House of Representatives Archives

House to announce Medicaid committees this week

June 18, 2013 By Mike Lear

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)

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.

UPDATE: Rep. Guernsey says anonymous source told him about concealed carry info going to Homeland Security

March 7, 2013 By Mike Lear

See an update on this story from 6:30pm 03/07/2013

A state lawmaker says an anonymous source has told him that a Department of Revenue license office in his district has scanned personal information from applicants for concealed carry permits and sent it to the Department of Homeland Security.

Representative Casey Guernsey (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Rep. Casey Guernsey (R-Bethany) says that information violates state law.

Guernsey describes his source only as someone who works with a license office in his District.

“Considering they, of course, want to remain nameless, it’s hard to really go into any further detail, I believe,” he says.

Guernsey says a 2009 law passed by the General Assembly expressly made such collections and dissemination of information illegal.

“I think it is plenty clear, and it is abundantly obvious the intent of the legislation, not to mention the language that we put in statute to prevent this sort of thing from happening.”

See the state statutes regarding these matters, 302.183 and 32.091

Even so, Guernsey has signed on to co-sponsor a proposal from Rep. Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) he says will seek to add any clarity or strength to state law regarding these procedures.

The claim the information is being sent to Homeland Security was made in an e-mail distributed Thursday morning by Guernsey and Rep. Paul Curtman (R-Pacific). While Guernsey cites his anonymous source, Curtman admits he didn’t have a source for the claim and that he was just drawing a conclusion.

“I’m telling you from my experience in the Marine Corps that the Department of Labor is not concerned about military strategy or what the bad guys are carrying, but the people that deal with security issues are, so if we’re looking for somebody at the federal level who wants all this information on what citizens have a CCW permit, it makes sense to me tactically speaking and logically speaking … it’s the Department of Homeland Security,” Curtman says.

Curtman could not confirm that anyone at a fee office had said that the information is going to Homeland Security.

“I probably couldn’t even answer that question for you right now because the conversations that were happening with some of the folks at the fee offices … I have not heard them say that,” he says. “Without naming any names for you right now, this information will be made public later on as more information unfolds.”

A lawsuit filed Monday in Stoddard Co. alleges that the license office in that county was refusing to give a concealed carry permit applicant his permit for failing to hand over his personal information to be scanned. A judge later issued an order stopping the scanning of such documents there.

Stoddard County Prosecutor Russ Oliver announced his suit with Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder Monday at the State Capitol. At that time, neither Oliver nor Kinder knew what was being done with the documents that were scanned.

See our story from Monday on the Stoddard County lawsuit announcement.

The House Committee on Government Oversight and Accountability will hold a hearing on Monday on the matter.

The ranking Democrat on that committee, Rep. Kevin McManus (D-Kansas City) says he wants to see what information is revealed at Monday’s hearing.

“At that point I think it would be proper to consider whatever legislative proposal we need to, to make sure that, I think number one, identities are being protected and private information’s not being released that shouldn’t be released, and number two that people are able to have whatever rights and excercise their rights for the conceal and carry permits properly under current statute that they are given that right and are able to exercise it,” McManus says.

Bill would require ‘pings’ of missing persons’ cell phones

February 3, 2012 By Mike Lear

A House Committee has heard testimony on a bill that would clear the way for cell phone companies to provide cell phone location information to law enforcement in certain missing persons cases.

Greg and Missey Smith call the bill "Kelsey Smith's law," for their daughter (pictured).

The language of House Bill 1108 has been introduced three previous times in Missouri, and has been passed out of the House but never out of the Senate. It would require companies to locate, or “ping” a cell phone, when law enforcement requests that information in emergencies in which a missing person is in danger of serious physical injury or death. It also protects cell phone companies from being sued for providing that information under the guidelines of the bill.

Missey Smith has advocated for the bill each time. “It’s time that this gets changed.”

Missey and her husband, Greg Smith, are proponents of the bill commonly named for their daughter Kelsey, who was kidnapped from Overland Park, Kansas and found murdered in southern Jackson County in 2007.

Greg, now a legislator in Kansas, says if such language had been law then Kelsey might have been saved. “June 2, 2007 was the night she went missing and she was found four days later … Once that information was released by the cell phone company it only took forty-five minutes to recover her body.” A former police officer, he adds, “If you can get that kind of response in a missing person case, that’s just absolutely light years ahead of what we’re doing right now.”

Missey says the bill changes one component of current law. “They may turn this information over already. So, they’ve already got all of this in place. The Kelsey Smith Act, or this legislation, states they will. That’s the difference. It goes from ‘may’ to ‘shall.'”

No one testified against the bill in the hearing of the House Committee on Utilities.

Learn more about the effort to remember Kelsey, and pass the law named for her.

Missey says it is frustrating the bill has not become law yet, and its sponsor agrees.

This is the first year Representative Jeanie Lauer (R-Blue Springs) has carried the language. “We have history and tracking that shows that this legislation is great, it’s in other states and it is time for Missouri to step up to the plate.”

The bill is currently law in Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, New Hampshire and North Dakota. It is being considered this year in Hawaii and the Smiths say it could be taken up later this year in Massachusetts and Illinois. The Smiths says they know of two cases in the states where the law has passed in which cell phone location information has led to the safe recovery of a missing person.

Missy says she will be back in Missouri as needed to push for the bill to become law this year. “Whatever it takes to get it done.”

State representatives look to bolster veterans homes

January 16, 2012 By Mike Lear

Members of the House Appropriations Committee on Public Safety and Corrections are looking for ways to get more money to the state’s veterans homes.

Chairman Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) says over the years, some of the funds that used to go to those homes has been funneled in other directions. “Early the veterans homes didn’t need all the money that was going there so some of it went to early childhood and some of it went to some other programs. Now the problem is our veterans homes are in pretty serious shape both in terms of the need for repair and maintenance and for the ongoing cost of the operations.”

Representative Chris Kelly (left), Representative Galen Higdon (center) and Representative Sheila Solon

Another Committee member, Representative Galen Higdon (R-St. Joseph) says veterans are waiting in line to get into those facilities. “There’s at least over 1800 now in the state and of course it’s compounding as veterans come back.”

Kelly has filed what he’s called the “loose change” bill, that would allow casino patrons to donate a portion of their winnings to the state Veterans Commission. “There’s always some change when you’re ready to check out. You have like $45 and 27 cents or 85 cents or some cents. We’d like the law to say that the customer gets asked, ‘Would you like to donate the portion less than a dollar … to the Missouri Veterans Commission.” Kelly estimates those donations could amount to between $6 and $8 million dollars a year.

Higdon is preparing a bill that includes that idea and another. It would take the money that is found on casino floors and direct it to the Veterans Commission as well. Currently, that money goes into General Revenue.

Higdon says if that money were dropped on the street, a person can report it to law enforcement after 30 days. In a casino, it goes to the state’s General Revenue fund. “I argue that shouldn’t be part of our general revenue anyway. That’s something that belongs to the casinos … it’s on their property.” Higdon says the casinos he’s talked to are alright with the money going to the veterans’ cause, telling him, “We won’t argue that point.”

Another bill filed by Representative Sheila Solon (R-Blue Springs) would double the annual transfer from the Gaming Commission Fund to the Veterans Commission Capital Improvement Trust Fund from $3 million to $6 million and allow for more to be transferred when the remaining gaming fund amount is more than $28 million.

The Committee is scheduled to next meet Wednesday afternoon.

State spending cap passes House Budget Committee

January 11, 2012 By Mike Lear

The House Budget Committee has advanced a proposed change to the Missouri Constitution to limit future state spending.

: Former House Budget Committee Chairman Allen Icet (left) testifies in favor of HJR 43 alongside its Sponsor, Representative Eric Burlison (R-Springfield).

Representative Eric Burlison (R-Springfield) is sponsoring the measure, HJR 43. It would limit the amount of state general revenue that can be appropriated to the rate of inflation plus population growth.

Under the measure, 1.5 percent of growth over the previous year could be used for appropriations. Any amount between 1.5 and 2.5 percent would be used to pay off state debt. Any amount beyond that would be divided between two emergency funds that would replace the current Budget Reserve Fund, more commonly called the Rainy Day Fund. When those funds are full if there is more growth, it could go toward a state income tax refund.

The proposal is part of the House Republicans’ legislative plan, the “Blueprint for Missouri.”

The Committee voted 20-9 to pass the resolution, with Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) the only Democrat to favor it.

Kelly offered an amendment that made the 2008 budget year the baseline for the resolution, when general revenue was roughly $8 billion dollars. That means the amendment would not kick in until the fund reached that level, which lawmakers agreed is unlikely in the forseeable future.

Burlison says the change would stabilize the budget process and prevent the creation of programs in years of excess only to have them cut when the economy takes a down turn. He says now is the time to enact the resolution, when the economy is down. “We’re experiencing the difficult end of this. We’re looking back and saying if only legislators prior to us had had something like this in place then we wouldn’t have been having to make some of these very difficult cuts that we’re making today. We would have had money in reserves…in savings that we could go to.”

An almost partisan split

Among those opposing the bill, Representative Genise Montecillo (D-St. Louis) says she worries that even in the high mark year of 2008 some funding levels were not sufficient. “Even if I could get all the money in the world for education I have some concerns for social services as well. So, it seems to me that we’re kind of locking some groups into a continued future of being under funded when our needs in our state are becoming greater with unemployment still at really high levels.”

Other Democrats criticized that Republican leadership is trying to limit spending while offering no plans to generate more revenue such as increasing the cigarette tax or collecting internet taxes.

Representative Kelly countered, “As you know, I am a big supporter of raising more revenue around here, but raising revenue is a different question than managing the revenue that we have.”

Representative Burlison noted that the resolution exempts new or increased tax revenues or fees that are voter approved from appropriations growth limit calculations for the year they are passed.

The measure moves on to the Rules Committee, which meets tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. As a constitutional amendment, it would eventually have to go before Missouri voters.