The 100th General Assembly of the State of Missouri came to a close. I have to commend the budget chair and budget committee on the number of hours they put in to submit a projected balanced budget submitted to the governor. We all know the effect of COVID-19 and the financial impact it has had on the state. However, it is imperative that a budget be passed both to comply with our state's Constitution and to allow all of our state agencies and state programs to have some idea as they can prepare for the present economic situation. They worked weekends and many nights into the wee hours of the morning because of the fluid, changing situation and working when a lot of people were staying home. It is a true testament to the dedication of our state employees.
One of my greatest disappointments with the budget, which I can understand, was there were no provisions for state pay increase other than some that had previously been promised to the employees of the Department of Corrections. It is my understanding these are limits solely because of the state's financial condition brought upon by COVID-19.
Despite the interrupted session, there were a substantial number of bills that were actually agreed upon and passed and are now awaiting the governor's approval.
The port authority bill that I sponsored in the House made it through the Senate and is on its way to the governor's desk. This was made possible with the help many others, including the Heartland Port Authority, Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, Sen. Mike Bernskoetter, the Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce, the Corn Producers Association, the Soybean Producers Association and numerous other entities. The port is part of a larger future plan to have a larger type of vessel moving up and down the Missouri and Mississippi rivers carrying more than 1,500 containers at one time, moving at 13 miles per hour and running 365 days a year. They can have refrigeration containers. The containers can easily be transferred to other vessels. So when it arrives in New Orleans, it can be loaded automatically onto a larger vessel that can hold 18,000-20,000 container units and can go through the Panama Canal and be spread across the whole world.
This will open middle America to its own port and provide a service not only for Cole County, Missouri, but all of the Midwestern United States. Think of this system as a bus line with many stops. Jefferson City would be another bus stop to load and unload containers.
Feasibility studies have been done on the land. This is land that has not been used for years, and when developed in the future, it will be an economic boon for Cole County, the state of Missouri and the Midwestern United States. It will help enable us to fully develop our products in Mid-Missouri and ship them anywhere in the world much easier and cheaper. In time, it has the potential of having an impact on interstate commerce the same as our interstate highways do. We must always look to what can be done for our future, not just what will give us instant gratification.
By now, you have seen some of the bills that have passed. Among those are mail-in ballots that will apply this year due to COVID-19. The dispute was whether or not the ballots needed to be notarized. I know this is a little more effort for all of us, however, if we have someone seeing the person, seeing an ID, etc., it will certainly decrease the chances of anyone using improper methods to vote or collect ballots. Voting is a right and an obligation.
I have approximately seven other bills that made it through various stages of the Legislature, including one that was in conference on the night of May 14. We had an agreement to pass a bill that would have allowed Cole County and other counties in a similar position to recover some of their costs for out of capital murder cases that arise in other counties. However, after having an agreement at about 9 p.m. that Thursday night, by Friday morning, opinions had been changed, scrapping the whole bill.
There were hundreds of good bills that did not get passed. Missouri, like any other business, has ongoing matters which continuously need adjusted and addressed. Unfortunately, because of the time frame, a lot of those bills were not fully heard.
My frustrations with this session can be summed up with the last two weeks when we had many bills being piled together that had very little to do with each other. Not only are these bills massive compilations of lots of other bills, they are moving at a speed where one is unable to fully read all of the bills. Now, we are in the position of having good bills combined with bills that are not good. Then, there's a decision to make: Do you accept the bad for the good, or do you kill the good because of the bad bill? I will continuously work to try to get our Legislature to address good, non-controversial bills that can be agreed to and passed early in the session, so at the end of the year, what we have left is the special interest bills and controversial bills. Those then can be fully vetted and not tacked onto other bills without being vetted.
The challenge of being a well-informed representative is magnified by the method in which we pile many bills into one at the end of the year. I think that every representative's goal should to be well informed on the bills in front of them so when they vote, they know what you are voting on and why they are for or against it.
Thank you for the privilege of serving you over the last two years. I am looking forward to serving in the future. While at times I have expressed frustration with the way the system is operating, I have truly enjoyed the challenge this job has given me while protecting my district and Central Missouri's interests in the House of Representatives.
As always, your input is one of the most important tools I need to do my job. Please call or email with your concerns.
State Rep. Rudy Veit, R-Jefferson City, represents Missouri's 59th House District, and shares his perspective on statehouse issues twice a month.