Beginning Dec. 1, Missouri's 32 state senators prefiled nearly 300 pieces of legislation covering a wide range of subjects. While not all of the senators prefiled legislation, several filed 10 or more bills.
Among the most profilic filers were a couple of Democrats from the St. Louis area as well as two or three Republicans from both the state's northernmost and southernmost counties.
Under Missouri law, state legislators can begin filing legislation on Dec. 1 ahead of the spring session of the General Assembly, which opens the first week of January.
Listed below are brief descriptions of some legislative bills that, if passed and signed into law, would directly impact the lives of Mid-Missourians.
• SB 569, sponsored by Senator David Pearce, R-Warrensburg, would impose a proposed ban for the use of cell phones for texting by drivers regardless of age. Under current law, only drivers under the age of 21 are banned from texting.
• SB 572, sponsored by Senator Eric Schmitt, R-St Louis County, would limit the amount of revenue a city can earn through revenue garnered from court fines imposed for minor violations of municipal ordinances other than those involving the use of a motor vehicle. Current law only places a limit on the amount of money a city can garner through traffic fines.
• SB 589, sponsored by Senator Bob Dixon, R-Springfield, would remove from state law the provision that requires individuals with conceal carry permits to ask permission of district administrators before carrying a concealed weapon into a school building.
• SB 592, sponsored by Senator Mike Parson, R-Bolivar, would remove a provision of current state law, which allows individual districts to start the school year more than 10 days before the first Monday in September. If passed the new law would require districts to set the first day of class no earlier than mid to late August.
• SB 602, sponsored by Senator Maria Chappell-Nadal, D-St. Louis County, would create a $300 income tax deduction for individuals who adopt a cat or dog from an animal shelter.
• SB 614, sponsored by Senator Mike Cunningham, R-Rogersville, would make it a class A misdemeanor for any person to "knowingly allow or fail to prevent a person under 21-years-of-age from possessing or drinking alcohol."
• SB 616, sponsored by Senator Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City, would raise the age limit under which a child must wear a flotation device on Missouri waterways to 12-years-old. Currently the requirement is set at 7-years-of-age.
• SB 617, sponsored by Senator Wayne Wallingford, R-Cape Girardeau, would allow the use of spotlights when hunting feral hogs and would make it a class E felony for anyone to transport, possess or release a feral hog in Missouri.
• SB 623, sponsored by Senator Doug Libla, R-Popular Bluff, would raise the motor fuel tax by 1.5 cents per gallon to 18.8 cents and raise the tax on diesel fuel by 3.5 cents to 20.8 cents per gallon beginning Oct. 1, 2016. Motor fuel tax revenue is used to fund the construction and maintenance of the state's highways and bridges.
• SB 628, sponsored by Senator Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, would require all law enforcement officers in cities with a population of 100,000 or more to wear body cameras while on duty.
• SB 645, sponsored by Senator Bob Onder, R-Lake St. Louis, would require that for a period of five years, beginning in 2017, 3 percent of the state's sales and use tax, garnered from purchases other than the sale of motor vehicles, be deposited in the state's road fund instead of the general revenue fund for a period of five years.
• SB 678, sponsored by Senator Ed Emery, R-Lamar, would allow the courts to order electronic monitoring for persons who have been found guilty or charged with violating an order of protection and would require that the victim be notified if the monitored person moves into a restricted location.
• SB 689, sponsored by Senator Gary Romine, R-Farmington, would prohibit the use of two-way communication devices (cell phones, tablets, etc) in prisons or jails. Law enforcement personnel would be exempted.
SB 691, sponsored by Senator Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, require a person who has lost or had a firearm stolen to report the loss or theft to local law enforcement within 72 hours of discovering the loss or theft and allow law enforcement to use the failure to report as evidence against the owner if the firearm is recovered or used in a crime.
• SB 715, sponsored by Senator Kiki Curls, D-Kansas City, would extend the notification period for a tenant to vacate the premises from the current 10 business days to 90 business days following a foreclosure sale.
• SB 726, sponsored by Senator Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, would raise the requirements for the use of deadly force by a law enforcement from the current limitations (against a suspect who has committed or attempted to commit a felony, is attempting to escape by using a deadly weapon, or who may be a threat to others) to include only those instances where a suspect has committed or attempted to commit a felony involving serious physical injury or who poses a threat to another person or a law enforcement officer.
• SB 739, Maria Chapalle-Nadal, D-St. Louis County, would create the class A misdemeanor of failing to stop the illegal possession of a firearm. The law would apply to parents or guardians who knowingly allowed a child under 18-years-of-age to access a firearm or who failed to stop the possession of a firearm by a minor. If the firearm were used to cause death or injury then the offense would become a Class E felony until Dec. 2016 and would become a Class D felony beginning Jan. 1 2017. The bill would also create the crime of failing to safely store a firearm if the weapon has not been stored in an area inaccessible to a child.
SB 743, sponsored by Senator Kiki Curls, D-Kansas City, would require landlords to hold security deposits in a separate account set up for that purpose and not commingle a security deposit with personal funds and would allow tenants to recover twice the amount of the security deposit if a landlord did not keep the deposit in a separate fund.
• SB 761, Maria Chapalle-Nadal, D-St. Louis County, would exempt marijuana from current laws, which allow law enforcement to seize any money used to facilitate the sale of illegal substances.
• SB 763, Maria Chapalle-Nadal, D-St. Louis County, would require the governor to notify a third party human rights organization to oversee law enforcement officers when a state of emergency has been declared as a result of civil unrest.
• SB 775, sponsored by Senator Curt Schaefer, R-Columbia, would add the crime of statutory aggravation to crimes of terrorism that include murder and are designed to intimidate the civilian population. Conviction could result in the death sentence.
• SJR 18, sponsored by Senator Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, would ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment to increase motor fuel tax by one-and-one-half cents per gallon and diesel fuel by three-and-one-half cents per gallon to pay for highway and bridge maintenance and construction.
• SJR 25, sponsored by Senator Ed Emery, R-Lamar, would ask voters to approve the elimination of the state's income tax by the year 2020 and replace it with a series of increases in sales tax. A cap would be placed on the amount of sales tax that could be charged for certain products including food.
• SJR 20, sponsored by Senator Jason Holsman, D-Kansas City, would ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment allowing the growing, manufacture and sale of medical marijuana products within the state. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services would be responsible for issuing licenses and participating in all aspects of the growing, manufacturing and selling of products.
To read about house bills prefiled for the spring session, view http://www.thelaketoday.com/news/2015/dec/30/december-state-representatives-pre-filed-hundreds-/.