This week car dealers showed their muscle by passing a bill to permit them to charge every consumer $200 in paperwork fees on every car sale. It was a tiny but important consumer issue. Now it goes to Nixon who has it as a stand alone issue to consider whether he will sign it.

And House Republicans changed course yet again on Stimulus money for Missouri. This next week promises to be a circus and the deadline for passing the budget is creeping ever closer. Rumors already are going around about a special session for the Budget.

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Roy Blunt called a Zero as Senate Candidate by Wash Post

Now the House Republicans have again changed course of the Federal Stimulus funds

Speaker Richards announces that House Republicans will seek to use the Stimulus funds for a Tax "Rebate"

First, House Republicans wanted to send the money back to Washington. That didn't sell. So for weeks now they have been busily crafting bills to spend One Billion dollars on a long wishlist for lobbyists and Republican legislators. Now they have changed course a third time. They have announced they will seek to declare a tax rebate in the form of a tax cut in the income tax. Details will be revealed tomorrow but this week Speaker Ron Richards declared that the OMB budget office in DC has said the scheme is "illegal" but they will seek to do it anyway.

Senator McCaskill jumped in this weekend. Here is good coverage of her position.

Car Dealers pass $200 Paperwork fee for consumers

Senate Bill 355 will authorize a $200 fee on all auto sales

GENERAL ASSEMBLY APPROVES FEES REJECTED BY COURT

The House of Representatives on April 21 gave final approval to bill giving automobile and boat dealers the legal authority to charge customers fees of up to $200 for completing documents related to sales. The Missouri Supreme Court in 2007 ruled that a business that charges fees for documents prepared by employees who aren't lawyers is engaged in the unlicensed practice of law and subject to class-action lawsuits seeking repayment of fees plus damages. The case is Carpenter vs Countrywide Home Loans a March Missouri Supreme Court case.

SB 355, which now goes to the governor to be signed or vetoed, seeks to carve out an exception to that rule for vehicle dealers, many of whom charge extra fees to offset expenses and supplement profits. The House passed the bill on a 128-28 vote. The Senate earlier had approved it by a vote of 23-11.

The Missouri Constitution grants the judiciary the sole authority to determine what constitutes the practice of law. The text of SB 355 acknowledges this but declares that the General Assembly believes charging for document preparation by non-lawyers doesn't constitute the practice of law. The bill further says that if a court disagrees and invalidates the fees, customers can't recover the fees or damages. Under court precedent, however, if the court were to strike down the fee portion of SB 355, it would likely also invalidate the provision protecting vehicle dealers from lawsuits.

Roy Blunt's Senate race takes huge hit as his finance reports are termed a Zero by the Washington Post. Steelman announces committee to run.

This week, as most, I had visitors in Jeff City from my district. This week though was special. People from my church came down with other people from area churches to talk to the legislators about Health Care. They called on all the KC area Reps and Senators and asked us about when Health Care would be passed. It was special to me to see people that I see in church every Sunday take time from their lives to come down and do this. I was very proud to be part of the Faith Community at St. Anthony's Church. I only wish I had better answers for them

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Robin Carnahan vs Roy Blunt First numbers

Two attacks on Minimum wage pass the House this week

Rollback of the Minimum Wage sought by Restaurant Association - but now they say they want even more and now more small businesses will be exempt from the Minimum Wage

First, we had the bill that sought to roll back the minimum wage for employees that receive tips. Restaurant owners claim that they will go out of business if they have to pay the wage of $3.52 per hour to their servers who receive tips. The Minimum Wage is $7.05 per hour but tipped employees only get one half of that. Restaurant owners claim that is breaking them. When the rollback ran into major opposition the sponsor toned it down some and just asked for a freeze rather than a roll back. That apparently is not enough for some. Here is the best coverage: St Louis Post Dispatch Story on wage cut

But the punch line to the debate was another bill that came through this week. It is called "The Small Business Get off My Back Bill." I swear this is true. I could not make up things this silly. But what the bill actually does is not funny at all. The bill expands the number of businesses that are Exempt from paying minimum wage. Right now businesses with gross sales of less that $500,000 do not have to pay minimum wage. This bill raises that limit to One Million Dollars. Good explanation of this in the St Louis Business Journal

These bill both passed on a fiercely partisan split. House Bill 258, the tipped employees issue, passed 86-74 (it needed 82) with All Democrats voting against it. Three Republicans jumped ship and joined the Dems: Jason Brown, Ryan Silvey and Gary Dusenberg all three of them are from the KC Metro area. So that bill passed with only Republicans voting for it.

The other bill that vastly expands the number of businesses that are EXEMPT from Minimum Wage is House Bill 795. It passed 87-74. All Democrats except Kate Meiners (D-Kansas City) voted against the bill. Rep Jason Holsman, although he opposed the first bill and continued to vote later, did not vote on this one and was shown as absent.

Guns on College Campuses was a hot debate

House Bill 668 will authorize guns on college campuses

House Bill 668 Removes the prohibition from the Concealed Carry law that persons with a permit cannot carry guns on college campuses. This provision has touched off opposition from the academic community. The bill also lowers the age from 23 to 21 for concealed carry permits so it surely would increase greatly the chances that more guns will be in colleges. This bill passed 105-50.

I voted No. Some of you will recall that I voted against concealed carry. This year I stood at the microphone and told the House that I believe I was wrong on that issue. I argued then that more guns would likely result in more violence. On the other hand the proponents of concealed carry argued it would reduce crime. It appears that we were both wrong. Neither has happened. But when we passed Concealed Carry certain places were excluded including bars, stadiums and schools including colleges. Now this bill proposes to allow guns in colleges. I am willing to admit that what I predicted has not happened with concealed carry but I am not willing to take that chance on college campuses. I hope I am wrong again. The bill now goes to the Senate so it is a long way still from becoming law.

Budget Committee in Senate restores some Health Care

Easter weekend. I am up in St Louis visiting the new grandson and celebrating my father in law's 90th Birthday. Five more weeks to go in the Legislative session. All the threads will be coming together in the next month. An exciting phase of the process but one where we have to be careful as this is when the real decisions are made.

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John Combest page - MO Politics

Autism bill HB 357 struggles on after celebrating World Autism Day

After a setback the Autism bill is sent to the House

Two weeks ago we celebrated World Autism Awareness Day in this country. Advocates from across the State came to Jeff City to encourage the passage of House Bill 357. They were concerned because the bill had been reported out of the Health Care Policy Committee with a Do Pass on March 5th. Nearly a month later it had been languishing in the Rules Committee. The House Leadership assured the advocate on April First that the next day it would be voted out of the Rules Committee and sent to the House Floor for debate. But the very next morning without explanation the bill was returned to the Health Care Policy Committee on a straight party line vote. All Republicans voting to return it and all Dems voting against. I serve as one of the 5 Dems on Rules and asked what the problem was that couldn't be resolved on the House Floor. The only explanation was the amount of money the bill would cost. So it was returned. On April 8th the Health Care Committee promptly voted once again Do Pass. This time the Rule Committee heard it the next day and sent it on to the floor. What's the big deal you ask? Well delaying it by those weeks makes it very, very unlikely it can become law. The insurance company lobbyists flexed their muscle after the parents of autistic children went home and gave the Majority its marching orders. They complied and have, for all practical purposes, killed the bill. Oh, they have some political cover. They will probably sent it on to the Senate one of these days and blame it when the Senate has no time left to take it up. Happy Autism Awareness Day.

Here is the Wikipedia link to autism

And here is the link to HB 357

House Joint Resolution 10 seeks to amend the MO Constitution

HJR 10 seeks change in the way Missouri Judges are chosen

One of the most contentious debates last year was about changing the way Missouri Judges are chosen. The Missouri Non-partisan Court Plan has been a national model for the merit selection process of choosing judges. Last year House Joint Resolution 49 sought a Constitutional amendment to change all that. After a long battle the House defeated that on a vote of 69-83-2. 82 of the 163 Reps were required to pass this. So the measure fell 69 votes short. But not really. When the voting is taking place on the electronic board Reps can, and do, change their votes up to the last second. Last year the board was open for several minutes while arm twisting took place. The peak was 78 votes at that time it was four short. It held there and began to fall as it became obvious the measure was failing. Reps who had been pressure to change got off the train so as not to take the heat for voting for a failing issue. That high water mark should have been a clue of things to come.

This year House Joint Resolution Ten passed the House on a vote of 85-72-1. What happened? Well 10 members who were here last year changed their votes. As the vote total got close to 82 this time it got made it. At first is slowed but then once it got there others switched and got on the bandwagon. So now it is on to the Senate for the issue. Rumor has it (in Jeff Rumor Rules) that the measure will not pass the Senate. But. Rumor had it that it would not pass the House and look what happened. Oh. Who changed? Well if the Missouri Court Plan is changed these folks deserve special credit.

Here are the returning Reps who flipped from "no" (or present) on HJR 49 last year to "yes" on HJR 10:

Republicans

Brandom
Deeken
Denison
Dusenburg
Fisher
Grisamore
Guest
Kraus (present last year)
Nance
Pratt
Pollock
Silvey


Democrats

Dougherty (present last year)
Nasheed

I will do my best to keep you posted on this issue as it moves to the Senate.

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