On Wednesday I was very disappointed that the Senate failed to adopt a resolution stopping the recommendations of the Missouri Citizens Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials from going into effect.
Legislators and elected officials should not even be considered for a raise until a plan is in place and being executed to elevate Missouri from the cellar in state employee compensation. Every single member of the General Assembly and every single statewide elected official knew the salary for their job when they ran for office. If they did not think that salary was sufficient, then they should not have sought that office.
Fortunately, the Senate took action on Thursday and rightly passed a resolution to prevent these pay raises from taking place. When put to a vote, 31 of 34 senators agreed that now is not the right time to give legislators and elected officials a pay raise, nor will it be time to do so until compensation for state employees is addressed.
I was very pleased to be part of the conversations that forced this issue to a vote, and I stood ready to use the procedural tools available to make sure this pay raise did not go through. State employees, their families, and businesses across the 6th Senate District deserve better than what happened in the Senate Wednesday. Rightly, we corrected this on Thursday.
On Thursday I also filed legislation to modify the policy statement of Missouri's clean water law by explicitly stating that it is the policy of the state to meet the objectives of Missouri clean water law while maintaining maximum employment and full industrial development of this state.
This bill will also require the Clean Water Commission to accomplish this objective by all practical and economically feasible methods. This is currently part of Missouri's air law, and should also be part of water law. It is absolutely possible to have clean water while still promoting employment, business and industrial development. While clean water and business development are often viewed by environmentalists as mutually exclusive, in reality they are not, and our laws should not perpetuate the myth that the two cannot coincide.
On Monday, Sen. David Pearce and I held the first meeting of an informal Missouri River Caucus. This caucus is a bi-partisan group of senators and representatives whose districts include the Missouri River. The Missouri River is a fantastic resource that needs to be both utilized and protected.
There are also a number of competing demands and interests on the river that can have a direct impact on the lives of Missourians. In particular, upstream states continue to look for ways to divert more and more water from the river for their own use at the expense of Missouri residents, landowners and businesses. It is important that legislators understand both the in-state and out-state issues relating to the Missouri river. I look forward to the caucus, with the assistance of DNR, MDC, the Department of Agriculture, and other stakeholders, working to protect the river and our interests.
On Thursday, after rejecting pay raises for legislators and elected officials, the Senate also sent an omnibus agriculture bill to the House for their consideration. Agriculture remains the number one industry in Missouri, and Senate Bill 12 contains much-needed, and long overdue, provisions to ensure that Missouri agriculture continues to grow and thrive.
Senate Bill 12 is very similar to the omnibus agriculture bills that the general assembly passed last year and the governor vetoed. The one major change between this year's version and last year's version is that this year's bill does NOT contain any provisions relating to captive deer. That issue, as well as other issues that were in the omnibus ag bill last year, have been filed separately by other legislators and will receive debate and consideration accordingly.
My purpose and my intent is to serve the constituents of the 6th Senatorial District. If you are in the Capitol during the coming weeks and months, please stop by your office in Room 220.
State Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, represents the 6th District.