With only three weeks remaining in session, both the House and Senate are headed into the home-stretch.
Two weeks ago, I wrote that any bill which hadn't crossed chambers yet was very likely dead. That remains true. But as House bills wind through Senate committees and Senate bills push through House committees, every year around this time the House spends a week perfecting House bills that have no shot on their own.
The rationale is two-fold: First, it sets the stage for amendments in the last three weeks of session. It's a lot easier to get your amendment on a Senate bill if it's already passed as a House bill. Second, even if it's not quite positioned to become law this year, passage on the House floor late in session can set the stage for next year.
The House plowed through dozens of bills. On Wednesday night, we perfected House Bill 781 which, after an amendment I offered, would allow Uber and other app-based ride-share companies to operate in Missouri. The debate on the Uber amendment included much hand-wringing and exaggeration by the opposition.
Their claimed concern is public safety, asking how we could trust any company that doesn't have its employees go through extensive background checks overseen by local government officials. The real opposition, however, is spurred by traditional taxi cab companies who right now have a chokehold on the industry in Missouri. In St. Louis, a cabal of taxi cab owners has even enacted regulations requiring new competitors to obtain a "certificate of necessity" before they can be allowed to operate.
Opponents miss the point. One representative compared taxi-cab drivers to doctors, arguing that passing legislation to break-up local cab cabals was like the deregulation of doctors. This analogy fails for three reasons. First, and most obviously, a taxicab ride is not brain surgery. Second, local governments don't have the authority to regulate doctors. Third, HB 781 does not exempt Uber from all regulations. Instead, it puts simple requirements in place - criminal background checks conducted by the Highway Patrol, insurance requirements, safety inspections for their vehicles, and ineligibility for convicted felons.
Ultimately, the best vehicle for consumer protection in this field is consumer choice. The truth is that Uber users know more about their drivers than any Missourian who has ever hailed a random taxicab. Before agreeing to a ride, each Uber user can review the ratings of their prospective driver as judged by other users - and if they don't trust Uber or the driver, they can simply refuse to use the company or that driver.
Missourians should not be forced to rely on cabals of cab owners that who stifle competition. HB 781 cuts the cabbies' cord and would allow Missourians the freedom of consumer choice.
Budget
After weeks of negotiations, the General Assembly passed a budget earlier than usual. The biggest change from the original House budget was language requiring the Department of Social Services to expand managed care in Medicaid statewide. (Under current law, managed care exists along the I-70 corridor through the middle of our state, including Cole County.) This Medicaid reform was a central component of bills I filed in previous sessions to inject more market forces into our Medicaid system. While an important reform, it is not nearly enough. Medicaid managed care plans do not compete on the basis of price, and recipients do not have incentives to reduce costs. These larger reforms would require more extensive waivers from the federal government.
I voted no on House Bill 5, again. My first no vote was because there was no state employee pay increase in this year's budget.
After the bill returned from the Senate, I gained another reason to vote no. The Senate added language in the bill requiring a public vote before Gov. Nixon made any deal related to funding a new stadium for the Rams in St. Louis. Unfortunately, that provision did not survive the conference committee.
Gov. Nixon shouldn't bind future generations of Missouri taxpayers with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt without a vote. Further, I do not believe Gov. Nixon or the St. Louis Regional Sports Commission enjoy the authority to issue new bonds to construct a new stadium.
State Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, represents Missouri's 60th District.