Engler: The 2011 Legislative Session Begins

At noon on Wednesday, January 5, the 2011 legislative session began and we welcomed 12 new colleagues to the Senate. This year is sure to be an interesting one—in his opening day address the President Pro Tem made it clear that the Senate would be taking up several controversial issues this session.

Republicans hold a large advantage in the makeup of the Senate, but that does not mean differing opinions should be rejected. The economic and budget situation in which we find ourselves requires everyone – democrats, republicans, moderates, conservatives, and liberals – to work together to find common sense solutions to our most pressing issues.

We are facing many challenges this session. For the coming fiscal year, we are expecting a $300 to $500 million revenue shortfall. We must make tough decisions and find ways to cut state spending, but we have to do so without hurting education in our state. If we cut funding to higher education and force Missouri colleges to raise tuition, we are essentially passing a tax increase onto our students, and that is unacceptable.

One priority that is sure to be a focus this session is job creation. There are a lot of initiatives we will be discussing to promote job growth and make sure Missouri’s economic environment encourages businesses move to and expand in our state. We have to take a balanced approach that will create jobs and will support, rather than harm, the state’s workforce.

Next week, we will begin work on finding creative ways to trim state spending through the continuation of the Senate’s “Rebooting Government” initiative. This program, which began last year, takes suggestions from the public and allows senators to sit down and discuss these ideas. I am encouraging citizens throughout the 3rd District to go online and submit their ideas on how to reshape and right-size state government by visiting www.senate.mo.gov/RebootMO.

Legislative work will begin in earnest next week after committee assignments are announced and we can begin to meet to discuss the bills proposed this year. In an upcoming column, I will discuss some of my legislative priorities for the session, and I will continue to keep you informed on what is going on in the Capitol throughout 2011.