Koster reviews highlights of Missouri legislative session

The Missouri legislative session ended with a flurry of activity that sent several bills to the governor's desk. Some measures were hotly contested; others passed with heavy majorities in both the House and the Senate.

Among the measures that passed were an abortion bill, banning people affiliated with abortion clinics from teaching sex education classes and allows abstinence-only sex education courses. A $21.5 billion budget boosts education funding and Medicaid.

Raises for state employees and service providers are also provided. Legislators agreed to propose a constitutional amendment that would designate English as the state's official language. Victims of rape and domestic violence were offered stronger protection. People who use deadly force against someone who illegally comes into their home would be protected from criminal prosecution and lawsuits. Social security tax exemptions are to be phased in, and tax breaks were expanded for businesses that add jobs with health benefits and at least average wages.

Some legislation that touches the daily lives of Missourians include a measure that allows statewide video franchises, rather than city-by-city agreements. Another new statute lowers the level of damage requiring a vehicle to have a salvage title. A week after the session's end, Missouri Senator Chris Koster, R-31st District, talked with the Herald-Tribune about the work done in Jefferson City. "I would say that overall it was a very good session. The most productive session that has occurred was 2005 -- this is second most productive." Koster sees the Medicaid reforms made this year to be the legislature's most significant achievement. "If the only thing that occurred was achieving Medicaid reform, it would have been a successful session," he said, noting that Medicaid accounts for 25 to 30 percent of the state's budget.

"It was a very difficult bill to get through. We got through on the very last day," he said.

Koster said the new system moves Medicaid consumers into a managed care system over time, in an attempt to serve more patients in a clinic setting rather than in an emergency room setting, thereby reducing the cost of non-emergency health care exponentially.

"The second bill of significance is MOHELA," Koster said. "It's the largest influx of capital improvements for universities. Granted, it was a long and winding road, with several moments of drama and disappointments along the way, but it will mean $350 million and thousands of jobs in the construction industry -- all in good jobs." About $15 million will be spent in the 31st District, Koster said.

Koster also praised an economic development bill and tax cuts that made it to the governor's desk. "We haven't had a (significant) tax cut since Carnahan rolled back the sales tax on food," Koster said. Over six years, Social Security taxes for seniors making less than $85,000 will be reduced.

Koster also felt there were disappointments this session, in the form of some of the bills that didn't make it off the floor; specifically, immigration reform and an attempt to preempt local health and zoning ordinances restricting concentrated animal feeding operations, also known as the food and farm preservation act.

"Personally, the biggest disappointment was the illegal immigration bill. I recently saw (more than 80) illegal immigrants picked up at a poultry plant. Unscrupulous businesses are paying slave wages to an illegal work force," numbering in the thousands -- in Koster's estimation, the numbers could approach that Missouri's total unemployed population. Koster said that contractors were in his office telling him they couldn't do their jobs without illegal workers.

"That people would come into Jefferson City and say that is absolutely offensive to me," he said.

Asked about the argument often raised that businesses can't get Americans to do the work, Koster said he thinks, "the argument that Americans won't hang drywall or pluck chickens is ludicrous. For 200 years walls were hung and chickens were plucked. Americans will do this work. They have always done it," and that the market place should offer a fair wage for such work, to legal workers.

"I put forward legislation and the legislature did not want to seriously deal with these issues," Koster said.

Another disappointment to Koster was the failure of the food and farm preservation act. "Most people knew it as the CAFO bill. Admittedly, it was very controversial, nonetheless, it's a vital concept that needs to be addressed if the agriculture industry is to remain viable," Koster said.

Animal husbandry, he said, is a big part of the American agricultural industry, noting that local ordinances, like one in Nodaway County that completely outlaws CAFOS, could be economically devastating if 30 counties took that position.

"I also want to emphasize that environmental concerns that have driven these local health ordinances are real and legitimate," Koster said. "I want to try and help to come to a compromise... I think SB 364 was very close to that."

Many other proposed legislative efforts failed, including a proposal to bar courts from reviewing legislators' spending decisions and an effort to repeal the state's limit on gambling losses of $500 per two hours while increasing taxes on casinos for a new scholarship program.

The proposal for a primary seat belt law also failed.