Neth: Capitol Visitors, Bills In Committee Receiving Heavy Response

We have really kicked up the pace this week with visits from constituents, new legislation to discuss, and many meetings with people looking for support or opposition to this or that. I feel truly blessed to have this opportunity to really dig in and work on the issues that are important in our state.

We are beginning to receive the first responses to the survey we sent out a week or two ago. The information provided by the survey will give me a great idea of the priorities our community. If you do not receive a survey in the next few weeks and would like to let me know your opinions, please contact me at myron{dot}neth{at}house{dot}mo{dot}gov and we will direct you to our online version of the survey.

As you can see with my Capitol Report, if you have been getting it for while, we are doing our best to make it as user friendly and informative as possible. We are working on additional functions that will allow you to look at all my past reports as well as all of my press releases and other information I put out from my office. If you have ideas on things you would like to know or ideas to make it better, I would be happy to hear them and see what we can do.

Have a great weekend and a happy President's Day.

Myron

Visitors to the Capitol

Julie Halsey-Begnaud, a Liberty resident and Lee's Summit French teacher, with the Foreign Language Association of Missouri.

Carol Graham (middle left), with the Liberty Women's Clinic and a couple of her collegues from other cities, were here at the Capitol to discuss the services they offer our community.

In Jefferson City were several Liberty elected officials and staff: Mayor Greg Canuteson and Council member Jeff Moore. At the Capitol were Liberty City Council member Jeff Watt, Interim Police Chief James Simpson and Shawna Funderburk.

Theresa Hubbard (right) from Liberty who is a Marriage and Family Therapist.

With the MS Society was Gracemor residents David and Linda Eaton.

Vicki Vance from Historic Downtown Liberty stopped by with Mainstreet Missouri.

Floor Action

Not a lot of action on the House floor this week except for on Thursday. The House passed HB 71 to approve local control of the St. Louis Police Department. Currently St. Louis and Kansas City police departments are governed by a state board appointed by the Governor. This will now go to the Senate for review.

Committee Action

Elections

We passed out of committee two bills: HJR 14 and HB 329. The first is to put on the ballot a constitutional amendment to allow for photo ID when voting, and early voting. HB 329 would be legislation to put into effect the process and procedures of Photo ID and early voting. There was a lot of discussion and dissent on these bills.

Financial Institutions

We passed three consent bills out of committee this week: HB 109, HB 465 and HB 83. I explained these in last week's report so I will not explain here. (You can go to the text via the hyperlinks). For your information - consent bills require a unanimous vote from the committee and a unanimous vote in the House and Senate. Just one member eliminates the consent status, requiring the bill to be voted on normally.

Education

We heard testimony on HJR 10 and HB 393. HJR 10 would put on the ballot language to amend the Missouri Constitution to repeal the prohibition against state funds being used to support any religion or religious school and specifies that parents or guardians have the right to choose any school for their children. This is most commonly called "Open Enrollment". Note - This is a very controversial bill and will have much more discussion before it has a chance to get out of committee. Feelings run pretty high on this.

HB 393 is an interesting bill that would allow parents to petition for intervention in a bad school. If 51% of the parents vote to intervene, then there are three potential remedies: a restart to a charter school, school closure, or allow enrollment ins another school. Again, this is a very complicated bill and has issues, but a large part of this is to start the discussion on ensuring quality education for our kids in Missouri.

Community Calendar

Feb 19 - Let's "Wine" about winter
Feb 21 - President's Day - No School
Feb 22 - Liberty Board of Education Meeting
Feb 23 - Rapunzel at the Liberty Performing Arts Theatre
Feb 28 - Liberty City Council Meeting
Mar 7 - Jazz on the Square

Click here for a list of events in the area.

Chili Cook-Off for Liberty Fire Fighters

Last Saturday, I was invited to attend a Chili cookoff for the Liberty Fire Fighters. We have some outstanding cooks here in our district. I especially liked the buffalo chili. These events are a lot of fun and I'm glad I got to participate.

A big thank you goes out to the Liberty Landing Manufactured Home Community for putting it on and to all who came to support the event.

It is an honor and privilege to serve the people of the 34th District and the State of Missouri. Let me know how I can better represent you.

For a better Missouri,
Myron