Two big things this week: the state budget and Congressional Redistricting. The budget is the one and only thing that the Legislature is Constitutionally required to do while in session- Congressional redistricting is the responsibility of the General Assembly and is especially important this time around due to Missouri losing a Congressional seat. See my notes below regarding each of these very important issues.
Have a great weekend.
Budget Week
The big item of the week was the budget! The budget includes 13 appropriation bills that are vetted in committee and then fully discussed and passed by the entire House of Representatives. This year, we quickly approved all 13 appropriation bills that make up the state's 2012 fiscal operating budget. House members began discussion on the $23.2 billion budget Monday evening and approved the appropriation bills Wednesday afternoon.
The budget approved by House members preserves basic aid for public schools at current funding levels, appropriating more than $3 billion for the school Foundation Formula. The budget also contains a governor-recommended cut to public colleges and universities. In addition, the budget contains a 5 percent cut to the budgets of all elected statewide officials.
Several amendments modified the budget on the floor before its final passage. The amendment process for appropriation bills is quite different from the normal amendment process. First, an amendment must be offered to decrease some line item in the budget. Then a second amendment is offered to increase a different line item in the budget by the same amount. You can think of it as a procedural transfer of funds where you have to take money out of one place before you can add it into a different place. The concept of increasing and decreasing amendments is quite confusing and requires the legislators to pay close attention to where the money is going and where it came from. For example, one of the amendments we adopted Tuesday cut the governor's travel budget by $500,000 and reallocated the funds for dropout prevention in St. Louis. Another amendment achieved approximately $1 million in savings by cutting the salaries of all state agency officials who are paid in excess of $86,500. Money from this amendment was not reallocated to a different section; it was simply stricken from the budget.
The budget debate is timed and the time is allotted by the majority Budget Chairman and by the ranking minority member of the Budget Committee. The House Rules allow 12 hours of debate, if needed. This year, we flew through the process, not needing anywhere near the maximum 12 hours. I credit a lot of this to our budget Chairman, Ryan Silvey, who has worked tirelessly since November on the budget.
From here, the budget goes to the Senate. I am hopeful that they will take the work we have done and move it through to an efficient final approval.
Redistricting
The job of redistricting comes around every 10 years after the results of the nationwide census. This year, the job of drafting a redistricting map was given to the Senate but they declined the offer and gave the job to the House Special Committee on Redistricting. Under the leadership of State Rep. John Diehl and his Redistricting Committee, a map was proposed this week to make the required changes to Missouri's Congressional map. The redrawing of congressional lines is always a big deal, however, additional complications arose this year as Missouri lost a Congressional seat, going from 9 to 8. Although Missouri gained in population, the rate of growth was slower than some other states, causing the decrease in representation at the national level. You can see a copy of the proposed map and the current map here.
The new map would split the 34th District between two Congressmen. Liberty would remain in the 6th Congressional District, a seat currently held by Sam Graves. The Southern/Kansas City area of the District would move to the 5th Congressional District, a seat currently held by Emmanuel Cleaver. The biggest change occurs on the Eastern side of the state in the St. Louis area, where one Congressional seat is removed and split between 4 other districts.
We plan to vote on the map in the House next week. From there, it will go to the Senate. If the Senate approves the map promptly and the General Assembly sends it to the Governor by April 18, then he would be forced to sign or veto before we are out of session. If the Governor decides to veto the map and a supermajority cannot override his veto, the map will be determined by the courts. If the decision is given to the courts, I believe the map will be very convoluted and will involve gerrymandering to its greatest effect. I hope we can take care of it without getting the courts involved.
Floor/Committee Action
We tackled very few issues of substance aside from the budget on the House Floor this week. Most legislation we discussed were minor consent bills that will have little effect. I commented on one of those bills that simply eliminated a few unnecessary lines of statute. Legislation that removes useless language is my favorite. I was happy to make a vote that decreased the already cumbersome 20 volumes of Missouri statute. You can peruse the house journal by following this link if you want to see exactly what bills were passed this week.
Committee action mirrored the House Floor this week as the majority of members' efforts were spent working on the budget. As the number of house bills that we need to hear in committee wind down, this week provided a brief lull in committee action before we fire the engines back up to work through legislation passed by the Senate.
Community Calendar
Tonight!!! - Around the World - Spain and Portugal
Apr 4 - Jazz on the Square
Apr 14 - 4th Annual A Downtown Affair: Walk the Red Carpet
See the Community Events section to the left for more events in our area!
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