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Last Week
By a near straight party-line vote, the House passed and sent the governor an income tax cut bill similar to a measure Jay Nixon had vetoed last year.
The measure would phase in a series of income tax cuts that legislative staff estimate ultimately would cut tax collections by $620 million per year.
At the time of Senate passage of this year's bill, Nixon attacked the proposal in language similar to that of the prior year, arguing it would cut funding for education.
After the vote, Nixon continued to criticize Republicans.
"It's worth nothing that on its face, this year's reckless fiscal experiment looks a lot like last year's reckless fiscal experiment," Nixon said. "Once again, supporters of this fiscally irresponsible scheme are trotting out discredited economic theories and excuses."
Supporters say lower taxes will stimulate the state's economy.
Last year, the governor's veto was sustained when 15 House Republicans went against their party to vote against the bill.
This year, the tax-cut bill got support from all but two of those 15 Republicans. One has since left office and the other was not present for the vote.
Along with other absent Republicans, the House vote fell five votes short of the 109 votes that would be required to override a veto.
One Democrat -- Rep. Jeff Roorda, D-Jefferson County -- voted for the bill.
If the five absent Republicans were to vote to override a Nixon veto, Roorda would be the deciding vote.
The House Committee on Health care Policy heard testimony on a measure that would allow patients to coordinate their drug renewals at the pharmacy.
The bills sponsor, Rep. Lynn Morris, R-Nixa, said it would allow pharmacy patients with chronic conditions to coordinate their drug renewals. Morris said the goal is to have these patients making fewer trips to their pharmacist’s office.
“This law would allow us to short fill prescriptions where we can group them all together where the person could come in once a month. It makes perfect sense,” said Morris.
American Heart Association, Pfizer Inc., support the bill. Potential cost savings is $1.8 billion.
Shannon Cooper, a lobbyist for the American Insurance Coalition and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, opposes the bill as it is currently written.
“Often times it takes 90 to 120 days to get an individual stabilized and on a prescription that works for them,” said Cooper. “We want to make sure they have a regimen that is in operation before we synchronize it.”
He said he has seen similar bills in other states that his clients would be willing to work with. He said this bill would cause logistical problems as it is written.
“This is just the ability to be able to fine tune someone that’s already taking their medications but may not be in compliance because of all the times they have to go to the store,” said Morris. “We’re going to help them take their medications correctly and I think it’s going to save the insurance companies a lot of money,” he added.
The measure is expected to pass through committee to the floor of the House.
A debate on taxes stalled the Missouri Senate from voting on a measure that would prohibit the sale of vapor products to minors.
Sen. Jay Wasson, R-Nixa, is sponsoring the measure that says venues could not sell to minors, and they must apply for a license to sell to anyone.
Not one Senator disagreed that these products should not be consumed by minors; however Sen. Joseph Keaveny, D-St. Louis City, said he is opposed to the bill unless an extra tax comes along with it, instead of just the sales tax.
“I think the most effective way not to sell to 17-year-olds is to make them unfordable to 17-year-olds,” Keaveny said.
That was met many different responses, mostly against his amendment, which for the short time it was discussed, would have put an extra tax on the vapor products.
Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, agreed with Keaveny they probably should be taxed, however, he does not think now is the time to do it.
“The problem is if we increase the tax, which the underlying amendment does is a tax increase, it is going to open an entire can of worms and is going to kill the underlying attempt to actually regulate these products,” Schaefer said.
The tax amendment was removed from the bill.
Thursday, April 17, the Senate approved the bill and it now moves to the House for debate.
Lawmakers discussed putting a one-cent tax increase on November ballots to fund transportation projects.
The bills would implement a temporary state sales tax to dedicate funds to infrastructure improvements. Both proposed constitutional amendments would freeze the current gas tax and prohibit tolls on existing roads. After ten years, voters could renew the sales tax or let it expire.
The Missouri Department of Transportation's Director Dave Nichols said the need for revenue is urgent.
"We can't afford to be building new, large projects when we don't have enough money right now in our revenues to be able to maintain what we already have," Nichols said. "The problem we have right now is immediate."
Joseph Miller is a policy researcher with The Show Me Institute, a conservative think tank. He objected to the way money would be pulled to pay for construction.
"By paying for roads based on how much we shop, and not how much we drive, we are fundamentally subsidizing driving," Miller said. "This is going to make more people drive, which in the end is going to drive up MoDot's construction maintenance costs in the long run."
The Senate Transportation Committee approved the bill during a hearing Thursday, April 17
The Department of Natural Resources would be prohibited from regulating wood burning heaters and appliances under a proposed measure.
The Senate committee on Missouri Commerce, Consumer Protection, Energy and the Environment heard testimony in support of a bill Tuesday, April 15, that would prohibit any new regulation to be applied to wood burning heaters or appliances after Aug. 28, 2014. The measure has already gained approval in the House.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Tim Remole R-Excello, said some Missourians can only heat their homes by burning wood.
According to the EPA, residential wood burning from fireplaces, wood stoves, and other devises used to heat homes could cause serious affects to health. The smoke from the burning wood contains fine particles that affect both the lungs and the heart.
No one testified in opposition at the hearing and the committee did not take any action on the bill.
Missouri legislators debated who gets to decide if teachers can pack pistols in the classroom.
Debate arose in the Senate General Laws Committee, Tuesday, April 15th.
Both the Senate and the House have passed measures that seek to nullify federal gun laws, but only the Senate passed bill would require public hearings to decide if teachers should be allowed to carry guns on school grounds.
Sen. Jason Holsman, D- Kansas City, debated with House bill sponsor, Rep. Doug Funderburk, R-St. Peters, on the neccessity of giving the public a voice.
"Don't you think that a parent has a right to voice their opinion on such a large decision, whether their children are going to be exposed to someone carrying a six-shooter on their hip?" asked Holsman.
The amended House version of the bill removed a provision that made it a crime for a federal worker to infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of a Missouri citizen. Instead, it provides options to file suit against federal workers that infringe upon these rights. However, the Senate version of the bill would still criminalize federal workers for doing their jobs.
The bill was approved by the committee.
Missouri's Senate spent more than an hour Monday, April 14, debating a broad measure to restrict the role of special interest money in government and politics.
The measure before the Senate would restrict lobbyists gifts to legislators and close a loophole on reports of legislators being wined and dined by legislators.
The proposal also stipulates a two-year waiting period between when legislators leave office and when they become a lobbyist.
Senator Jason Holsman, D-Kansas City, also offered an amendment to the measure that would impose limits on how much a person can contribute to a political campaign.
Holsman points to the lack of limits now as a reason why citizens do not trust elected officials.
A technical objection to Holsman's amendment delayed further Senate debate or action on the measure.
While some lawmakers support legislative measures to reduce abortions, a Planned Parenthood spokesperson says the government need not intervene in private affairs.
At the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing Monday, April 14, Ryann Summerford testified against bills intended to reduce the number of abortions.
Summerford says a bill that would triple the waiting period for abortions does not appropriately address the issue.
"We should be instead of shaming women for their choices, we should be supporting them by providing them with sex education and contraception services," Summerford said.
Ninety percent of Planned Parenthood's services involve pregnancy prevention, according to Summerford.
The measure has been approved in the house. The committee took no immediate action on the bill.
The House on Monday, April 14, gave initial approval to a measure seeking to allow schoolchildren with dyslexia to be eligible for scholarships from charitable groups and individuals.
The measure adds dyslexic children to a law passed in 2013 known as "Bryce's Law," which seeks to establish scholarships to help children with special needs gain access to services from public schools or private organizations.
The law also encourages the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to actively seek grants and donations.
Bill sponsor, Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, cited statistics detailing the high number of children with dyslexia.
"80 percent of those students who are unable to read have some form of dyslexia," Burlison said. "It is an issue that we need to address in this state if we ever want to get to the point where we have high levels of literacy for the students in our schools."
The proposal enjoyed support on both sides of the aisle with Democratic members like Rep. Jeanne Kirkton of St. Louis City speaking in favor of the bill.
"Even in my own family, there are people that are dyslexic and years ago, these kids just fell through the cracks," Kirkton said.
The bill was approved in the House and now moves to the Senate for debtate.
Families and medical professionals urged lawmakers to approve a measure that would authorize the use of hemp extract to treat epilepsy.
The measure, heard by the House General Laws committee on Tuesday, April 8, would allow the Agriculture Department to cultivate hemp and extract the oil to be sold to patients suffering from epilepsy.
According to testimonials, CBD oil has few to no side effects, something that cannot be said for legal medications that June has already tried.
Ginny Jesse's daughter June is epileptic and suffers from daily seizures. She spends most of her time in hospitals and therapy sessions, which prevents her from living a normal childhood. June has been prescribed 11 different medications to treat her epilepsy, and none have worked. Hemp oil extracts is one option, but it is not legal in Missouri.
"In addition to being safe, CBD oil is showing to be effective. The anecdotal evidence of patients and families is that CBD oil results in remarkable seizure control with improvements of quality of life," Jesse said.
Hemp oils have been legalized in states like Colorado to treat epileptics, and have produced promising results.
The measure was approved in committee.
Gov. Jay Nixon announced $22 million in education budget cuts during a press conference on Thursday, April 10, blaming the legislature and a decline in Missouri gambling.
According to the governor, the General Assembly failed to make up for shortfalls in lottery and gaming revenues, and decided to only include half of the governor's suggested $44.1 million in the 2014 supplemental budget. The shortfall arises because Missourians are gambling less, so there is less gambling tax revenue going to education."Unfortunately, despite our clear and repeated warnings about the consequences, the General Assembly has once again failed to make funding for education a priority," Nixon said during the press conference held in his Capitol office.
Relatively speaking, the $22 million cut is not a lot of money. It accounts for less than one percent of the overall education budget.
The House budget chair, Rep. Rick Stream, R-St. Louis County, expressed surprise over Gov. Nixon's discontent, citing that the governor had not once personally approached him about the issue.
"If we took another $22 million and put it into this year's funding, we would have to take that $22 million out of the general revenue that we've applied to the fiscal year 2015 budget," Stream said .
Nixon originally projected a 2.8 percent growth in this fiscal year compared to last year, but his administration reported last week that net general revenue collections have only increased by 1.7 percent in the past nine months.
Without any alterations, the Missouri Ways and Means Committee voted to pass an income tax cut bill onto the House Rules committee. Legislative staff estimate the bill would cost the state $620 million in tax collections.
The Republican-backed bill would reduce the maximum tax rate on personal income by one-half of a percent over a period of years, beginning in 2017. But, the bill's sponsor, Sen. Will Kraus, R-Jackson County, said the cut will not go into effect until the state's general revenue exceeds the amount of money collected the previous year by at least $150 million.
Those in opposition to the bill said it benefits only the state's highest incomes.
There was an attempt early in the session by Gov. Jay Nixon and Kraus to form tax cut legislation that worked for both parties. But that compromise effort fell apart when a Republican amendment added on in the Senate created a larger tax cut.
Nixon announced Thursday afternoon that the bill would be too costly to the state.
The bill now awaits a hearing with the House Rules committee.
Democratic Floor Leader Sen. Jolie Justus, D-Jackson County, openly married to a woman, is sponsoring a measure that would prohibit discrimination of individuals based on their sexual orientation.
The bill would add "sexual orientation" and “gender identity” to the state's enumerated list of outlawed reasons to discriminate against someone.The list currently includes race, gender, religion and disabilities.
John Scott for the Secretary of State said people do their best work when they feel comfortable in their workplace.
Some who testified in opposition to the measure said including sexual orientation to the list would create more lawsuits. Others questioned how you could prove if someone was gay or lesbian.
"The chamber does not support any legislation that will create a new protected class in the Missouri Human Rights Act and would expose our members and Missouri businesses to increased liability in the courts," Jay Atkins, for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry said.
Bev Ehlen for a right-wing conservative group said the free market is working and the legislature should not create laws to regulate it.
Justus did not agree.
“While I would love for the free market to be able to take care of this, you’re always going to have an employer who does something for the wrong reasons,” Justus said. “And, this tool needs be available for those people being discriminated against.”
A several-hour medical malpractice debate hit the Senate floor Wednesday, April 9, and lawmakers have not yet reached an agreement on the fate of patients and doctors.
Two Democratic Senators expressed support about capping medical malpractice damages unrelated to "economic" damages. However, they disagreed with Republicans on what amount the cap should be.
The measure would cap pain and suffering damages at $350,000.
Sen. Joseph Keaveny, D-St. Louis City, suggested an amendment to the measure. His amendment would change the cap to one million dollars, and adjust the cap at the beginning of each year based on the previous year’s cost of living.
Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, said he thinks one million is too high and would drive doctors away from Missouri.
Sen. Scott Sifton, D-St. Louis County, said doctors should be able to do what they need to do without looking over their shoulders worried about litigations.
“While caps aren’t going to alleviate all of that concern, they are going to hopefully empower doctors to air on the side of doing what they think they need to do for the patients,” Sifton said. “Understanding that sometimes they’re going to be wrong and medical mistakes do happen.”
Missouri set the $350,000 cap in 2005, which did not account for inflation.
"By not capping non-economic damages you do limit the ability the jury has," said Sen. Brad Lager, R- Maryville. Lager proposed an amendment to impose a pain and suffering award cap at $500,000, decreasing that number by $50,000 each hour of debate after his proposal.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled the cap unconstitutional in 2012.
The measure passed through the House in March, and discussion in the Senate has been stalled.
The Missouri House narrowly gave first round approval to a measure allowing workers to not pay union dues to their employer.
The measure sponsored by Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, would prohibit employers from requiring a worker to join a union or pay union dues as part of their job.
Burlison said this bill is necessary for worker freedom.
"We believe that workers in our state deserve a right to choose what's in their best interest," Burlison said. "It's just not right that in today's world, anyone should have a government-created monopoly that supplies them members and revenues without their choice."
Minority Leader Rep. Jacob Hummel, D-St. Louis City, gave a fiery floor speech in which he said this law was bad for workers and their families.
"You've picked a fight with working families across the state and I promise you that everyone is ready," Hummel said. "We didn't start this fight, Mr. Speaker. You did. But you can be sure we're gonna damn well finish it."
Lawmakers gave the bill first round approval with a 78-68 margin.
The bill is currently 4 votes short of the required amount to ultimately pass the House.
After the vote, Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon praised members who voted against the bill and criticized those who support the leglislation.
"At a time when we should be focused on policies that create jobs and move our state forward, this misguided political maneuver would take us backward by undermining workers and weakening our economy," Nixon said.
Rep. Rory Ellinger, D-St. Louis County, passed away after a battle with liver cancer early Wednesday morning. He was 72.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle commented on Ellinger’s death.
House Democratic Leader Rep. Jacob Hummel, D-St. Louis City, said Ellinger was well respected and will be remembered.
“You know I think he is going to be known and remembered as the liberal lion of the Missouri House,” Hummel said. “I think that everyone feels like they did not have the chance to properly say goodbye.”
In the Senate, while talking g about medical malpractice, Sen. Scott Sifton, D-St. Louis County, lost his train of thought and blamed it on Ellinger’s passing.
“Forgive me I am thinking of Representative Ellinger as I stand here,” Sifton said. “Our House colleague who we lost this morning.”
On Facebook Rep. Mark Parkinson, R-St. Charles, offered his condolences.
“It's very hard to hear the news about Rory Ellinger. We rarely agreed, but he embodied the passion and dedication to service that every member of the General Assembly should have. Brigit and I are praying for his loved ones during their time of loss and mourning. Rest in peace, Rory,” he wrote.
Lawmakers sprung into action when hearing of Ellinger’s failing health and put his final bill on the fast track to passage which was signed into law by Gov. Jay Nixon in Ellinger’s hometown of University City last week.
His final proposal defines women’s rights when it comes to breastfeeding while on jury duty.
The Missouri House passed and sent to the Senate, a constitutional amendment that would raise the state sales tax by one penny per dollar to fund various transportation projects.
The proposal would require statewide voter approval in order to take effect.
The measure's sponsor -- Rep. Dave Hinson, R-St. Clair -- said the state needs to pick up the slack where the federal government is not.
"Without being able to count on the federal government coming through on a new funding transportation bill, we got to take things into our own hands," Hinson said.
Supporters have warned that the state lacks sufficient funds to maintain existing state highways.
Although approved by a GOP-controlled House, 38 Republicans voted against the measure -- including the House Speaker.
In 2013, a filibuster on the legislature's last day blocked a final vote on a similar measure.
Lawmakers attacked Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education while discussing a bill that aims to intervene earlier in provisional and unaccredited schools.
Rep. Jeanie Lauer, R-Jackson County, sponsored a bill that would send performance improvement teams to individual schools as soon as test scores failed to meet DESE requirements for accreditation.
Under a measure passed in 2013, DESE currently intervenes after a school has reached an unaccredited status. Lauer said this does not work, and compared it to dealing with a struggling employee a business environment.
"You don't wait until you're ready to fire the employee to put them on a performance improvement plan," Lauer said.
Rep. Genise Montecillo, D-St. Louis County, criticized DESE's involvement in creating legislation to improve failing districts.
"They haven't engaged with the sponsor of this bill, they wiped their hands of this whole process," Montecillo said. "This morning instead of being here, they're tweeting about Common Core."
Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-St. Louis County, sits on the Senate Education Committee and serves on her school board. She said her district is fully accredited on paper, but the district's APR scores have stayed consistent with provisional accreditation for several years. She said DESE assigned an area supervision team to advise her district, but in four years on the school board, the senator said DESE's team has never visited her district.
"While we're supposed to be getting guidance, and while we already have teams, DESE has dropped the ball," Chappelle-Nadal said.
The House Education Committee took no immediate action on the bill.
Students from unaccredited school districts would be able to transfer to nonsectarian private schools with public funding under a measure heard by legislators.
The bill, which has been approved in the Senate, was heard by the House committee on Elementary and Secondary Education Tuesday, April 8.
Opponents of the bill argued that if private schools are going to be funded with public money, they need to be held to the same performance standards as public schools.
"I do not believe school choice is beneficial to students. We need to get serious about educating students where they're at," said Mike Lodewegen with the Missouri Association of School Administrators. "Moving students out of those schools doesn't do anything to help those students that are left behind."
Proponents of the bill argued that poverty stricken students in these unaccredited districts need more options for a quality education."I think we already have school choice for rich kids because their parents can determine where they're going to buy their house," Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City said. "They have that accountability to be able to move. So is their no accountability to allow the parents to say no, we don't think this school is write for our child."
The committee took no immediate action on the bill.
The state Board of Education would be required to develop and recommend new academic performance standards in place of the federal Common Core standards under a measure approved by the Missouri House.
Legislators debated Tuesday, April 8, a bill that would prohibit the State Board of Education and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education from adopting and implementing the Common Core Standards developed by the Common Core Standards Initiative.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Kurt Bahr, R-St. Charles, presented an amendment to his bill, because he said the initial bill was too harsh, meant to force the debate of Common Core. His amendment would require the State Board of Education, by October 1, 2014, to create "work groups" composed of education professionals to develop and recommend new academic performance standards that will take the place of the common core standards.
The amendment would create separate work groups for English language arts, mathematics, science, and history and governments. For each of the four subject areas, two work groups, one for grades kindergarten through grade five and one for grades six through twelve would be formed.
The work groups would be required to recommend new standards to the State Board of Education by October 1, 2015, and the approved standards will be implemented beginning in the 2016 school year.
Rep. David Wood, R-Versailles, also offered an amendment that would require the Department of Elementary and Secondary education to pilot the assessments formed by the work groups in the 2014-2015 school year. He said this will ensure the proper implementation of the new standards and allow time for the students and teachers to adjust.
Rep. Ed Schieffer, D-Troy, said he has spoken to superintendents in four different counties and they are all saying the Common Core program has to be saved. He said they don't want it "thrown out the window."
"They've spent too much time, too many hours, too much money to at least start implementing Common Core," he said.
Both amendments were approved.
No direct opposition to the bill was presented during the House debate.
The bill was approved by the House and now moves to the Senate.
From young girls to elderly men, hundreds of individuals from all walks of life were present for a rally on Women's Lives to protest legislative proposals to restrict abortion rights.
"My body, my choice," is just one of the many chants that could be heard from the East side of the Capitol Tuesday, April 8, as Missourians gathered to rally for pro-choice rights.
The primary speaker at the rally, Susan Talve, a rabbi from Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis, said over 30 bills have been filed this legislative session that seek to restrict women's health care.
One such bill would triple the mandatory waiting period for abortions.
Elizabeth Read-Katz, of Columbia, said she received an abortion at age 27 after finding out her child had a chromosomal defect that was not compatible with life.
She said her mind would not have been changed by a three day waiting period, and that it would have only made the process more agonizing.
Kevin Elmer, R-Christian, the sponsor of the bill that would prolong abortion waiting period, said the bill would simply provide women with more time to think about this major life decision.
Talve said legislators should focus on expanding Medicaid instead of endangering women's health with restrictions on choice.
Missouri House members passed a measure that would affect child support for students enrolled in higher education institutions.
The bill requires a child who is enrolled in a vocational or higher education institute to receive passing grades each semester while enrolled in at least 12 credit hours in order to remain eligible to receive child support benefits.
The current law requires a child to complete 12 credit hours, without passing grades as a factor.
If the child does not complete 12 hours of credit with passing grades and the court does not find any extenuating circumstances or if the child fails to provide documentation of their grades to the noncustodial parent within 30 days, then child support must be terminated.
The parent support obligation should continue until the child finishes school or until they reach the age of 21, whichever comes first.
Rep. Gina Mitten, D-St. Louis County, opposed the bill.
"The way that I see your bill, it amends it to a way that makes it even more difficult for children who happen to not graduate until high school until their 18th birthday to complete college," Mitten said.
Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, disagreed.
"If a child is flunking out of college, the noncustodial parent is no longer going to send a monthly payment to the custodial parent, which in many cases never actually at that age sees its way to the child him or herself but instead stays with the custodial parent," said Barnes. "The bill right now is a good bill. It encourages parents who are custodial who have kids in college to get those kids passing college classes."
The bill will now move to the Missouri Senate.
Getting caught with pot does not equal time behind bars under a bill given first-round approval by the Missouri Senate.
The measure would change the state criminal code. One revision would keep first-time marijuana offenders with less than two ounces of pot out of jail. The bill aims to downgrade the offense to a class D misdemeanor and would give a financial penalty of anywhere between $250 to $1,000.
Sen. Bob Dixon, R-Greene County serves as Senate Judiciary Committee Chair. He suggested current jail time is already being waived by judges.
"People aren't going to jail for these offenses now," Dixon said. "But this way we're not potentially involving the public offender and those tax dollars. This $250 minimum fine may get their attention more."
Bill sponsor Sen. Jolie Justus, D-Jackson County, said the bill makes the state's criminal justice system more effective and efficient.
""It was a consensus document between public defenders and prosecutors who say that these are the appropriate penalties for the crimes that we have on the books in the state of Missouri," Justus said.
The measure found no opposition in its first-round approval and was approved my the Senate. It now moves to the House for debate.
This represents an eight-year effort by the Missouri Bar Association to revise state laws assessing criminal penalties.
Randy Aulbur, a Central District Maintenance Engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation, said the department had to spend more money this winter to deal with the bitterly cold weather and storms.
The result of this spending will affect MoDOT’s budget in the long run. But, Aulbur said the affects will not be seen until the next fiscal year or even the one after that.
“It’s not something you would see immediately,” Aulbur said. “It’s something that gets spread out over time. Our budgets in the future will be affected based on the way our weather patterns are.”
Holly Dentner, a spokeswoman for MoDOT, said the winter weather had the same affects on the whole state of Missouri.
He said MoDOT is on track with maintenance projects like patching and striping highways.
For this spring, Aulbur said rain is the main factor that MoDOT has to worry about.
“[We] just try to maximize how much you can do in the window of nice weather,” Aulbur said. “And, so we’ll just continue to work toward that.”
A new measure in the Missouri legislature would redefine misconduct in the workplace that may disqualify a person from getting their unemployment benefits.
Sen. Will Kraus, R-Jackson County, says he read Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto letter on a similar measure last legislative session and made the necessary changes.
One of those changes stipulates that an employee cannot be fired over a rule that is not fairly or consistently enforced.
LeadingAge Missouri is an association that represents senior service providers across the state.
CEO Denise Clemonds said most appeals for unemployment benefits win, and one judge wrote a dissenting opinion for an elderly abuse case.
“Telling a resident to shut up is never acceptable under any circumstance,” Clemonds said.
“Leaving a resident soaked in his own urine is never acceptable, that this employee knew and understood and was capable of taking care of this resident but chose not to,” she said. “This particular employee received unemployment once they were fired.”
Richard Craighead represents United Steelworker’s District 11 and testified against the measure for the Missouri AFL-CIO.
“We don’t want this going into the personal lives of employees and being fired or denied unemployment for something that happened (of work),” Craighead said.
Rep. Stephen Webber, D-Columbia, admits he was one of the plan’s biggest opponents last session, but appreciates the changes Kraus made this year.
The bill has been passed in the Senate and now awaits debate in the House Rules committee.