Jeanie Lauer Archives

Senator wants lower tax, more consolidation in House 911 bill

April 15, 2014 By Mike Lear

The Chairman of the Senate Committee that has the House’s 911 funding legislation says there are some things that need to be shaken out in that bill before it can advance.

Senator Brad Later (Photo courtesy; Senate Communications)

The proposal would let counties ask voters to establish a monthly fee of up to $1.50 no devices that can call 911 except for prepaid phones and service, which would be subject to a 3-percent sales tax.

Senator Brad Lager (R-Savannah) thinks those amounts are too high.

“Missouri would go from not having a 911 tax to being the highest in the country,” says Lager of the 3-percent rate. “I don’t think I’m comfortable with that move.” Lager isn’t sure what rate he thinks would be appropriate.

He also wants legislation to provide a financial incentive for call centers to consolidate.

“I have a couple in my district,” says Lager, “that are actually in, for all practical purposes, the same city block. Then a third one … like four blocks away. Taxpayers are having to fund every one of those.” Lager says taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for three call centers within four blocks of one another.

Representative Jeanie Lauer (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

House sponsor, Representative Jeanie Lauer (R-Blue Springs) says it is very difficult to mandate consolidation because of the differences among counties, but the bill does include one incentive.

Grants would be one of the things proceeds from the proposal would support, to pay for implementation of 911 service and other needs. Lauer says any counties who go to the pool for the grant money would have to have some plans for consolidation.

“It may be where they actually consolidate or it could just be where they go out for contract to another Public Safety Answering Point,” says Lauer.

Lager also dislikes that the legislation would allow a portion of the money it would generate to go to purposes other than 911, specifically poison control.

Both lawmakers are confident that a solution can be found by the end of session in a little more than a month.

The House legislation is HB 1573.

911 funding proposal awaits Senate after spring break

March 18, 2014 By Mike Lear

The state House has given its approval to a fee on cell phones to pay for 911 service.

Elected officials have for years looked for new ways to pay for 911 service to replace or supplement the current tax on landline phones, which is less and less sufficient as fewer people have landlines.

The House has passed a bill to let counties ask voters to approve a fee of up to $1.50 on any device that can call 911. The bill would also would create a 3-percent sales tax on prepaid cell phone service of more than 5-dollars or longer than 10 minutes, that would not be charged on top of the $1.50 fee.

The bill’s sponsor, Representative Jeanie Lauer (R-Blue Springs) says Missourians who think they can get 911 anywhere are wrong.

“The reality is that there are areas along I-35, I-70, I-55, 54 Highway, 65 Highway, 71 Highway, 63 … pick a highway,” said Lauer during floor debate, indicating that there are zones along those and many other highways in the state in which 911 service is unavailable.

Local 911 providers in many parts of the state also can’t afford updated systems that would allow them to find a 911 caller’s cell phone or allow texting to 911.

The funding issue is a problem for many counties, who have had to supplement 911 from general revenue.

The bill would also create a board to oversee and enhance 911 operations statewide.

The legislation is HB 1573.

House approves 911 funding plan; bill goes to the Senate

May 1, 2013 By Mike Lear

The sponsor of 911 funding legislation says her plan gives options to counties that are struggling to pay for that service.

Representative Jeanie Lauer (photo courtesy Tim Bommel,
House Communications)

County governments and organizations that represent them have been pushing for a 911 funding mechanism for years. They say the old landline-based surcharge that supports it doesn’t provide enough money as fewer people use landline phones and switch to mobile devices. That forces counties to pull money from other places, or cut the service. Eighteen counties in Missouri don’t have a 911 system.

Rep. Jeanie Lauer (R-Blue Springs) says her proposal, HB 653, offers counties a new option.

“What this bill does is provide enabling legislation for counties to go to the voters to apply a fee to all devices … wireless and wire line … to help fund 911 services,” Lauer says. “The proposed fee is up to $1.50 per device, and again this is enabling legislation so it must go to the voters.”

Lauer emphasizes that counties could only use one of the three funding mechanisms.

Callaway County Associate Commissioner Doc Kreider says the proposal would help rural counties, who struggle the most to support 911.

“Our overall objective is to have a call taking center, or when someone dials 911 anywhere in the state of Missouri … then we have a competent, qualified, trained person that’s going to take your call and will be able to dispatch the appropriate agency for help,” Kreider says.

The bill includes a provision that would bar any third-class county from submitting a proposal to the voters until all emergency telephone providers in the county have consolidated, or until a study is done to consider consolidation.

Some lawmakers said it doesn’t make sense for some counties not to consolidate and keep collecting a sales tax or start collecting a new surcharge.

“It’s not going to solve the problem with funding in some of these counties just to allow them to collect a tax on cell phones because it’s still going to cost the counties general revenue to maintain the services,” says Rep. Casey Guernsey (R-Bethany).

The plan has been approved and sent to the Senate.

House approves legislation to battle bullying in public schools

April 10, 2013 By Mike Lear

The House has sent the Senate legislation to have school districts add discrimination to anti-bullying policies.

Representative Sue Allen (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The proposal sponsored by Representative Sue Allen (R-Town and Country) says those policies should bar bullying on school grounds, at school events and on school buses, and defines cyberbullying. It also lays out what should go into a policy and would require the State Board of Education to develop model policies by September 1.

The debate in recent years in the House has centered on whether an anti-bullying bill should specify who it protects by listing factors for discrimination: things like sexual orientation, race or religion.

Allen’s bill does not. She says a blanket approach means no children will be left out.

“I contend there is no specific profile or picture of any student, girl or boy, who is potentially a victim of bullying.”

Representative Mike Colona (D-St. Louis City) references an unrelated piece of legislation filed last year in the House in arguing that enumeration is needed.

“Fifteen or twenty co-sponsors on a bill that says we can’t say ‘gay’ in school, and I’m supposed to trust school administrators to make sure that LGBT students aren’t bullied? It doesn’t fly. It doesn’t fly.”

Representative Margo McNeil (D-Florissant) says children would be made safer and better able to learn by a bill that includes specifics about who it protects.

“Because it fails to define who or what is considered bullying it leaves huge areas of gray. I maintain that murkiness is one reason why so many children are bullied because of their sexual orientation and religion.”

Representative Jeanie Lauer (R-Blue Springs) says attempting to list all possible factors for discrimination would surely miss some children who also need protection.

“If I see somebody hurting a child I’m going to be out there taking care of them and protecting them, and I don’t care if it falls in a category or not. That’s not the issue. The issue is that we’re supposed to be here protecting our children.”

The House voted 141-10 to send the proposal to the Senate.

House advances proposed changes to adoption law (AUDIO)

April 25, 2012 By Mike Lear

The Missouri House of Representatives has adopted a proposal that, its sponsor says, would lead to more foster parents to adopt children in the foster system.

Representative Jay Barnes (picture courtesy; Missouri House Communications)

The plan was amended to another bill dealing with adoption issues. Its sponsor, Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City), says it deals with cases in which parents voluntarily terminate their parental rights.

It would allow natural parents to enter a post-adoptive agreement for limited contact with the adoptive parents. “Either party could come to court. If, for instance, the natural parents were not living up to their obligations under the agreement the adoptive parents could shut off contact. If on the other hand the new adoptive parents were not allowing access to the natural parents, those natural parents could have their rights enforced.”

Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia), a self-described opponent of all changes, to the current adoption system, told Barnes he backs the plan.

He asked Barnes, “Under your amendment, nobody has to do anything.”

Barnes confirmed, “No, this is all voluntary. This involves a situation where the natural parents and the adoptive parents agree that this is what they want to happen.”

Kelly says the plan allows adoptive parents, “for example, allow the birth parents to visit with, to see, to kinda keep track of how their birth child is doing, but all the responsibility and authority still resides with the adoptive family.”

Representative Rory Ellinger (D-University City) disagrees with the goal of having more foster parents adopt children out of the foster system.

“We should urge more reunion, more help, to a mother who may have had drugs, a father who was an alcoholic, so that the natural family can be reunited. We don’t want to make adoption easier because every time you make adoption easier you tear a family apart and then try to put it together again. That’s why the law is so tough in this area.”

Barnes’ amendment was approved by the House. It is now part of a bill sponsored by Representative Jeannie Lauer (R-Blue Springs) that aims to help adoptees obtain medical information from birth parents.

Another positive vote would send the package to the Senate.

AUDIO: Listen to debate of the amendment between Representatives Jay Barnes, Chris Kelly, Thomas Long (R-Battlefield) and Rory Ellinger