End of Session Report

May 16, 2023

Moon casts shadow on end of session

As we reported on Friday, the legislative session in Missouri has concluded. We have a talented team under the dome who provided this recount on how some of the great hopes for 2023 limped off into the sunset...

In the final days of session, the Senate fell back into the dysfunction and turmoil that has plagued it for the last two years. On Tuesday of this week, Senator Mike Moon (R-Lawrence) held the Senate Floor all day in protest for the House not passing his bill banning gender reassignment surgeries and hormone therapies for individuals under the age of 18. Then beginning Thursday evening Sen. Bill Eigel (R-St. Charles) held the floor after he was told that his personal property tax cut would not pass unless a bill legalizing sports betting passed first. This filibuster carried over to Friday and lasted until the Senate adjourned at 6:00 pm.

The Missouri House spent Friday taking final actions on Bills in Conference, House Bills with Senate Amendments, and begrudgingly approving Senate Bills without House changes. The frustration was evident when they adjourned on Friday afternoon. Out of the 1,478 House Bills filed this year, 7 were Truly Agreed to and Finally Passed. To the contrary, 33 Senate Bills were sent to the Governor.

All in all 59 bills were Truly Agreed to And Finally Passed this session. Looking at sessions over the last 10 years, the most bills passed in a session was in 2014 where they passed 190 bills. The least amount of bills passed was in 2020 – the session which was cut short by COVID – and they still managed to pass 51 bills. These numbers include budget bills.

Both the House and Senate will reconvene for Technical Sessions where the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tem will sign all bills passed in the last two weeks and will officially send them to the Governor for his final approval. Governor Mike Parson has until July 14th to sign or veto Bills.

See the recap and final stats.

As they say in Cleveland, there's always next year...

Missouri Update

Let's talk about that pre-K funding again!

It's wasn't all doom and "Moon", good stuff did happen. As we reported last week, through the appropriations process, the children of Missouri scored their biggest legislative wins in state history.

More money for child care subsidies - an $80 million increase
Expanded money for pre-K - $56 million more for districts and charters and $26 million for center-based pre K

Unfortunately the tax credit package to incentivize support for child care centers did not pass, but that was merely a casualty in someone else's war. We will try again next year.

Other wins we like:

Childcare Tax Exemption - SJR26, sponsored by Sen. Travis Fitzwater (R-Callaway Co), if approved by voters, would exempt all real and personal property used in childcare from taxation.
Lead Testing - HB402, sponsored by Rep. Mike Henderson (R-Bonne Terre), includes a provision requiring all childcare facilities located in geographic areas deemed to be of high risk for lead exposure to obtain evidence of lead testing of enrolled children below the age of 5. Additionally, the bill requires all children below the age of six to be assessed by a healthcare provider for lead exposure with parental consent.
Intern and Apprentice Recruitment - HB417, sponsored by Rep. Mike Henderson (R-Bonne Terre), establishes the "Intern and Apprentice Recruitment Act," which creates a $1,500 tax credit for employers hiring an intern or apprentice at a salary above minimum wage.
Upskill Credentials - HB417 also includes a provision creating a tax credit program for employers in distressed or underserved communities to incentivize employee participation in credentialing programs which raise wages and increase skill sets.
Postpartum Medicaid Coverage - Extending MOHealthNet coverage for twelve months postpartum
Teachers Working After Retirement - SB75, sponsored by Sen. Rusty Black (R-Livingston Co), increases the retirement modifier for members of the Public School Retirement System (PSRS) to earn up to 133% of the maximum social security income benefit and extends the length of time retired teachers can remain employed in a hard to staff or hard to fill teaching position from two years to four.
Distracted Driving - SB398, sponsored by Sen. Nick Schroer (R-St. Charles Co), includes a provision which prohibits the use of hand held communication devices while operating a motor vehicle beginning January 1, 2025

What didn't pass

Childcare Tax Credits - Included in HB268, sponsored by Rep. Alex Riley (R-Springfield), but unable to move after sportsbetting stalled
Initiative Petition Reform - HJR43, sponsored by Rep. Mike Henderson (R-Bonne Terre), made it through Conference but never crossed the finish line
Sports betting - HB556, sponsored by Rep. Dan Houx (R-Warrensburg) wasn't even given a hearing by the Senate, while SB30, sponsored by Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer (R-Platte Co) was blocked by Sen. Denny Hoskins' (R-Johnson Co) attempt to expand video lottery terminals (VLT's) in gas stations, civic clubs, and convenience stores
Education Reform / Open Enrollment - HB253, sponsored by Rep. Brad Pollitt (R-Sedalia), passed the House 85-69 in early March, but SB5, the Senate companion sponsored by Sen. Andrew Koenig (R-St. Louis Co), never came to the floor
Property Tax Elimination - For another year, Sen. Bill Eigel (R-St. Charles Co) failed to eliminate the personal property tax; however, a slight reduction was approved as part of HB268 (which did not ultimately pass).

Tidbits

Why some companies are using "Diversity and Belonging" instead of "Diversity and Inclusion"
Missouri's economic development director chosen to lead St. Louis business attraction efforts
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says Missouri tops the list of business failures
Kansas City business leaders reflect on the impact of the NFL draft
WalletHub ranks St. Louis among top 15 cities to start a career
The Missouri Chamber hopes this bill will help recruit & retain talent in Missouri
Missouri cannabis sales surpassed $1 billion on May 2
Media literacy concerns grow among kids and adults
Bill to limit 4 day school weeks is dead for now

Status Report - Aligned Priorities

We distributed our priorities for 2023 into three buckets. Here's how each fared:

Early Childhood - Passed

We supported legislation to expand pre-K for our district and charter schools. Through the appropriation process, the children of Missouri will receive an extra $82 million for pre-K programs.

Teacher Recruitment and Retention - Not passed

We championed a bill to allow districts to address critical shortages in hard-to-staff positions or hard-to-staff schools by providing flexibility to move an educator up on the salary schedule, essentially embracing a market-based approach to teacher pay. Unfortunately, that language ended up in an omnibus bill that stalled in the final days.

School Finance Reform - Not passed

Missouri's foundation formula includes a weight that sends additional funds to districts and charter schools based on their population of students identified as having low income. We believe that the state needs a better way to measure poverty, one that is accurate, comprehensive, and allocates resources with greater precision. This year, SB 17 included language that would give districts the option to use community poverty as the metric over free lunch eligibility. This language ended up in an omnibus education bill that stalled in the final days.

Kansas Update

The Sunflower State takes reading to task

The Kansas Association of School Boards published a story about how the state is undertaking a massive effort to improve reading skills. This work follows the actions of a dyslexia task force created by the legislature in 2018, which focused on how teachers learn to teach reading, how current teachers address challenges associated with dyslexia, how to identify students who struggle with reading, and how to utilize evidence-based dyslexia intervention strategies.

Dr. Laurie Curtis, who heads up the state's early literacy/dyslexia program, says, "What I am hopeful about is that we have assessments to identify kids in our schools, and we're giving teachers the knowledge of what to do with that data, to know how to intervene, when necessary, but also more importantly, a clearer focus on what needs to happen in every classroom every day for their core instruction."

States across the country are embracing new evidence on the science of reading and implementing strategies to drive greater literacy.

In 2020, Forbes reported on a finding from the U.S. Department of Education that 54% of adults in the U.S. lacked proficiency in literacy, reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level. They wrote, "That's a shocking number for several reasons, and its dollars and cents implications are enormous because literacy is correlated with several important outcomes such as personal income, employment levels, health, and overall economic growth."

And that's a wrap

During the next eight weeks, Governor Parson's staff will scrutinize all the bills the legislature passed this year. While we celebrate wins and bemoan losses in May, nothing is final until the governor says so. Therefore, we will continue to monitor and report on the final executive actions. Meanwhile, we have some exciting projects to keep us sharp over the summer, and we have already started strategizing for 2024.

Thank you for reading our regular newsletters - this is issue #20 for 2023. We will take a break from the weekly updates during the interim, but will provide monthly updates and special reports over the next six months.

Please reach out with questions, comments, and ideas.

All the best,