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.   

Conscience Rights of Medical Service Providers

On Wednesday the House advanced legislation I sponsored to recognize and defend our individual freedom of conscience. Our conscience serves as an internal system of self-guidance—a private radar through which only the individual judges and discovers his or her truest thoughts and feelings. Therefore, the ability to abide by one’s conscience must be protected. This week my colleagues and I answered the call of thousands of workers in the medical field who do not want to be forced to perform or participate in procedures or research that infringe upon their beliefs.

 

HCS HB 457 will place in law a shield for medical professionals to exercise their conscience rights. It serves to protect them from participation in medical procedures or research that violates their religious, moral or ethical beliefs.  Major advances in the medical field and the looming encroachment of ObamaCare are forcing health care providers to face the daunting task of providing the best care possible while preserving their right to follow their beliefs that they hold sacred.

HCS HB 457 was Third Read and Passed with an overwhelming bi-partisan vote of 116-41 and now moves to the Senate.

Encouraging Economic Growth with Smart Tax Policy

Each year, a number of amateur events are hosted around the country.  The organizing committees, such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, United States Olympic Committee, or United States Golf Association, scan the country in search of event locations where their competitions can be held, attended, and successful.  These events encourage economic activity from advertising to local restaurant sales and hotel bookings and many states offer tax credits to incentivize these selection committees to choose their available locations.

 

Senate Bills 10 & 25 would offer a common sense tax credit to encourage Missouri locations to be selected as venues hosting these types of amateur events that would otherwise take place in a different state.  In fact, the legislation stipulates that another state must be in consideration for the event to qualify for the state tax credit.  With guarantees that other states would be in competition, the Republican-led legislature decided in an overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion that Missouri needed this tax credit incentive to land these events.  The credit rewards those who are bringing revenue, tourism, jobs and notable events to our State while at the same time containing significant taxpayer protections.  The measure was “Truly Agreed and Finally Passed” this week, meaning it now only awaits the Governor’s signature to become law.