Torpey: Two New Bills Filed, Word Of The Week

A Special Note

We hit the ground running this week to make up lost time from Legislative Spring Break. I filed two new bills this week. First, HB 906 will prohibit any person operating a school bus who is transporting children at the time from using a hand-held electronic wireless communications device. Secondly, HB 932 will exempt any vehicle not registered in this state from the requirements regarding vision-reducing material or window tinting applied to a motor vehicle's windshield or window.

For a list of legislation I have sponsored this session, visit my member page on the House website.

2011 Legislative Session continues

This week we passed our version of the state budget. Coming in at over $23 billion dollars it's quite obvious our budget will have a huge impact for the state of Missouri. While everyone will not be happy and we couldn't do everything some would have liked, it was a budget that does the most we can while still protecting our taxpayers.

At a time when our state and the nation are struggling economically, making ends meet can be difficult. However we were still able to provide key services despite rolling back funding across the board. Most importantly, I believe we were able to accomplish this without any tax increases! In fact, we actually set aside $49 million just to ensure our state would have a positive balance at the end of the next fiscal year.

The biggest highlight of the budget for the next fiscal year is the fact that we were able to keep funding for the education foundation formula whole. This ensures that despite a tough economic environment we are able to make investments in our future. Other highlights include combining several programs together and setting aside $40 million for job retraining, retention, and development. This is an important part of helping a struggling workforce emerge from this recession. In addition, we scratched together roughly $12 million dollars for Preparing to Care. This program works through higher education institutions and trains young people in the growing field of healthcare services, which often offer good paying jobs.

For more information on the Missouri House of Representative's version of the state budget, please contact our office our visit the House website and search HB 1-15.

Committees

Fiscal Review met today to discuss one bill that had been referred to committee. HB 475, sponsored by Rep. Doug Funderburk, will change the laws regarding health care quality data standardization and transparency and establishes criteria for programs of insurers to compare the quality and cost efficiency of health care providers. This bill passed out of committee unanimously.

For more information on this bill, or any that have been filed in the Missouri House of Representatives, please visit the House Bill information page by clicking here.

Word of the Week

Fiscal Note: A fiscal note estimates the costs, savings, revenue gain, or loss resulting from the implementation of proposed legislation. This can greatly influence if a bill is passed, failed, or amended. Legislators will often request an informal fiscal note on a piece of legislation that they have not yet filed to determine if they should file the bill, or if it should be revised.

In the committee of Fiscal Review, we hear the fiscal notes of pending legislation if the legislation requires net additional expenditures of state money in excess of $100,000 or which reduces net state revenue by more than $100,000 in any of the three fiscal years immediately following the effective date of the bill. Any such House bill, after having been perfected and ordered printed by the House, shall be referred to the Committee on Fiscal Review for its consideration prior to the bill's submission to the House for third reading and final passage.

In Other News

Last Thursday, Senator Kraus and I held a legislative forum for our constituents of the 52nd House District and the 8th Senatorial District. I was pleased to see about 40 constituents attend; if you were unable to attend please contact me with your questions or concerns.

Yesterday was the last day to RSVP for the first annual 52nd District Day. I look forward to hosting 70+ constituents here in the Missouri House of Representatives!