Missouri lawmakers this year have only 16 veto overrides to consider when the veto session begins at mid-day Wednesday.
That's down from last year's near-record 33 bills Gov. Jay Nixon rejected - plus nearly 100 line-item vetoes in budget bills - and the 29 vetoes Nixon made in 2013.
Several legislators said they plan to seek colleagues' support this week for putting their bills into the lawbooks in spite of Nixon's objections.
Among the most talked-about issues for the veto session is the right-to-work measure (House Bill 116) passed by the Senate after supporters forced a vote through a parliamentary maneuver ending a Democratic filibuster - resulting in the Democrats blocking all other action during the last three days of the session, except for the Senate's one other bill on the last day.
The bill as passed prohibits an employer from requiring a person to become a member of a labor organization as a condition or continuation of employment.
When he vetoed the bill on June 4, Nixon said: "Right-to-work laws create a less skilled workforce, drive down wages and directly interfere with a business owner's right to contract (and) takes this ill-advised policy one step further by subjecting employers and others to state criminal prosecution and unlimited civil liability."
But Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield and the House sponsor, expects to seek an override vote.
"The governor has again turned his back on the people of this state by vetoing a pro-worker bill that would create the kind of family-supporting jobs we need to accelerate our economic engine," Burlison said this summer. "Together we can override the governor's veto and put this common sense, much-needed reform into law to protect and promote worker freedom."
The Senate passed the bill on May 12 by a 21-13 margin - two votes shy of the 23 needed for an override.
But the House, which must make the first override attempt, passed the bill on May 13 by a 92-66 vote - 17 short of the 109 votes needed for an override.
Supporters also plan to attempt overrides on:
• HB 150, sponsored by Rep. Scott Fitzpatrick, R-Shell Knob, which makes several changes in unemployment compensation, including reducing the maximum time for state benefits to 13 weeks, from the current 20, and reducing benefits if an employee has a severance package.
Nixon's veto message said, "Unemployment benefits not only provide a safety net for workers, they also provide an important boost when the economy is struggling, as those workers buy food, clothing, and other essentials. The changes sought by House Bill 150 are unnecessary and unfair."
The House passed the bill by an 88-68 margin, 21 votes shy of the override number - but voted on May 12 to override Nixon's veto by the bare minimum 109 votes, to 53 against.
The Senate's vote on the final bill was 21-8, two short of the override level - and it never voted on the override.
Supporters have said they still can take it up during the veto session.
The governor says lawmakers had their chance last spring, and can't try again.
• HB 799, sponsored by Rep. Rebecca Roeber, R-Lee's Summit.
Jackson County has courtrooms both in Independence, the county seat, and in Kansas City, and the bill would move the circuit court's 12th Division to Independence.
Nixon's veto objected to a part of the bill authorizing "more court fees to fund an array of local capital projects" when those "should be funded through existing local revenues or, with voter approval, new revenue sources."
The House passed the bill 139-12 and the Senate vote was 28-4.
Roeber wants an override vote to get more court cases held in Independence, and because Nixon hasn't rejected similar court surcharges in the past.
The proposed changes, Roeber told the News Tribune, "are directly related to the expenses of the administration of justice - in this particular instance, courthouses or judicial facilities," by making sure "that the burden to fix our courthouses is borne fairly by those who cause the greatest wear and tear on these facilities."
• SB 67, sponsored by Sen. Mike Cunningham, R-Rogersville, also would authorize some court surcharges and change a number of court operations around the state.
Nixon again objected to "new and expanded court fees, ranging from $1 to $50, (that) would be in addition to the myriad of court fees already imposed in civil and criminal cases across our state."
The Senate passed the bill 31-3, while the House vote was 128-17.
Cunningham also plans to seek an override vote.
• HB 1098, sponsored by Rep. Sandy Crawford, R-Buffalo, which changes some trust company laws, but Nixon said it "would permit out-of-state trust companies to operate in Missouri under more favorable rules than those (for) Missouri-based trust companies."
The House passed the bill 137-4, while the Senate voted 34-0.
Crawford said, "I believe this common sense legislation is needed to modernize trust charter branching laws."
• SB 20, sponsored by Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee's Summit, which creates a sales and use tax exemption for materials and utilities used by commercial laundries.
The Senate voted 31-3 for the bill, while the House voted 104-43.
Kraus said last week he thinks he can win an override vote.
"Commercial laundries held this tax exemption for years, until a court decided the rule did not apply to the businesses," Kraus explained. "These tax law reinterpretations hurt job creators and taxpayers, as well as Missouri's economy."
Nixon also vetoed:
• HB 326, sponsored by Rep. Mike Leara, R-St. Louis County, which specifies each "defined benefit" pension plan must establish a board member education program.
Nixon said state law already requires public retirement plans to have board member education programs, but the bill drops "these commonsense educational requirements" for board members of "defined contribution" plans.
The House passed the bill 146-3 and the Senate vote was 34-0.
• HB 629, also sponsored by Leara, which changes laws affecting public retirement systems, and Nixon's veto said two of the changes created problems for the St. Louis Public Schools Retirement System, including the "presumably unintended" but "absurd requirement that a teacher or administrator from a Kansas City charter school serve on the (St. Louis) board."
The House passed the bill 125-0, while the Senate's vote was 32-0.
• HB 618, sponsored by Rep. Lyndall Fraker, R-Marshfield, which would add physician assistants, assistant physicians and advanced practice registered nurses to the list of people authorized to determine the cause of a person's death.
Nixon said, "By allowing more individuals to certify cause of death, (this bill) presents a risk that these vital records may have inaccurate information."
The House vote was 146-6, and the Senate passed the bill 34-0.
• HB 722, sponsored by Rep. Dan Shaul, R-Imperial, which would allow all merchants to provide customers with a choice between paper and plastic bags.
The governor said the bill "is a clear example of unwarranted government intrusion - in this case, interference with the policymaking of local governments and the abandonment of the principle of local control."
The House passed the final version 105-48, while the Senate vote was 24-10.
• HB 878, sponsored by Rep. Shawn Rhoads, R-West Plains, which gives the Department of Public Safety authority to commission corporate security advisers, but Nixon's veto said the change "would give an individual working for a private security company the power(s) to arrest, search and seize property" when those powers "should only be bestowed in the most narrow circumstances."
The House passed the bill 132-4, while the Senate vote was 31-1.
• HB 1022, sponsored by Rep. Don Gosen, R-Ballwin, which authorizes insurance companies to return premiums - but the governor said the bill "is an effort to tilt the scales against Missouri consumers, by providing insurance companies (with) legal cover to not disclose the details of their premium refund programs."
The House voted 149-0 for the bill, while the Senate vote was 31-0.
• SB 142, sponsored by Sen. Gary Romine, R-Farmington, would require the Department of Natural Resources to take certain actions when submitting plans to the Environmental Protection Agency, but Nixon's July 10 veto message said the bill has "drafting errors" that refer to the wrong sections of federal law and "take an already complex area of state and federal law and confuses it even further."
The Senate vote was 34-0, while the House passed the bill 105-33.
• SB 224, also sponsored by Romine, would requires a student to be a United States citizen or permanent resident in order to be eligible to receive reimbursements from the state's A+ Schools Program.
The Senate passed the bill 25-8, and the House vote was 108-38.
The governor said the bill "would unfairly deny a group of students their eligibility for ... an educational benefit that they have earned."
• SB 345, sponsored by Sen. Jay Wasson, R-Nixa, which would increase fees imposed by the Director of the Division of Finance.
Nixon's veto said the bill creates "an approximately 33 percent increase in the fee on a large portion of loans made to Missourians (and) is not the way to move Missouri forward."
The Senate passed the bill 32-2, while the House voted 116-35.
• HB 42, sponsored by Rep. David Wood, R-Versailles, who told the News Tribune last week: "I won't be seeking an override (because) the bill passed the House with 84 votes and that is too far away from 109 to bring it up."
The House vote was 84-73. The Senate passed the bill by a 23-11 vote.
Generally known as the "school transfers bill," it was intended to resolve issues created by a 1993 law that allows students in an unaccredited school district to transfer to another district.
Nixon said: "In its final form, (the bill) introduces private vouchers without meaningful oversight, builds a larger, more expensive, and unnecessary bureaucracy, and imposes gratuitous requirements and restrictions on local schools ... while, once again, failing to find fair solutions for children attending school in any of Missouri's unaccredited districts."
Veto session facts
Since voters changed it in 1988, Missouri's Constitution has set the annual veto session for "the first Wednesday following the second Monday in September for a period not to exceed ten calendar days for the sole purpose of considering bills returned (vetoed) by the governor."
Until the 1988 change, vetoed bills generally were considered for possible overrides the next time the Legislature met in January - whether it was the next calendar year or the year after that.
The mid-September veto session is "automatic" anytime the governor returns a vetoed bill "on or after the fifth day before the last day" of the regular legislative session.
The Missouri Constitution also requires the governor to sign or veto a bill within 15 days after he gets it from the General Assembly - unless the legislative session has been adjourned, or recessed for 30 days or more. Then the governor has 45 days to decide to sign or veto a bill, which is why the bills passed during the last two weeks of the General Assembly are sent to him after the session is over, and he can take until mid-July to sign or veto them.
If the governor vetoes a bill earlier than the last week of the General Assembly session, lawmakers can choose to attempt an override while they're still in session - which they did twice last spring - or hold the override attempt until the September session.
But, no matter when the Legislature attempts to override a governor's veto, the Constitution requires the attempt begin in the house where the proposed law was introduced, and at least "two-thirds of the elected members of (each) house" - 23 senators and 109 representatives - must vote to overturn the veto before the bill can become a law.
If fewer than two-thirds of the members in the first house vote to override the veto, the governor's rejection of the proposal is upheld - and the other house never gets a chance to vote.