Dempsey: Missouri Senate Passes Redistricting Map

This week, the Missouri Senate took up and passed a bill that would draw new lines for Missouri’s eight Congressional districts. This is a job that falls to the Legislature every 10 years, after the census is completed.

When this year’s numbers came in, we realized that Missouri would lose one of its nine Congressional seats. Although our actual population grew by seven percent over the last decade, it grew at a slower rate than some of our sister states. This means that proportionally, a smaller overall percentage of the nation’s population lives within our borders.

Losing a seat in Congress required the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting to draw new maps. In the end, they presented — and the Senate passed — a map that managed to make the best of this unfortunate situation. No map drafted would ever be able to satisfy everyone, but the Senate map achieved a reasonable balance. For instance, in St. Charles County, it managed to keep the majority of the county together with only a portion of the county being placed in an adjoining district. This preserved the important goal of keeping the county’s influence from being overly diluted by splitting it nearly half and half between two districts.

Also this week, Missouri senators reached a breakthrough that allowed a long-delayed unemployment benefits bill (House Bill 163) to be taken up and passed. Under the compromise bill, this year’s federally-funded extended unemployment package was allowed to go into effect; but next year steps will be taken to reign in an unemployment system that is financially out-of-balance. Currently, the unemployment insurance program (funded by a tax on Missouri businesses) is in the red by nearly $900 million and growing. If we are ever to get back to a place where the fund is solvent, dramatic action is called for. To that end, the bill passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor reduced the number of weeks of state benefits that will be offered from 26 to 20. The federal government currently offers several months of benefits on top of that amount, bringing the total to around 73 weeks.

Next week, the Senate will take up the budget for debate. The Constitutional deadline for passing a budget is May 6, 2011. Now that we have received the budget from the Missouri House, we plan to promptly pass it and send it on to the governor for his signature.

I always appreciate hearing from you. If you have any questions about these issues or any legislation pending before the Missouri Senate, please do not hesitate to contact my office.