GOP pleased, Nixon philosophical on veto session voting

With only four exceptions, Mid-Missouri's 12 lawmakers - three senators and nine representatives - voted for successful veto overrides during Wednesday's legislative veto session.

Touting the success of the session, House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, noted lawmakers passed 10 bills into law over Gov. Jay Nixon's vetoes.

"The state now stands at 104 total overrides with 82 overrides enacting bills or budget line-items into effect as law despite Gov. Nixon's objections," the Poplar Bluff Republican said in a news release.

Reps. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, and Tom Hurst, R-Meta, and Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, all voted to uphold Nixon's veto of a bill adding some court costs in counties where courthouses need repairs - a bill the House voted to override but won't go into law because the Senate fell three votes short.

Nixon told reporters Thursday afternoon his vetoes aren't "some sort of parlor game where people are counting what the numbers are," but are a serious effort to help the state be better.

"I vetoed the bills for a reason," he said. ""I take that extremely seriously."

Barnes also voted against overriding a bill that will exempt some commercial laundries from paying sales taxes on the supplies and electricity they use, and on some other things.

"It is another special interest tax break that we should be phasing out rather than doubling-down on," Barnes told the News Tribune. "I support broad tax relief that reduces the tax burden for all Missourians."

Both Barnes and Nixon noted the bill, which was overriden and becomes law in a month, will cut the state's income.

"Instead of $4 million in tax relief for working Missouri families and small business owners," Barnes said, "we get an exemption narrowly targeted to an industry crafty enough to work the Legislature."

Nixon noted the bill cuts taxes with "no job creation requirements, no verification that they're doing anything new or better."

The governor was pleased the House fell 13 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override his veto of the controversial right-to-work law.

"It was a big win for workers in America," the governor said, "and working people are sending a signal from the Heartland that workers' rights ... paying people a fair wage is important, allowing people to organize is important - and the benefits that come from that are benefits that are shared by union and non-union households alike."

But new Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard, R-Joplin, said Missourians want and will benefit from eliminating the law that ties a job to union membership or paying union fees.

"They've got to get it out of the House first," he told reporters late Wednesday night. "If they get it out, we can handle it."

Nixon said lawmakers were wrong to reject his veto of a "local control" bill.

"Undermining city councils and mayors - I don't think that's good for our state," the governor said.

But a big issue in that bill was efforts by some cities to raise the local minimum wage to a higher level than the state requires.

"The place for that debate to happen is in these two chambers," Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, noted. "This is something that's market driven and should be market driven."