JEFFERSON CITY — Lawmakers wrapped up their 2023 legislative session Friday amid bitterness and recriminations, but actions already taken in the capital city will resonate for years to come.
Before the final day, Republicans had rammed through restrictions on hormone therapy and puberty-blocking drugs for transgender youths — legislation that prompted some Missouri families to say they would consider leaving the state to seek care elsewhere.
Lawmakers authorized $2.8 billion for a historic widening and revamp of Interstate 70, injected $135 million into pre-kindergarten and child care programs to boost the state’s workforce, and outlawed texting while driving and celebratory gunfire.
With Gov. Mike Parson’s signature, motorists will pay sales taxes on new vehicles at the car dealership, not the DMV. The approval of tax incentives for the film and music industry could lure artists and producers to the state. Seniors will no longer pay taxes on any Social Security income, a change that could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in operating revenue.
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While the House approved a steady stream of bills throughout the last day, gridlock consumed the Missouri Senate in a dispute over legalization of sports betting and a cut to the state’s personal property tax. Both died as time ran out.
Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, who has held up sports betting to secure a broader gaming expansion, said Senate President Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, delivered an ultimatum that the personal property tax cut wouldn’t pass unless sports betting does.
“We both decided to fight to pass personal property tax cuts for Missourians in lieu of expanding gambling in Missouri,†Hoskins said.
Rowden said he made no such demand.
“He is solely responsible for why we don’t have sports betting in Missouri,†Rowden said Friday after adjournment.
Fragile peace breaks
This year’s acrimony followed two years of dysfunction between “regular†Republicans and a faction of GOP senators known as the “conservative caucus.â€
Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, had been trying to hold a fragile peace this year.
But, that began to crumble as the final week began.
Beginning Monday, Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, began slowing down legislative action through a filibuster.
He delayed business to protest an expansion of Medicaid for new moms that wouldn’t bar coverage for women who had an abortion.
And, he sought to pressure the House to take action on his chief initiative, the measure to restrict health care for transgender minors. The House passed that Wednesday.
On Thursday, Eigel put the brakes on regular business at about 4 p.m. to launch into a filibuster after learning his push to cut personal property taxes by an estimated $2 billion wasn’t a priority heading into the final hours of the session.
Eigel, who is considering a run for governor in 2024, said negotiators were instead focusing on finding a path to get sports betting approved before time ran out.
He said the Republican Party platform calls for a moratorium on gambling expansion. And, he said sports betting would mainly benefit the sports teams and casinos that are pushing for it.
“That’s what this is about: Money,†Eigel said.
Democrats, who often must filibuster in order to slow or derail legislation they oppose, were content to sit back and watch Republicans fight among themselves.
Ahead of abortion fight
Another item to shrivel on the vine would’ve asked voters to make it more difficult to change the state constitution.
The House signed off on raising the threshold from a simple majority to 57%, but the Senate failed to take up and vote on the measure before the deadline.
The failure came amid a push by abortion rights supporters to place a question on the November 2024 ballot to overturn the state’s abortion ban.
Raising the bar for constitutional amendments could make it more difficult to pass the abortion measure.
House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres, predicted that if an abortion question made it on the ballot, a constitutional amendment would pass with a simple majority.
He said proponents would include “ballot candy†to ease passage.
“We are pro-life, and if the Senate fails to take action on IP (initiative petition) reform, I think the Senate should be held accountable for allowing abortion to return to Missouri,†Plocher said hours before adjournment.
Republican lawmakers were all but certain to take another shot next year at changing the initiative petition process.
An effort to restrict foreign ownership of farmland also fell short and is also likely to return next year.
Sticking to their guns
A coalition of Senate Democrats and Republicans joined together to approve state budget bills amid recalcitrant Republicans desiring to cut spending and include prohibitions on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the budget.
The Senate’s governing coalition in effect ladled cold water all over the House-backed measures targeting diversity and and played a key role in funding state government for the next fiscal year.
But Republicans remained unified when it came to killing Democratic attempts to tighten the state’s gun laws.
The Republican majority rejected gun limits supported by Democrats, including risk protection orders to confiscate guns from dangerous individuals and efforts to bar the purchase of semi-automatic firearms for teenagers.
Democrats made the push in the wake of a school shooting at the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in ºüÀêÊÓƵ in October that left two people dead.
The 19-year-old shooter broke into the school and shot and killed physical education teacher Jean Kuczka, 61, and student Alexzandria Bell, 15, and wounded six others, despite his family’s attempt to have the murder weapon confiscated nine days before the shooting.
An effort to outlaw firearm possession for minors in public failed when Republicans balked at setting a minimum age in state law, citing the Second Amendment.
But not all Democratic efforts were in vain.
Efforts to expand gun rights to allow concealed carry on public transit and in churches died amid Democratic opposition.
Some reforms
A measure by Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City, will ban prostate, pelvic and anal exams for anesthetized or unconscious patients unless they give consent. There had been no state prohibition against medical students or physicians performing the exams on unconscious patients.
The legislation also extends Medicaid coverage for new mothers from 60 days from the end of a pregnancy to one year in an effort to lower Missouri’s high maternal mortality rate.
“Missouri ranks seventh highest in maternal mortality, and Black mothers are over three-and-a-half times more likely to die within a year of giving birth,†said Rep. LaKeySha Bosley, D-ºüÀêÊÓƵ. “This bill will save lives, and I’m proud we answered the governor’s call to get this bill across the finish line.â€
Sen. Brian Williams, D-University City, shepherded a plan for the Missouri Office of Prosecution Services to investigate offenders’ claims of innocence.
The Conviction Review Unit may present reports to a county prosecutor or the attorney general, who won’t have to abide by the unit’s recommendations.