It is hard to believe that my first session has already come and gone.
What a tremendous experience filled with lots of learning, some fine accomplishments and more than a little frustration over these past five months.
I am grateful for the opportunity to represent you in the Senate, and one of the responsibilities of that representation is to provide you with a candid assessment of the Senate's performance over the course of this session.
I am proud of a number of laws that were passed including: a balanced budget with more funding for schools, extending the MoRx program, strengthening restrictions on abortion, beginning a phase-out of the corporate franchise tax, reforming Missouri's unemployment insurance program, and advancing the second amendment rights of Misourians.
However, I believe this legislative session will ultimately be found lacking because we failed to pass substantive economic development legislation that will lead to more jobs in Missouri. I believe my early site permit legislation was the best jobs bill considered this session, because it was a critical first step to the largest construction project in the state's history, setting the stage to create thousands of jobs and inject billions of dollars into Missouri's economy.
This legislation very nearly passed in the closing minutes of the session, but ultimately it was never voted on in the Senate and fell short.
The early site permit legislation did not die on the last day, but rather it died on Jan. 12 when it was referred to the Veterans Affairs committee.
In spite of being sent to the wrong committee with the intent for it to die, legislators from both the House and the Senate recognized the need to address Missouri's energy future and worked throughout the session to reach a compromise with the two large industrials that held the bill hostage throughout the process.
Unfortunately, such a compromise was reached in the final minutes of the session and there simply was not enough time left to debate and vote on this bill. I find no fault with Senators who expressed concern and trepidation about voting on a more than 40-page bill in the final minutes of the session.
For years, I have been the guy who watched such a thing happen and wanted to pull my hair out while yelling "do these guys even know what they are voting for?"
I believe that the right thing tends to happen in the end, and while I don't believe that this is the end of pursuing this legislation, I do believe that this bill was simply too big, because of additional language that was added on Friday, for Senators to consider and vote on with just a few minutes remaining in the session.
A leader of the Senate told me that "this building is not about fair" and I fully understand and respect that. Like in life, sometimes unfair works in your favor, and sometimes unfair works against you.
Because I believe early site permit legislation is critical to creating jobs, growing Missouri's economy, and securing Missouri's energy future, I have spoken to members of Gov. Nixon's staff about calling a special session specifically on this topic. One of the great pleasures that I have had over the course of this session was to work closely with the Representatives from the 6th Senate District.
Representatives Barnes, Bernskoetter, Brown, Cauthorn, Franklin, Houghton, Jones, Riddle and Schad have not only been great to work with, but they have also done an excellent job representing central Missouri and your interests in the House.
I am particularly indebted to Reps. Barnes and Riddle for their work on early site permit legislation, to Rep. Bernskoetter for helping to move forward the much needed commission to study state pay, and to Rep. Schad for helping me pass my lone piece of legislation (SB250), which requires sex offenders to complete training prior to being eligible for parole or conditional release.
On May 26, I will begin making stops throughout the district to discuss the accomplishments and challenges of this session, as well as to begin discussions about what legislation I need to be preparing for next year.
On the 26th, I will be at the Burgher Haus in California, from 7-8 a.m.
The following Saturday, I will be in Jefferson City, at Hy-Vee, from 8-9 a.m.
Due to overwhelming popular demand, I will be resurrecting the Flap-Jack Tour and will announce dates and locations in the coming weeks.
I am in this office to serve the constituents of the 6th Senatorial District.
Please contact us at 573-751-2076 if my office, or I can be of any assistance to you or if you have questions.