One side calls is the “paycheck protection bill.” The other side calls it the “paycheck deception bill.” Strong partisan opposition has forced debate to continue into a second week.
Senator Dan Brown’s bill ends public employees unions practice of having union fees withheld from employees paychecks and sent to the union. His bill would require government workers to agree to let their money be used for political purposes.
Brown is a Republican. Some of the opposition has come from minority Democrats including Senators Jason Holsman of Kansas City and Ryan McKenna of Crystal City.
Holsman calls the bill a solution looking for a problem. He and McKenna say state workers already have the rights Brown says he wants to give to them. Brown says his bill is a matter of increased accountability within the public employee collective bargaining system. He has not been able to get a vote on his bill despite some long days of debate this week.