Lant: Job Creation Bills Passing House

This week really flew by. It was the busiest week we've had this session and I am told the next five weeks will be even busier. We started with a bang when HB 641 was brought up. This bill is designed to add any synthetic compound acting as a cannabinoid to the list of controlled substances. This will solve the problem of synthetic drug manufacturers changing one or two ingredients and putting previously banned substances right back on the convenience store shelves. We also passed HB 28 which prohibits a non-physician from prescribing an abortion-inducing drug and specifies that a pharmacy cannot be required to be connected with the drug. It was successfully argued that no business owner should be told what items they must order and offer for resale. I encourage parents to educate their children about dangerous and illegal drug use and to be active in their communities to stop the cycle of drug abuse and dependency. That will ultimately be the answer to this decades old problem.

We continued to work this week on measures to jump start our economy. The highlight in my mind was the Aerotropolis Trade Incentive and Tax Credit Act. That is a huge name for a huge project. This act [HB840] proposes to encourage foreign trade in Missouri by creating a trade hub at Lambert Airport in St. Louis. Our proposal would provide an incentive to freight haulers to use the airport in international trade. In discussions about the bill, it was brought out that we have an excellent geographical location in the center of the country and a transportation capability unequalled anywhere else in the United States. There are many cargo flights per week that unload at St. Louis and return to their origins empty. Let's fill those cargo holds with Missouri goods and create jobs and much needed revenue. We also perfected another economic incentives bill to bring new high-tech companies to Missouri. HB 468, known as MOSIRA, or the Missouri Science and Innovation Reinvestment Act, offers incentives for science and technology corporations to locate in Missouri. This is a field that is rapidly growing and many jobs will be created, not just in these fields, but also in other support industries around the state.

We passed many consent bills dealing with a variety of issues. A consent bill is one which has no opposition in committee and very little opposition on the House floor. Examples are: naming highways for heroes, personalized license plates, changing burdensome rules, and allowing the entire month to replace license tags. We passed 52 of these in one afternoon session.

Finally, we passed the bill [HB193] dealing with the re-districting map. Although our state has grown by 7% since the last census, we needed 15,000 more names in order to keep our 9 Congressional Districts. That is less than 100 people per legislative district. Now we realize why they kept saying how important it was to fill out the census! One District had to be eliminated from Missouri and the place where the largest population shift occurred in St. Louis. Our re-districting committee had the daunting task of dividing our state into 8 equal districts. They were only allowed a very small difference in population in each of the 8 new districts. After much work, a map was offered that I think is as fair as possible. We passed it on to the Senate for their approval and are holding our breath that they too will accept it.

Next week promises to be as fun filled as this has been, so until then I am and remain in your service,
Bill Lant