Reforming Labor Laws to Increase Transparency & Add Taxpayer Value

Best Practices for our Rural Counties and Schools

Too often our schools and other public facilities face tough decisions on whether or not to authorize spending on maintenance costs.  It would seem simple enough, but Missouri’s existing law requires that even simple maintenance like painting is subject to prevailing wage laws.  Moreover, our rural areas are often bound to prevailing wage rates that more accurately reflect urban rates.  Should your local elementary school be forced to pay $35 an hour to paint a wall?  Would they?  They likely wouldn’t until the problems are so severe that they demand action. 

This is the heart of the problem we’ve attempted to address this week: allowing public entities to maintain their facilities on a timelier basis.  The end goal is to increase workplace safety for our public employees and students and to also minimize the distraction to our students that crumbling infrastructure causes.  In our reforms, we’ve also included new construction so that local school districts and public entities can get more “bang for the buck”, which will add value to your hard-earned tax dollars.  This is a common sense reform and I’m glad to see the conversation move from the House and now to the Senate for action. 

Giving You the Choice on Your Paycheck

Each pay period, our union members have dues deducted from their paycheck.  These dues fund a variety of purposes, but they often find their way into partisan politics.  Employees, even those who disagree with the politics of the union, have absolutely zero choice in their money being spent on political activity.  This is wrong.

HB 64, sponsored by Rep. Eric Burlison, proposes a simple solution – if an employee consents annually in writing for their dues to be utilized for political purposes then that amount can be deducted from their paycheck.  This is the same process that many of us utilize to help fund charitable institutions that perform work we care about.  We feel that a simple acknowledgment from the employee should be asked and received before a portion of their paycheck is redirected from their pocket to a partisan political cause.  This legislation must move forward in the Senate, and I look forward to it becoming the law of the land.