Governor Nixon says the key to getting the special session moving was getting all sides to the table. In this case, a conference phone call substituted for a table yesterday morning.
Nixon thinks the legislature is back on track to get the two special session bills passed. The conference call with legislative leaders of both parties has led to a strategy to get the Ford bill and the state employees pension reform bill moving again after being stalled for a week.
A decision that the state Senate had exceeded the call of the special session has become the key to breaking a stalemate between the House and Senate. The Senate had refused to act on the Ford tax incentive bill until the House had acted on a pension reform bill. The House refused to act unless the Senate backed away from a requirement that a special investment board supervise pension investments.
Hours before a conference call that got things moving again, the Governor and his staff decided the special investment board was outside his special session call. The sponsor of the Senate version of the pension bill, Senator Jason Crowell, backed away from his insistence that the board be established
The special session resumes Tuesday. Nixon and legislative leaders hope it can be finished Wednesday.
　Gov. Nixon talks to Bob Priddy 4:37 mp3
