Kraus: The Last Week

Completing the 2011 Session

Last week, the state budget consumed most of our time and energy. During a week of frantic activity, we passed the budget a day ahead of its constitutionally mandated deadline of May 6.

The last day of the 2011 session is Friday, May 13. The last week of session always generates another flurry of activity as legislators make a final push to get their legislation passed.

If not already passed in at least one chamber, the majority of legislation has little chance of making it through both chambers at this point. In addition, many bills have not yet made it out of committee. Therefore, legislators are watching closely to see if they can add their legislation as an amendment to a bill currently under consideration in the Senate or the House.

Senate Joint Resolution 2, passed on Tuesday, addressed one major issue left for lawmakers to approve during the last week of session. It allows enabling legislation for advance voting and photo ID for voting. This constitutional amendment, if approved by voters, would require a person to show a valid, government-issued photo ID to vote. The joint resolution would also allow early voting eleven days in advance of the election date. Final passage means that this issue goes directly to the voters. Earlier this week, we also passed enabling legislation that lists photo ID requirements, if SJR 2 is approved by voters. I am glad that we passed these measures that will allow Missouri voters to protect the voting process.

With less than two days left, several major legislative issues have yet to be settled. These are measures that would:

• Extend the sunset to fund the MoRx Program, which provides funds to low-income seniors to help purchase prescription medicine not covered by Medicare. While funds have been designated for this program, the sunset needs to be extended to use the funds.
  
• Establish a fix to the Second Injury Fund, which is going broke. If neither this fund nor MoRx are fixed in the regular session, there is a possibility that Gov. Nixon would call a special session in order to deal with these two issues.
  
• Spur economic development and address various tax credits. The combined House Bills 116 and 316, passed out of the Senate last week, remain in the House, where they have run into some opposition from House leadership. There has been some movement toward a compromise in the last day and I hope to see these measures passed this session.
  
• Change the date on which Missouri holds its presidential primary. Senate Bill 282 would change the primary election from the first Tuesday after the first Monday in February to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March. This measure would allow Missouri’s delegates to be seated by both major parties at their conventions.
  

There’s still a full day of session left, and a lot can be accomplished before 6:00 p.m. on Friday. I look forward to that final day of activity.

Changes to Highway 50

Recently, several crossover vehicle collisions have occurred on US-50. The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has a number of changes planned for US-50 Highway within Lee's Summit to improve safety, some of which have already been implemented.

Improvements include:

• Reduction of speed limits from 65 mph to 60 mph on Route 50 from Todd George Road to the Interstate 470 interchange.
  
• Designation of a stretch of the route from Route 291 north to the north side of the I-470 interchange as a Travel Safe Zone. The designation allows for increased enforcement to curb aggressive, distracted and careless driving, including speeding, failure to signal lane changes, following too close and failure to yield. Fines in the area are also doubled.
  
• Installation of guard cables along this same section to minimize the danger of crossover crashes.
  

All projects are expected to be complete by the end of May. These improvements are paid for with MoDOT dollars.

Welcome Visitors

Three schools from District 8 came to the Capitol this week to learn about state government - Lee’s Summit, Summit Pointe, and Woodland Elementary schools, all from Lee’s Summit. I was happy to be able to talk with some of their students.