Cape lawmakers say legislature kept promises to state businesses

Saying that they adhered to a theme of "promises made, promises kept," state lawmakers Jason Crowell and Nathan Cooper said Friday that legislation that was recently passed will make the state more business friendly and help create jobs.

"We wanted to improve Missouri's entrepreneurial climate," Sen. Jason Crowell of Cape Girardeau said at the chamber of commerce-sponsored First Friday Coffee. "It was a concerted effort with a tone set by Gov. Matt Blunt."

Crowell lauded the legislature's overhaul of workers' compensation. Among other things, the new law requires that lawsuits be filed in the counties where the injury occurred.

The law also scales back shared liability. The previous law held wealthier defendants, even those only slightly at fault, responsible for paying the majority of damages that can't be paid by a less-wealthy co-defendant. The new law requires shared liability only for defendants found to be at least 51 percent at fault and only for actual, not punitive, damages.

Tort reform also affects medical malpractice lawsuits by setting a $350,000 cap on non-economic damages.

But Crowell said the most controversial issue the legislature dealt with was Medicaid reform, which he said was a dramatic shift in philosophy of government and the role of government. More than 90,000 of the state's 1 million Medicaid recipients are soon to be eliminated from the program.

Crowell said that too many residents are on Medicaid.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Nathan Cooper of Cape Girardeau also addressed the group.

Cooper said lawmakers didn't take Medicaid changes lightly.

"We just knew what we had to do," Cooper said. "We were seeing increases of 18 percent a year while the national average was 2 percent. We were the second-most generous state."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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