June 18, 2013

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House to announce Medicaid committees this week

June 18, 2013 By

Two Committees will be announced by the House Speaker this week that will look at Medicaid reform and expansion.

House Speaker Tim Jones (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

House Speaker Tim Jones (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The larger of the two will be made up of a mix of representatives and individuals from the private sector that will travel the state and gather information from stakeholders. It will be chaired by Representative Noel Torpey (R-Independence). The other will be made up strictly of legislators and chaired by Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City).

House Speaker Tim Jones says the second committee will, “take advice and consent from the larger committee and then boil something down into solutions to the issue of Medicaid transformation.”

Jones says it is the latter committee that will be responsible for coming up with suggestions for the majority Republican caucus on how to proceed with the Medicaid issue.

Those on the two sides of the Medicaid expansion debate were split during the session on whether Missouri should expand eligibility to 138 percent of the poverty level. Republicans proposed a plan that called for reform and expansion to 100 percent. Jones says he will leave that issue completely up to the chairmen of the two committees.

“We’re going to have to see what kind of compromise can be struck. I think it’s an open question right now as to whether we only reform Medicaid and do no expansion … or at what level we expand it.”

The Senate has already announced its own 10-member committee to study possible Medicaid changes.

The two committees will be announced on Thursday.

 

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Nixon signs two bills dealing with foster care (AUDIO)

June 13, 2013 By

Governor Jay Nixon has signed two changes to Missouri foster care provisions into law.

Governor Jay Nixon

Governor Jay Nixon

One of those extends from 18 to 21 the age at which a child can re-enter foster care upon a petition by a juvenile officer, the Children’s Division of the Department of Social Services or by the youth him- or herself.

Vince Hillyer is the CEO of Great Circle, an organization that deals with families and children, most of whom are foster children, in areas including mental health, education and advocacy.

He says the passage of that law could be seen as extending to foster children another advantage that children not in foster care have.

“Any 18-year-old who heads out on their own, whether it’s into the workforce or into higher education, they often times just need the stability to be able to fall back and come back to see mom and dad or come back to see the agency that they’ve been associated as a transition time to adulthood.”

Hillyer says this would be especially helpful to teens and young adults who leave foster care, enter the workforce and then find themselves in a bad situation after making a mistake such as breaking a law, or losing a job.

“This would be an opportunity to let them come back in, reassess, get them stabilized, get them another job and hope that they learn from their mistake so instead of spiraling out of control they could get back in and do things the right way.”

See the bills signed today by Governor Nixon, SB 205 and SB 208

The age change was recommended by a 2009 Blue Ribbon Task Force on children aging out of foster care, of which Hillyer was a member. He says he’s glad to see these changes become law, but says there is much more that needs to be done. He hopes more attention will be paid in future legislation to helping foster children at an earlier age.

“Mandatory parenting classes for any person that is about to have a child, and maybe there would be some type of an incentive … to encourage people to do it. I would like to see a lot more early intervention screenings for mental health for kids in … specifically preschool and kindergarten, and just more general advocacy around mental health.”

Another provision that Nixon has made law mandates that children in foster care aged 15 and older will get the chance to visit a college, university, community or military recruiter if they want to. Hillyer says he pushed for that law to make sure foster children know what opportunities they have.

“As accessible to them as it is to anyone in our society. I think they think it’s something that’s only for ‘the good people’ or ‘the rich people’ or ‘the smart people’ and that’s just not the case.”

Both changes to law become effective August 28.

Hillyer is anxious to see what action the Governor takes with another bill that would extend to 45 days Missouri’s so-called “Safe Haven” law, that currently lets a new mother leave a child within five days of birth at a law enforcement or medical facility or fire station without fear of prosecution.

AUDIO: Vince Hillyer interview, 10:09

Filed Under: Children, Featured, Legislature, News Tagged With: , , ,

Nixon urges higher education leaders to voice support for veto of tax cut bill (AUDIO)

June 11, 2013 By

Governor Jay Nixon (D) wants his veto of a proposed cut to Missouri’s corporate and individual income taxes to stand, and he’s taken that message to the state’s higher education leaders.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon (D)

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon (D)

“Members of the General Assembly can either support House Bill 253 or they can support higher education, but they can’t do both.”

Nixon tells leaders from the state’s colleges and universities that if his veto is overturned, HB 253 will cost the state’s operating budget $800-million, the equivalent of cutting all support for higher education, closing all state prisons or eliminating the Department of Mental Health. He also highlighted that the bill would repeal a tax exemption on college textbooks, as well as prescription drugs.

He urges those leaders to talk to people in their communities and the lawmakers that represent them in support of his veto, which could face an override attempt by the Republican supermajority-led legislature in September’s veto session.

“That decision can either protect our future or seal our fate. House Bill 253 means higher taxes on Missouri seniors and families but fewer tax dollars available for our colleges and universities. House Bill 253 means our students will spend more money on their textbooks while our state spends less money on their classrooms. House Bill 253 means fewer scholarships, less workforce training dollars and shrinking funding for each of your institutions.”

Republicans say the tax cut would make Missouri more competitive with Kansas, where taxes on businesses and individuals have been cut in recent years. Nixon says Kansas’ tax rate is still higher than Missouri’s, and says Kansas is now dealing with the results of its tax cut efforts.

“After they had their experiment, the thing they did when the first budget they had in front of them was pass a $777-million tax increase to make up the hole and go ahead and cut education to boot, so that risky experiment that they tried did not work there and we should not follow down that path.”

Nixon says his office will continue to make the case to other groups that his veto should stand, but he says that effort is not a campaign.

“It’s just important for people to understand the scope of $800-million.”

 AUDIO:  Listen to Governor Nixon’s speech, 17:25

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Nixon vetoes proposal to bar Islamic, other foreign law from MO courts

June 3, 2013 By

Governor Jay Nixon has vetoed legislation that would have barred the use of foreign laws, including Islamic Sharia law, in Missouri courts.

Governor Jay Nixon

Governor Jay Nixon

Nixon says barring the consideration of foreign laws in Missouri could have interfered with the adoption by Missouri parents of children from other nations. That was also one of the arguments made by legislative Democrats speaking in opposition to the proposal when it came before the House.

Representative Mike Colona (D-St. Louis) called it a waste of time.

“We’re talking about the boogeyman and sharialand having laws that we want to be prevented from even looking at.”

Representative Paul Curtman (R-Pacific) says the adoption concern is a false argument.

“This has already been governed by U.S. law through the Hague Convention, through the Uniform Child Custody Act, both of which are already American law, so that’s a non-issue.”

Nixon also says the law could have interfered with wills, trusts, marriage and divorce decrees and contracts, and enforcement of judgements made in other states when they involve foreign law.

The bill cleared the legislature with margins that could overturn the governor’s veto, if no lawmakers switch their votes.

The legislation is SB 267.  View Governor Nixon’s veto message here.

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Flawed law not legislature’s fault, backers say (AUDIO)

May 31, 2013 By

Some business groups are among those urging the governor to sign a bill with an error that could reinstate sales taxes on prescription drugs. They say passage of the flawed bill is not the fault of the legislature.

 Associated Industries of Missouri and the state Chamber of Commerce have joined Senate Sponsor Will Krause in urging Governor Nixon to sign the bill, although Nixon says it will impose a 200-million dollar tax increase of people taking prescription drugs. The problem is with a technical mistake in the way part of the bill is written.  A misplaced bracket makes that part of the bill eliminate the prescription drug sales tax exemption.

Chamber of Commerce lobbyist Tracy King puts the blame entirely with the Department of Revenue, which wrote the language that was put on six bills. But lawmakers never picked up on the error during four months of consideration of the legislation. “The legislators could not have known that there was a problem unless they were told,” she says.

Kraus says the Revenue Department assured him and others that there was no problem with the wording.   Nixon has not said he’s going to veto the bill.  It does contain some things he asked for this year, most notably a system of collecting sales taxes on internet sales and a tax amnesty plan.  Backers of the bill say the  erroneous section involved not go into effect until 20-15, so he should sign the bill and let the legislature correct the wording next year

AUDIO: King 16:00

Filed Under: Featured, Legislature, News
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