Senate Leader Rob Mayer of Dexter and House Speaker Stephen Tilley of Perryville have written Nixon a letter urging him to set a date, saying the citizen members of the Missouri legislature need advance time to plan with their families and employers.
And Mayer says early September is fast approaching.
Nixon spokesman Sam Murphy says the Governor’s office is finalizing the language of the call and working directly with members in both the House and the Senate with policy expertise to ensure that we have a crisp and focused special session to pass legislation to create jobs, finance disaster recovery and ensure that taxpayer dollars are invested responsibly.
Governor Nixon said a few weeks ago that he would call the legislature back into special session to take up a jobs bill, a change in the date for Missouri’s presidential primary and other possible key issues.
Murphy says in an e-mail to Missourinet that “every week spent in a special session has a significant cost to taxpayers, so his office wants to make sure the General Assembly can complete its work in the most efficient and effective manner possible,” and that the Governor’s office is on track to begin the special session in early September.
Republican legislative leaders said they had hoped for a Sept. 6 start date, stated in their letter to Nixon that “the legislature has the hard task to pass (in a limited time) the most sweeping jobs and fiscal accountability legislation ever attempted. It will not be easy, but we are committed to pass this for our citizens. We will fail, however, if you continue to exclude items because of narrow personal bias or if you fail to communicate to our offices, except by press release on the scope and content of the call.”
Mayer says Missouri’s unemployment rate is higher than most of our neighboring sttes with the thrid worst job loss rate in the country last year.
He and Tilley point out that this month alone, Kansas City and St. Louis ranked as the No.1 and No. 2 cities with the greatest loss in home values, while Texas and other states create jobs and grow their economy.
　
