Engler: The 2010 Session Concludes

The legislative session ended at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 14^th.  It was a tough year, with budget concerns and declining revenue guiding a lot of our work.  We worked to decrease the size of state government while also passing legislation to improve the lives of Missourians.  The 2010 legislative session included both wins and losses, but ultimately, I am pleased with the work we were able to complete.

Autism Insurance Reform

The General Assembly passed House Bill 1311, guaranteeing health carriers will provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders.  Out of the top 10 childhood neurobiological disorders, autism is the only one that is not covered by health insurance in our state.  This means that families are paying for health insurance while still having to pay out-of-pocket for autism therapies.  The bill requires most health carriers that issue or renew health benefit plans to provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of individuals with autism. It would restrict health carriers from refusing to issue or renew coverage based solely on the fact of an autism diagnosis. The insurance coverage includes a physician or psychiatrist's referral of ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) therapy — up to $40,000 per year for individuals younger than 19. A cost-of-living adjustment has been included to adjust the cap for therapy services in coming years.

Ethics Reform

The Legislature also approved Senate Bill 844, a bill focused on setting higher ethics standards in Missouri politics. The bill gives flexibility and teeth to the Missouri Ethics Commission by allowing it to investigate ethics violations without an outside complaint first being filed, and makes it a crime to obstruct an ethics investigation.  In order to end even the appearance of "pay-to-play" politics, the bill requires contributions of more than $500 to incumbent officials and their challengers during the legislative session to be electronically reported within 48 hours. The bill also makes clear that no statewide elected official or lawmaker can offer someone a job in exchange for his or her official vote and limits the transferring of contributions among most campaign committees.  The legislation brings a new level of accountability and transparency to the political process so that Missourians will have confidence in the motives of their elected officials.

Rebooting Government

This year, the Senate leader launched an initiative to reduce the size of state government. Ideas were collected from the public, and my fellow senators and I met in working groups to talk about ways to cut costs and streamline government. Several of these ideas resulted in legislation that passed this session, including:

• Senate Bill 1007, reins in $20 million in Medicaid costs.
• House Bill 1965, eliminates the printing of state manuals (Blue Books) and State Statute books for a cost-savings of $1.7 million dollars in printing and postage.
• House Bill 1868, merges the highway patrol and water patrol for nearly $1 million in savings.

Even in the final hours of session, we pushed to approve additional priority legislation, but the final gavel fell without the passage of some of these bills.  We had hoped to pass a jobs bill this session to encourage economic growth while also reducing the cost of state incentives.  We also worked on ways to make the state's pension system more efficient and cost-effective.  These bills did not succeed, and I am concerned that, without these cost-cutting measures, the state will need to make even more serious spending cuts in the coming year.

Most of the bills passed during this legislative session will go into effect on August 28^th.  The governor has until July 14 to veto legislation or else it goes into effect.  You can see a list of bills that have been agreed to by the Legislature here.