Governor Nixon has signed Senate Bill 1, which repeals a section of a bill passed by the General Assembly last spring and enacts a new section to address online communications between teachers and students. The Governor ahs asked legislators to simply repeal the offending sections of Senate Bill 54, known as the Teacher Facebook Bill. The bill he has signed gives the school districts the authority to write their own policies addressing the issue.

Nixon has  also signed Senate Bill 7, the Missouri Science and Innovation Reinvestment Act also known as the MOSIRA bill. Passage of the MOSIRA bill was one of the key elements in Nixon’s call for a special session, and he says the bill is an important tool to create the jobs of the future in the state.

He says MOSIRA would create a funding source for research and technology jobs by capturing a small percentage of the growth in state revenue over a base year from Missouri science and innovation companies. The Missouri Technology Corporation will administer the MOSIRA funds.

The MOSIRA bill was attached to the china hub bill by statute, but the courts are challenging the constitutionality of that portion of the bill. Only time will tell if that bill will be able to be enacted without SB 8, the China Hub, tax credits, or economic development bill, as it has been called, because the House has asked the Senate for a conference on the bill. The Senate meets Tuesday on that bill.