(Missourinet) – Legislation that would ban red light cameras in Missouri will be considered by a House committee Tuesday at the Capitol in Jefferson City.

State Rep. Bryan Spencer (R-Wentzville) has filed the bill, which would prohibit the use of red light cameras, which are also known as “automated traffic enforcement systems.”

Under the bill, any state agency or city that currently uses red light cameras would have to terminate their contract within one year.

Representative Spencer will present his bill during a public hearing Tuesday at noon (or upon adjournment) before the House Special Committee on Government Oversight, which is chaired by State Rep. Rick Brattin (R-Harrisonville).

The current bill contains a referendum clause, which means Missourians will vote on it if the legislation passes.

Spencer tells Missourinet he believes voters would approve the ban.

Supporters of red light cameras say they are an important safety tool.

(Missourinet) – Missouri lawmakers are looking at a measure to bring the state in compliance with federal requirements for driver licenses and ID cards.

If the state fails to meet those standards, known as the Real ID Act, residents will not be able to board commercial aircraft in January of next year. Currently, 43 states comply with the requirements, which have been in place since 2005 and were imposed in response to the 2001 terrorist attack. The federal government has delayed enforcement until 2018.

Missouri currently doesn’t satisfy 22 benchmarks for compliance, with the biggest roadblock being the state’s policy not to scan and retain the documents of license applicants.

Among the biggest critics of the federal requirements is Republican Senator Will Kraus of Lee’s Summit. He authored legislation which did away with Missouri’s own policy to scan and retain the documents.

“They were putting it into a database,” said Kraus. “We found that. We filed a bill. We passed a bill. The governor, Nixon, signed the bill into law saying ‘No, Department of Revenue you do not have the authority to keep our private documents in a database.’  In fact, they had to purge their databases because of the legislation we passed. Now, this bill basically will undue that because of the federal government’s mandate.”

The documents scanned and retained would be an existing driver’s license, a Social Security card, birth certificate or passport.

Kraus thinks doing so would be a breach of privacy. At a Senate committee hearing Thursday, he was the only lawmaker expressing concerns over the federal requirements.

Two of his Republican senate colleagues, Ryan Silvey of Kansas City and Caleb Rowden of Columbia, introduced legislation in the committee to bring the state into compliance.

Silvey mentioned the only way around the ban would be to have a federally issued ID, such as a passport.

“I think that that would be a ridiculous burden to put on our public, to make them all go get passports, which frankly would mean that they would have to give up the information that we’re trying to protect them from giving up,” said Silvey.  “Also it would cost them a lot of money.”

No one testified against the proposal at the committee hearing.  Both major airports in Kansas City and St. Louis had representatives who spoke out in favor of it.

Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge raised concerns that non-compliance will suppress the robust grow of airline traffic there.

“This is one of those things that makes them take a step back and think ‘Do we want to continue to grow at an airport that’s not compliant with federal regulations,’” said Hamm-Niebruegge.

Southwest, which is the dominant carrier at Lambert with 50 percent of its passengers, has been expanding flights service there. Hamm-Niebruegge said passenger traffic grew by more than 1.2 million people in 2016.

Justin Meyer with the Kansas City Aviation Department said non-compliance would hurt growth trends at Kansas City International Airport.

A range of other groups testified in favor of the legislation, including the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, Missouri Trucking Association and Associated General Contractors.

Because of the state’s current non-compliance, people with Missouri ID’s have also been prohibited from entering military installations since late 2015.  The Senate committee is expected to vote on federal requirements compliance measure next week.

(Missourinet) – Attorney General Josh Hawley (R) says Missouri has sued the Obama Administration over coal mining regulations declared by the Department of the Interior.

The rule is meant to reduce coal mining’s impacts on streams. Hawley says the regulations overstep agency authority and violate federal law.

“The Obama Administration has no authority to issue these regulations,” says Hawley. “They will drive up the cost of energy for Missouri families and hurt Missouri workers. I promised to protect working families in our state, and I will.”

Missouri is one of 13 states asking a federal court to block the rule. The suit, Ohio et al v. Department of the Interior, claims that the regulations announced by the Department’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement exceed the office’s statutory authority and violate Missouri’s prerogatives under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

“These draconian regulations by the Obama Administration are exactly the kind of federal overreach that is holding Missouri’s economy back. They are contrary to law and this office will fight them to defend the people of Missouri,” says Hawley.

The U.S. Interior Department argues that the rule will protect 6,000 miles of streams by preventing coal mining debris from being dumped into nearby waters.

(Missourinet) – Missouri is another step closer to becoming a so-called Right to Work state. The state House has passed a measure, which would bar mandatory union fees in workplaces.

Passing such a law has been at the top of the Republicans’ wish list for years. During Governor Greitens’ State of the State address on Tuesday, he called on the General Assembly to make a Right to Work law a reality in Missouri.

Bill sponsor Holly Rehder (R-Sikeston) says states with Right to Work laws have experienced growth in jobs and their economies.

“The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that from 2004 to 2014, all top five states in private sector employment growth were Right to Work states. Currently, 27 states now have passed Right to Work. No state that has passed Right to Work has backed up and said this isn’t working. The movement we have seen has only been other states adopting this same policy,” says Rehder.

Rep. Clem Smith (D-Velda Village Hills) says the measure would lead to lower wages and affect benefits.

“Some of you all pay taxes,” says Smith. “If you all had the option to not to pay taxes, you’d have a whole of people who would not pay taxes, but would still ride on the roads, still send their kids to the same schools, still enjoy the benefit of everybody else paying taxes.”

The proposal now heads to the Senate, where Democrats are expected to stall a vote on the bill.

(Missourinet) – The state House General Laws committee has unanimously passed a resolution that rejects a 5% pay hike for state legislators and a 16% increase for statewide elected officials over two years.

House Concurrent Resolution 4, filed by Representative Mike Bernskoetter (R-Jefferson City), would block the pay recommendations made by the Missouri Citizens’ Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials.

At a time when Missouri faces money problems, many legislators say pay hikes are not a priority. It would cost the state about $470,000 to fund the recommended increases. Governor Greitens says about $700 million must be cut to balance the budget over the next 18 months.

The resolution must be approved by two-thirds in each chamber and by the governor before February 1 or the Commission’s recommendations are automatically enacted.

(Missourinet) – Missouri’s 2016-2017 deer-hunting season ended Jan. 15 with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reporting a preliminary total harvest of 263,832 deer.

Top counties for the overall season were Franklin with 5,272 deer killed, Howell with 5,242, and Texas with 4,608. Hunters checked 273,249 deer during the 2015-2016 deer hunting seasons.

Deer hunting ended with the close of the archery season. Preliminary data from MDC showed that hunters checked 47,550 deer during the archery season. Top counties for the archery season were Jefferson with 1,118 deer killed, Wayne with 980, and St. Louis with 979. Archery hunters harvested 49,759 deer the previous year.

Fall archery turkey hunting also ended Jan. 15. Preliminary data from MDC showed 2,304 turkeys killed. Top counties for the fall archery turkey season were St. Clair with 57 birds harvested, Franklin with 51, and Greene with 50. For the previous year, hunters checked 3,042 turkeys.

The past season was the first in which MDC began allowing crossbows as a legal method during the deer and turkey archery season. Of the 47,550 deer killed under archery methods, 14,336 were with crossbows. Of the 2,304 turkeys harvested under archery methods, 853 were with crossbows.

MDC reported four firearms-related hunting incidents during the fall deer and turkey hunting seasons. All were non-fatal. Three involved self-inflicted injuries and one involved the ricochet of a bullet fragment from one hunter into another. In addition, the Department was notified of one tree-stand fall, which was not fatal.

(Missourinet) – Governor Eric Greitens (R) has chosen Carol Comer as his Department of Natural Resources Director.

Comer served as the commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management under Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

“In Indiana, under the leadership of Vice President-elect Mike Pence, we partnered our Department of Economic Development with our Department of Environmental Management to create jobs and to attract businesses and investment,” Comer said. “I’m looking forward to doing the same thing here in Missouri so that we can protect the air, the land and the water quality but still encourage economic growth so that everybody prospers.”

In a social media announcement, Greitens said Comer will be a champion for the environment and economy.

“In Indiana, they made it easier for businesses to get permits, they improved their air quality, they protected their fish and wildlife, all while encouraging job growth,” Greitens said.

Comer’s name was on a short list of possible candidates to head the EPA in Donald Trump’s administration. Trump has chosen Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt for the post.

(Missourinet) – The Missouri House has given initial approval to a so-called Right to Work proposal, with little drama and an unusually slim presence of union workers there to watch.

House members voted 101 to 58, largely along party lines, in favor of the bill. Bill sponsor Holly Rehder (R-Sikeston) tells Missourinet a final vote on the bill is expected in the House on Thursday.

During his State of the State address on Tuesday, Governor Eric Greitens (R) said Missouri must join 27 other states and pass Right to Work legislation.

The measure would stop unions and employers from requiring workers to pay dues. Rehder says union membership and jobs have increased in states with Right to Work laws.

“Since becoming Right to Work in 2012, Michigan has added 58,000 manufacturing jobs. Over the past two years, Missouri has lost 1,200,” says Rehder.

Rehder cites stats from the Union Membership and Earnings Database. It says from 2005 to 2015, union memberships in Right to Work states increased by 7.6%. Memberships fell by 5.4% in what she referred to as forced-unionism states. During that same period, Rehder says the number of union members in Missouri declined by 20%.

Democrats oppose the measure and say it would allow non-union members to receive the same benefits as union members, but for free. Some Right to Work supporters say about 8% of Missouri’s workforce is made up of union workers.

Rep. Bob Burns (D-St. Louis), pushed for voters to decide on the issue.

“If that’s true and it probably is, what are they so worried about us for? Only 8%? Why don’t they let us wither and die on the vine? What are they afraid of,” Burns asked.

Rep. Clem Smith (D-Velda Village Hills) shared a similar view as Burns.

“It’s hard for me to believe that 8% of the workforce is somehow holding the other 92% down. You are telling that this 8% is so strong that candidates that this 8% supported all lost on statewide offices? If it’s so strong, we’d have a more unionized state, more pro-labor Representatives up here but that’s not the case right now. What I’ve learned since I’ve been here seven years is that you’ve always got to have a boogeyman,” says Smith.

He says Right to Work laws would weaken Missouri’s unions.

“When I worked at Boeing, I did the same job that the people in South Carolina did. They built a different product, but they did the same thing. I made $10 an hour more than those folks. My benefit package was way better than those folks,” says Smith.

Burns also touted his region’s workforce.

“There’s a reason why St. Louis city and St. Louis County are the economic engine of this state. Bar none. We have good paying jobs.”

Rep. Tila Hubrecht (R-Dexter) says Arkansas and Tennessee are overwhelmingly beating Missouri in job growth.

“St. Louis and Kansas City cannot be the economic drivers of Missouri. We have to have the entire state of Missouri working and growing this state,” says Hubrecht.

Rep. Kirk Matthews (R-Pacific) says his nephew has held union jobs in states with and without Right to Work laws.

“Coming to a union job in Missouri, he took a $30,000 a year pay cut from what he was earning at a Right to Work state in Texas,” says Matthews.

If the measure passes in the House, the proposal moves to the Senate.

(Missourinet) – Governor Eric Greitens’ first State of the State address sticks largely to traditional Republican fashion by saying Missouri’s economy can grow if changes are made to the state’s workforce and unions, education and liability lawsuits against businesses. Not so GOP-style was his call for reigning in on special interest tax credits.

Some of the top takeaways from his speech include:

Increasing state worker pay by having fewer state employees
Greitens says Missouri’s best state employees are hurting by way of a big bloated bureaucracy. Missouri’s state workers receive an average base salary of $38,000 a year – making them the lowest paid in the nation.

“We need to change that. Our government employees do important work—often really important, life-saving work. We need to reward the greatest in government service with better pay,” says Greitens. “This is how a good business would run. We’d pay and promote our best people and make sure they know they are valued. And we’d have a government focused on doing fewer things but doing them well. That’s how we’ll be able to pay our star performers what they deserve.”

Passing Right to Work legislation
Greitens says Missouri must join 27 other states and pass so-called Right to Work legislation, which would bar workers from being required to pay union dues as a condition of employment.

“That’s why we must do away with expensive Project Labor Agreements that drive up the costs of construction and slow down important projects in our communities,” says Greitens. “We must repeal our state’s version of the Davis-Bacon act, which drives up the cost of important construction work that needs to get done. It hurts rural workers. It sets back rural families.”

The Missouri House is expected to consider this week Sikeston Republican state Rep. Holly Rehder’s Right to Work proposal. With a Republican governor in office for the first time since 2009, GOP state lawmakers feel optimistic about such legislation passing sooner rather than later. Unions are expected to come out in droves opposing such proposals.

Changing Missouri’s tax structure
Greitens says “insiders are gaming this system.” Since 2010, he says nearly $2 billion has been promised to special interests.

“What our people want is a tax structure that is simple, fair to everyone, and low. But instead we have a tax structure that is complex, corrupt, and high. Together, with a team of outsiders and legislators, we are going to do a thorough, end-to-end audit of our tax credit system—and create a tax code that works not to benefit privileged insiders, but instead is fair to all,” says Greitens.

Changing the way Missouri’s welfare system operates
Greitens drew some claps and smiles from both sides of the aisle when calling for changes to Missouri’s welfare system. He says the state needs a system based on two principles.

“It should always, always, always pay more to work in the state of Missouri. If your boss gives you a raise, you should make more money. I will work with all of you to build a system that lifts people out poverty and into the middle class, one based on hard work and personal responsibility,” says Greitens.

Greitens’ speech, which lasted about 45 minutes, did not mention the following:

Ways to help fund Missouri’s deteriorating roads and bridges
More than 600 of the state’s bridges are in critical condition, while at least one in 10 of Missouri’s major roads are in poor condition. The state legislature has failed to find a solution to help pay for Missouri’s growing infrastructure costs. Lawmakers agree that transportation funding must increase but they disagree on how to fund it. The state hasn’t increased its gas tax in 20 years and has one of the lowest fuel taxes in the nation.

How to move forward on the state’s number one industry – agriculture
Greitens has mentioned very little about his plans for Missouri agriculture. His campaign page says he believes agriculture can and should be a growth industry for Missouri. He has chosen Chris Chinn to head the Missouri Agriculture Department.

The Show Me State is home to more than 100,000 farms, covering two-thirds of the state’s total land acreage. A recent study says about 375,000 jobs are tied to Missouri agriculture and tax revenues are more than $6 billion a year.

2018 Fiscal Year budget proposal
As planned, Greitens did not include his FY18 budget proposal, which has traditionally been unveiled during the State of the State address. Greitens will release his spending plan during a separate address to the legislature in February. The 2017 fiscal year budget includes $27 billion with about $12.5 billion for social welfare programs and administration.

In a statement from House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty (D-Kansas City), she is disappointed that the governor didn’t lay out his spending plan for FY2018.

“Breaking with generations of past practice, the governor failed to present his proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. In fact, the governor spent more time talking about hair braiding than he did explaining how he will pay for public education, transportation, health care and other essential state services in the coming fiscal year. A State of the State address with no budget plan is a meaningless rhetorical exercise, not a display of leadership,” says Beatty.

An honorable mention for not being mentioned is higher education. On Monday, Greitens announced $146 million in state budget restrictions with about $80 coming from higher education.

Greitens, however, says he wants to increase K-12 teacher salaries and create savings accounts for students with special needs. He says kids with special needs could have IEPs, individualized education plans.

“With education savings accounts, parents are able to use their fair share of state education money in a way that fits with what their kids need,” says Greitens.

Greitens was sworn into office on January 9.