Some of Missouri’s top college leaders dispute the fundamental reason some lawmakers want to limit college tuition hikes. Senator Gary Nodler of Joplin is working on a way to limit public college tuition increases to the cost of living index. He admits it’s a work in progress, but he’s firm on the reason he wants to do it.”We need to find a way to protect the consumers and the students and the families and to do something about the pressure of skyrocketing tuition rates,” he says. Skyrocketing? Not from Barbara Dixon’s point of view. She’s the President of Truman State University and the President of the Missouri Council on Public Higher Education. She says in the 2005-2006 school year the average public higher education tuition increase was 4.6 percent, two and a half points below the national average. Presidents such as Ken Dobbins from Southeast Missouri State admit tuition jumped for about three years when state appropriations were deeply cut. But he says the increases could have been worse. He says his school made cuts in programs and faculty. He says tuitions would have gone up another fifty percent at his school from 2001-2006 without the cuts. He says a public perception that tuition rates went up by amounts greater than the schools needed to recover from state budget cuts is erroneous. Nodler is still working on his proposal. A senate committee is waiting to see what changes he’ll suggest.
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Tuition Limits Questioned
Disabled Workers Health Coverage Clears Committee
Thousands of disabled workers in Missouri might be able to keep their jobs and their public health care coverage under a bill moving to the House for debate. Now called Ticket to Work, it would replace the old Medical Assistance for Workers with Disabilities (MAWD) program cut in 2005. Representative Charles Portwood (R-Ballwin) sponsors the measure. Portwood says the old program ballooned out of control, costing $250 million, covering 17,000, many of whom did little work to earn full benefits. He tells a House committee that under the old MAWD program the spouse of a disabled worker could earn $100,000 a year with the worker earning an additional $30,000 and the disabled worker would still qualify for publicly funded health care. Portwood says his bill caps total household income to qualify at $46,200 a year. The program is estimated to cost a total of $28 million, with the federal government picking up much of the tab and the state paying $10.6 million. Ticket to Work is expected to cover 4,100 disabled Missourians, some of whom had to quit their jobs to keep Medicaid coverage. That’s not a minor decision says Wayne Lee with the Epilepsy Education Organization. Lee says with passage of the bill, people will be provided with the opportunity to climb the ladder of success. Another major aspect of the bill is that it will allow employees of Sheltered Workshops to keep their jobs and keep their Medicaid coverage. The House committee has approved the bill and sent it to the full House for debate.
Related web sites:
HB 39, Ticket to Work
Bill Aims to Crack Down on School Bus Drivers Committing DWI Offenses
Legislation before a Senate committee would make things tougher than they already are for school bus drivers arrested for driving while intoxicated on the job. Senator Norma Champion (R-Springfield) says this is a bill that toughens the current laws regarding bus drivers who are legally drunk while behind the wheel. This particular lifetime ban on driving any school bus would only affect a driver who has been driving while intoxicated while driving a school bus. The legislation, however, would require any driver arrested for drinking and driving outside his or her work hours to inform the employer before getting back into the driver’s seat.
Related web sites:
Missouri SB 24
New Sex Offender Registry Law proposed
The legislature is being asked to make sure all convicted sex offenders have to register with the state. The state supreme court says people who were offenders before the registry law went into effect in 19-95 won’t have to register.Senator Maida Coleman wants a law passed saying they must. Some law enforcement agencies still have the pre-’95 offenders on their rolls but can’t do anything about them if they move and do not report their new locations.
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House Committee to Consider Expanded Tax Cut
A proposal to eliminate the state income tax on Social Security benefits could be greatly expanded by a House committee. House Speaker Rod Jetton (R-Marble Hill) tells a House committee he has expanded on his proposal to remove the state tax on Social Security benefits to include public pension beneficiaries. And Jetton isn’t sure he wants to stop there, telling the committee, “Originally, I was concerned about where our budget is, could we afford that? I made several comments that our goal was to eliminate the income tax as a whole and the first step was to get it off pensions.” Jetton’s original proposal to eliminate the state income tax on Social Security benefits would cost the state around $105 million. Including those not in the Social Security system, such as teachers, would increase the costs by at least $60 million. Jetton says the state needs to attract retirees and eliminating the state tax on Social Security benefits would go a long way towards doing that. Not everyone supports the move. Tom Kruckemeyer, the chief economist with the Missouri Budget Project, says an expected surplus this year can easily turn into a deficit next year. He also argues that any tax cuts should be more specifically targeted to those who need it, saying that “The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of this, the benefit from this tax, would go to, as we say, relatively affluent people.” Another critic says the legislature shouldn’t give away a surplus created by past budget cuts.(Jetton’s bill is HB 444)
Related web sites:
HB 444
