not shredded before being discarded. It’s this information that can be used to register new credit cards and endanger the financial stability of innocent, unsuspecting Missourians. The avenues of identity theft are many and that is why identity theft is so hard to combat.

In 2004, the legislature passed legislation to increase the penalties for those who steal our personal information (HB916). That bill put some real teeth into our law to send the message that Missouri views identity theft as a serious crime and criminals will not get away with a simple slap on the wrist. On a federal level, President Bush created the first ever Identity Theft Task Force to protect American families from identity theft and to crack down on criminals who traffic in stolen identities. The combination of state and federal efforts has made it more difficult to engage in this illicit behavior.

This year the House is taking additional steps with another piece of legislation that makes a very simple change that could mean a big difference for anyone who is victimized by identity thieves. This bill clarifies that identity theft victims have the right to contact local law enforcement to have an incident report prepared and filed. While many police departments already do this, believe or not, there are some that are not willing to take identity theft reports. This is especially important when a victim attempts to have charges removed from a credit card that were run up by an identity thief, because the victim needs a police report to substantiate the fact that they were the victim of a crime. This is a simple, commonsense change that will assist Missourians victimized by identity theft to straighten out the financial mess that can result from these types of crimes.

Identity theft is a serious crime and all of us are at risk of becoming the kind of cautionary tale we see in those catchy commercials. By being smart with the way we do business and by enacting laws that give Missourians adequate protection, we can thwart the efforts of these criminals who seek to impersonate us.

Property Taxes

2008-02-28T20:32:00.001-06:00

“Milk the cow, but do not pull off the udder,” or so goes an old Greek proverb so goes the experience of property owners throughout Missouri.

No one disputes the necessary evil of taxes to fund vital public services that range from fire and police protection, to water and sewer service, to funding schools to educate the next generation. Tax paying citizens deserve that our local political subdivisions do their level best to be stewards of these tax dollars making sure that each dollar that is collected is spent wisely and the greatest value possible is received in return. A system of equitable taxation, open books, and accountability are essential for good and sound government.

It is difficult to find a region in our great state, especially in the suburban areas, where property owners are not struggling to meet the financial burden that results from the ever-increasing property values and the corresponding increase their property tax burden. In some counties in Missouri, assessed values increased by an average of 22% between 2005 and 2007. Such increases touch every family, but its harshest impact is felt by those on fixed incomes.

To add insult to injury, our assessed valuations trail the home market resulting in valuations that may not accurately reflect the market price of a home. While Missouri is feeling the pinch of dropping median home prices, we are much better off than some parts of the country. Property taxes remain a local issue, but these striking increases call for action at the state level and property tax reform is a top priority this session.

The Missouri Senate has passed a bill that mandates tax rate rollbacks by all political subdivisions in reassessment years (SB711). These rollbacks are intended to protect property owners from sharp tax rate increases and prevent windfall revenues by taxing entities in reassessment years.

The bill also allows the ability for taxpayers to pay their property taxes in installments to prevent the “shock” of lump sum tax payments at year-end during the holiday season. Current law already allows counties to opt for quarterly installments, so this bill will require counties to provide taxpayers an estimate of their tax liability in the spring.

Citizens should never be liable for the errors of government, but in Clay County citizens are held liable for penalties and interest even when an error is made by the county. Unfortunately, our county collector will not make any exceptions and citizens are not prone to go to court, or are unaware of that alternative to prove their innocence. In either case, the taxpayer should not have to bear the burden of legal fees and the hassle of a lawsuit, because the county is unwilling to admit fault and waive the penalties and interest. This bill, and a companion House bill (HB1958) which I have co-sponsored, prohibits the imposition of penalties and interest where there is clear and convincing evidence that a county made an error in the determination of taxes owed by a taxpayer.

The Missouri House is considering an increase in the income cap for property tax relief known as the circuit breaker (HB1321). The program is currently available to seniors and disabled individuals who make $27,500. This bill would raise the cap to $32,500 for a single person and $36,500 for a married couple while increasing the maximum tax credit from $750 to $800.

Another bill under consideration by the House (HJR59) is a constitutional amendment exempting Missouri citizens on active military duty from paying personal property taxes.

Property tax reform is a very complex issue. Radio-television personality Arthur Godfrey proclaimed, “I'm proud to be paying taxes in the United States. The only thing is - I could be just as proud for half the money.” The best humor is always rooted in truth. We should demand accountability in the usage of our tax dollars and we deserve an open and accurate assessment process that prevents government from taking advantage of them.

Teacher Liability Protection

2008-02-21T20:33:00.001-06:00

No matter how many years it has been since graduation day, every one of us can still remember that one teacher in our elementary and secondary experience that stands out. Whether that teacher pushed you to your limits, made you laugh on the worst of days, or had that unique gift of making the complex understandable, these teachers still stand out today.

No matter how long it has been since you walked out of class for the last time, you will still find teachers and staff that continue to work hard providing the best learning environment with the resources available to them for our children. As in your life each new day brings new challenges and that is no different for our teachers and supporting staff. Unfortunately, there are days when unforeseen incidents take place that are beyond the control of a teacher which create a liability for the school district and its employees.

From a teacher breaking up a fight between students resulting in an accidental strike to a student in the scuffle to a child injuring himself after running away from the group during a field trip there are many situations in between and beyond that can find a teacher or staff member liable for events that are out of their control.

Unfortunate episodes such as these have led to lawsuits being filed against teachers and staff around our state, despite the fact that school board policies were being followed to address the situation.

Teachers have enough on their hands every day than to worry about whether an accident will happen in which they will be liable. To help address this issue I have co-sponsored the Teacher Liability Protection Act. This legislation is intended to protect teachers, staff, and volunteers from unnecessary lawsuits that divert money away from the classroom and into the courtroom. Such lawsuits can ruin the career of valued a teacher regardless of whether negligence or guilt was found.

The proposed legislation expands the existing liability protection for teachers and other school personnel. Teachers and staff already have some legal protections against liability on matters relating to discipline under our current law. This bill expands the existing protections and establishes a legal precedence to throw out lawsuits if the teacher or staff member was acting within established school board policies. This proposal will not extend these protections to teachers and staff that are not following school board policies or are willfully negligent in performing their duties.

The bill also provides immunity from liability to qualified teachers and staff who dispense medication or life-saving medical treatments such as CPR. In addition, a teacher or other public school employee who is not qualified or one who refuses to offer a treatment or administer medication will not be held liable.

The Teacher Liability Protection Act will provide teachers and staff the security they need to perform their duties without fear of reprisal. The parents and children of Missouri rely on teachers to provide our children the education they need for success. This legislation will give teachers the tools they need to create the best educational environment possible for our children.

Joint Sessions

2008-02-08T20:59:00.003-06:00

This past week two joint sessions of the General Assembly were held. The State of the Judiciary address was delivered on Tuesday followed by the State of Transportation address on Wednesday.

Chief Justice Laura Denvir Stith delivered the 35th State of the Judiciary address. While many topics were discussed one area stands out. She defended the non-partisan court plan, but did allow that changes in the process are being considered. First, more transparency is needed in the selection process for judges. The Supreme Court will begin by making more information available to the public and the media about the judicial candidates in a timely fashion. Commissions will be required to announce the time, date, and location of their meetings and to provide demographic information about the applicant pool prior to those meetings.

Second, Chief Justice Stith declared, “We want citizens to have ready information about the performance of their judges so they can make fully informed decisions when they exercise their right to vote”. This is a very positive change. Retention votes for judges are the most difficult votes to cast, due to the extreme lack of information and sources for information about the judges. She noted:

The Supreme Court also is requiring the creation of judicial performance committees to use objective standards to conduct in-depth evaluations of nonpartisan judges seeking retention. These performance committees, composed of an equal number of lay persons and lawyers, will release their evaluation summaries and will recommend whether a nonpartisan judge should be retained. The bottom line recommendations, and directions to a Web site with detailed evaluation information, will be made available in a concise voter information pamphlet - the type of pamphlet we hope one day to be able to send to all the voters.

These are positive changes for the courts and the courts would not have taken these steps and announce these intentions without the feedback and interest received by the public.

Oddly enough the Chief Justice noted that the $395 million of in damages, offsets, fines, fees, and costs are considered a “positive economic impact” and further stated that “we courts do our share in contributing to the state's bottom line”. Apparently I missed that in the constitution. The assessment of damages, offsets, fines, fees, and costs, while justified by law and necessary to punish offenders, is really a form of wealth redistribution. To have a positive economic impact both parties would to benefit in the transaction.

Director Pete Rahn delivered the fifth, and final, State of Transportation address. This address was required by statute in 2003 in response the lack of credibility MODOT was experiencing with the public and the General Assembly. Director Rahn noted, “The road to credibility is a long one. The road to discredit is not. Credibility takes a long time to build, but it can be torn down in a matter of seconds” – very true words indeed.

MODOT has made significant improvements over the past few years and has racked up a number of successes. The success or failure to deliver the Smooth Roads Initiative and the Safe and Sound Bridge program will be MODOT’s legacy for this decade. Here are some “success” highlights from the address:

In 2006, we delivered 2,200 miles of smoother, safer roads a full year ahead of schedule. We are now building on that success with our Better Roads, Brighter Future initiative which will result in 5,600 miles of major roads with smooth pavement; brighter, wider striping; larger signs; rumble stripes; and, in most cases, a minimum four-foot paved shoulder all by 2012.

With just one year of Better Roads, Brighter Future completed, 78 percent of our
major roads are now in good condition as compared to 44 percent just five years ago. That is progress that benefits all of us. That is an example of how far we've come.

…

Missouri climbed from 39th to 17th between 2000 and 2005 including an eleven-spot jump from 2004 to 2005 - the second biggest improvement in the country. And that was prior to the full effects of the Smooth Roads Initiative or any of the positive improvements through Better Roads, Brighter Future, which will undoubtedly move us up the rankings in future years.

…

Construction contracts awarded in Fiscal Year 2007 came in 7.4 percent under budget. That was a 90 million dollar savings - 90 million dollars more for road and bridge improvements. For Fiscal Year 2008, so far we are at 114 million dollars or 14 percent under budget.

Additionally, all projects in our five-year plan that were sped up due to Amendment 3 funding have been awarded to a contractor. With 100 percent of these projects under contract, we came in at 4 percent under budget. That is even more savings for even more highway improvements. That is an example of how far we've come!

MODOT in recent years has moved beyond their old “patch and promise” reputation to making significant improvements to our ailing infrastructure and reduced the number of fatalities on Missouri highways. While MODOT has certainly made significant improvements, it will continue to take a diligent public to hold their feet to the fire. Their performance has raised our expectations on what we can expect.

Good Constitutions

2008-01-31T20:44:00.001-06:00

The separation of powers is a fundamental doctrine within a representative republic. Without it, the three branches of government act independently without restraint creating chaos in an otherwise ordered society in a perpetual race to concentrate power in one branch. The self-imposed process of “checks and balances” crafted at our Nation’s founding and promulgated throughout the constitutions of the States has endured for over 225 years.

One issue that took its turn at center stage at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was taxes, or more specifically who had the power to tax. After much debate the power to tax was left to the legislative branch, because that is the branch that is directly accountable to the citizens as Thomas Jefferson later noted, “Excessive taxation… will carry reason & reflection to every man’s door, and particularly in the hour of election.”

It is clear that the judicial branch does not have the power to tax. This was clear to the writers of the Constitution and early Founding Fathers. Alexander Hamilton noted, “The Judiciary… has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction of the strength or of the wealth of the society, and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither force nor will.” The legitimacy of the judiciary’s decisions is limited to the claim that the court is authorized within the law. Any judge that exceeds such claim becomes a lawmaker, a role granted only to the legislative branch.

Even so, we have seen several examples of appointed judges who have forced local communities and state governments to enact certain laws or levy tax increases. Judge-imposed taxes became an issue here in Missouri during the Kansas City school district desegregation case, Missouri v. Jenkins. A federal judge ordered the state and local governments to increase spending for the school district. The judge also forced the local government to raise taxes. The case went all the way to the US Supreme Court where they upheld a federal court’s ability to force state and local governments to raise taxes.

In Arizona, the state could be held in contempt if they don’t find a way to pay to improve instruction of English to non-native speakers, many of whom are the children of illegal immigrants. The judge directed millions of dollars in penalties to go immediately to Arizona classrooms.

Here in Clay County a judge decreed that a vote of the people of Clay County didn’t count resulting in the county commission imposing a property tax increase without a vote of the citizens. States around the country, including Missouri, have been or are being taken to court to force increases in taxes and spending on everything from transportation to education to health care – a cruel contest where we find ourselves suing ourselves.

While we can’t control the actions of federal judges, we can ensure Missouri judges don’t overreach and stake a claim on the power to tax. A proposal for a constitutional amendment that would clearly state that judiciary does not have the power to tax through court order has been introduced in the Missouri General Assembly. Specifically, this proposed amendment prohibits the Missouri Supreme Court or any other court of the state from ordering the state, a county, or any city to increase taxes. The amendment also prohibits any Missouri court from controlling how the state, a county, or any city spends, allocates, or budgets, except as expressly authorized by legislation or approved by Missouri voters.

We can be proud of our republic with its three distinct branches. We have had exemplary leadership in all three branches throughout the course of our history – we have also seen lapses in judgment from all three branches, yet our state and federal constitutions remain intact a testament to American Experiment in self-government.

The Announcement

2008-01-25T20:44:00.000-06:00

The most significant news from Jefferson City this week is unquestionably the announcement of Governor Matt Blunt stating that he will not be seeking a second term. This announcement eclipsed all other happenings at our state capitol and commanded major headlines all across the state. It stunned political insiders and the public alike.

As one could imagine everyone is asking why and few are accepting the Governor’s stated reason that he had achieved what he set out to do and has lost that sense of mission for the office. Regardless of one’s political leanings, agreement can be made that a governor must have a sense of mission. The Governor also stated his desires to spend more time with his wife, Melanie, and son, Branch.

Upon reflection, Inaugural Day in January 2005 was damp and cold sparking the then new Governor Blunt to keep his remarks short. Under the watchful gaze of Thomas Jefferson below the majestic columns on the south steps of the state Capitol before a large crowd he declared:

Over the next four years, we will be bold. We will be willing to experiment. We
will not fear failure. We will bear setbacks with resolve and press forward with
determined innovation. We will attack problems with the deliberation that
accompanies this great responsibility and with the energy necessary to build a
better Missouri.

Those words could not have been any more true.

Since that time, Missouri has made incredible improvements with the creation of thousands of new jobs, better roads, an improved education funding model, increased state revenues, three years of budget surpluses, and claims the sixth lowest cost of living in the entire nation. Despite the hue and cry of left this progress has been made with no new taxes, something the critics said was impossible. Apparently, Governor Blunt and the General Assembly achieved the impossible.

In comparison to other states, Missouri’s success is highlighted even more. Illinois is facing a multi-billion dollar budget deficit (again) and their legislature is fighting over a proposed massive tax increase. California is suffering a $14 billion budget deficit (by comparison our total state budget is $21 billion). In contrast, our state revenues continue to be positive and our government has delivered on promises to fund health care, schools, and roads without raising taxes.

The critics have often attacked the Governor and the General Assembly for the path taken to right this ship of state, but leadership and reform require tough decisions and do not at times come without a difference of opinion. We would do well to remember Thomas Jefferson’s words that, “Every difference of opinion is not a difference in principle.”

The State of the State

2008-01-16T20:45:00.000-06:00

This past week Governor Matt Blunt delivered the annual State of the State address to a joint session of the Missouri General Assembly. He noted that, “Only four years ago, bad public policy was causing our state to lose jobs at an alarming – and unacceptable rate. Business-as-usual in the state capital was hurting Missouri families." He went on to say that the state of the State is strong.

Missouri has made a lot of progress these past few years going from a billion dollar deficit to what is now a $500 million surplus. We went from losing 34,000 jobs to gaining over 90,000 jobs. Spending was out of control resulting in cuts to every state program. We went from 87% of our roads being in less than good condition to now having 74% of our roads in good condition with still more to come.

In the 2007 school year our fourth and eighth graders posted significant gains on national math tests and Missouri was one of only six states with fourth graders who scored higher on all five sections of the national math exam. Not only did a record 74% of Missouri seniors take the ACT, they beat the national average. Rising to the prospect of more students attending college, we saw an increase from 16,400 need-based scholarships being offered to assisting over 36,000 students from the Access Missouri Scholarship initiative.

Yes, Missouri has turned a corner.

The Governor rightly noted that, “Missourians demanded change: to put Missouri families, Missouri values and Missouri taxpayers first." Much has been accomplished without raising state taxes.

Yet, challenges remain and there is more work to do. The Governor made the following statement, “Now is not the time to go back to the old ways of bigger government, higher taxes, more lawsuits, and too much regulation”, – a statement that I wholeheartedly agree.

The budget recommended by the Governor stands at $23.095 billion dollars, an increase of $1.4 billion, or 6.2%, over our current budget. This increase will primarily go towards education and health care.

Elementary and secondary schools would receive an increase of $121 million, more than 4% over last year. Missouri colleges and universities would receive an additional $54.2 million, an increase of more than 6%, and Missouri families have been protected from unreasonable tuition hikes by capping tuition increases. MO HealthNet, formerly known as Medicaid, will still consume 30% of Missouri’s resources.

It should be noted that the consensus revenue estimate, meaning the estimated amount of new tax collections for the next budget year, has been pegged at 3.4%.

This is our opportunity to take a hard look at how the state spends public dollars to reduce uncompensated care, a hidden tax for each of us with private insurance, build upon last year’s foundation of an ownership model for health care providing for portability and tax equity, to assist individuals with health conditions that preclude them from private insurance, and look to the future recognizing that each of us has a fundamental right in property to the our health data leading to greater consumer choice and access that will ultimately lead to greater competition and quality of health care services.

This is our opportunity to protect the safety of Missourians, to defend our hard-earned tax dollars, to protect our jobs, and, lest Washington D.C. forget, to enforce the rule of law by taking steps with purpose to curb illegal immigration. The Governor outlined recommendations to ban “sanctuary cities”, forbid local governments from hampering law enforcement efforts to enforce immigration law, making it a crime to transport illegal aliens for exploitive purposes, and require state agencies to verify the legal status of applicants before enrolling them on state programs to name just a few.

There is no shortage of issues confronting the people of Missouri. The question we must ask ourselves each year is: Will the General Assembly hold tightly to the virtue of Liberty as a foundational element in each solution or will the General Assembly – under Republican control – adopt a “big government republicanism” approach?

This is still the Show-Me State, not the nanny state. I say give Liberty a chance.

The House Will Come to Order

2008-01-12T20:47:00.001-06:00

Each new year brings new opportunities and 2008 will be no exception.

Over the last three years we have gone from a billion dollar budget shortfall to a $600 million surplus. There have been over 90,000 new jobs created since January 2005. Our funding for elementary and secondary education has increased by $452 million through a new equitable school funding formula and in that same time higher education funding has increased $74 million with $45 million in scholarships assisting more than 37,000 students attend college.

We have taken our major roads from the 47th worst in the Nation to the 9th best in the Nation. These improvements, made possible with voter approval of Amendment 3, have given Missouri drivers the Smooth Roads Initiative and the Safe and Sound bridge program. This commitment to road and bridge improvements has reduced highway fatalities by 161 in 2006 from 2005.

In addition, 300,000 Missouri seniors have had their tax burden lessened by the Senior Tax Justice Act passed just last year. Missourians also saw a new tax deduction for health insurance premiums and improved access to the Missouri Health Insurance Pool for those with chronic conditions.

Progress indeed, but challenges remain. Over the same time period of the advances noted above, and many others too numerous to account for here, illegal immigration has captured the attention of state legislatures across the country, including Missouri. Property taxes have continued to burden families throughout the state with suburban counties and seniors feeling it the most and health care continues to be on the minds of Missourians.

Each of these issues will be debated in the General Assembly this session. Each of these issues will have their proponents and opponents. Each of these issues impacts the lives each of us. I look forward to the debate and working through “the noise” to bring about meaningful change for Missouri.

It is clear that our efforts are making a difference and bringing real change to our state government. We have a budget that lives within our means and is truly balanced. We are now reaping the rewards of disciplined determination and fiscal restraint while keeping our promise of no new taxes.

Now with the new year underway we must continue to build upon the successes of yesterday to seize the opportunities of tomorrow.