Veto Session

I would like to thank all my constituents who took the time to contact my office to express their opposition or support for the issues before the legislators during this Veto Session.

The Missouri House took no action regarding any of the nine House Bills that the Governor vetoed. It did, however, take action on Senate Bill 749.

Concerning the controversial SB 749, it was overridden --first by the Senate then by the House. I vote along with 108 Representatives and, more importantly, in agreement with an overwhelming majority of constituents who contacted me.

Stop and think: By voting for the override, two-thirds of the House members thereby agreed with more than 71 percent of Missouri voters when they voted for the Health Care Freedom Act in 2010. The people of Missouri do not want freedom-destroying mandates handed down by the federal government. This senate bill was designed to protect the people of Missouri from a flawed and unwanted federal health care plan. It specifically addresses the portion of Obamacare that erodes the bedrock of religious freedom upon which this country was built.

Furthermore --and this is probably the second strongest point- we passed the bill during the regular session with a bipartisan, veto-proof majority. It is opposed only by a minority of the minority party and by our governor.

The federal government has no business inserting itself where it does not belong and trying to force our religious institutions to compromise the beliefs they hold sacred in order to provide coverage for services they find unconscionable.

Most Missourians anticipated a veto overide of HB 1329. This bill was somewhat complex and was initiated as a result of those Missouri counties without a use tax. Cape Girardeau County is one such county who suffers an estimated loss of $250,000 annually because it cannot legally collect taxes from a county resident who purchases a vehicle out of state. So to a limited degree this bill was a legislative response to that issue. Some were under the impression that this bill represented a new tax for all Missourians- not true. Some were also under the impression that because the bill provided for retroactive taxing that some 122,000 citizens would find a huge tax invoice in their mailboxes. Not likely since it may not even be legal to tax retroactively. This bill will most likely be re-filed in some form during the 2013 Session.