LEGISLATIVE REPORT: MANY BILLS BEFORE LEGISLATORS

Legislators returned to work in the capitol after a one-week spring break to find 131 House bills listed on the calendar awaiting action by the House. Committees are still meeting every day and continuing to hear and pass bills which may also be sent to the full House for debate and a vote. The long days included an evening session and others may follow.

The House gave final approval to several bills this week which will now be considered by the Senate. Among those bills was House Bill 1412 which would turn the troubled state employees' health insurance plan into basically three separate insurance plans administered by the state.

One pool would be a state plan to insure small employers and farmers, the other a state plan to insure interested local governments.

House Bill 1167 requires state prison inmates to be placed in administrative segregation if they commit a serious assault against an officer.

House Bill 1197 creates the Family Development Account Program to allow lower income families to establish special tax-exempt savings accounts.

People who qualify will be allowed to deposit up to $2,000 per year to be used for specified purposes such as college expenses, job training, major repairs or to purchase a home or a vehicle or start a small business.

Certain community based charitable organizations will also be able to contribute money to these accounts for individuals.

House Bill 1095 makes several changes to the "Sunshine Law" or Open Meetings law which regulates how governmental bodies are to hold meetings, take votes, disclose votes and provide for public involvement in those activities.

The House also gave first-round approval to several other bills this week including House Bill 1694 which creates the "Advantage Missouri Program." This program will provide forgiveness of student college loans if the student agrees to stay in Missouri after graduation and work in an occupation which the state identifies as having a shortage of workers.

House Bill 1526 makes changes to the pawnbrokers' law. Under this bill, if someone steals property from you and pawns it you could go to small claims court against the pawn broker to recover your property. If the pawn broker has sold the stolen item, you could recover the money from the pawn broker in a small claims court. The pawn broker is authorized to file a claim against the person who pawned the items.

There are still dozens of bills on the House calendar awaiting action. Ironically, there are only a couple of minor tax credit bills, which are very limited in scope, scheduled for consideration.

Although House Bill 1546, the bill to provide property tax relief, was voted DO PASS by the Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 11, 1998, it is still not scheduled for consideration by the full house.

With only seven weeks left in this session, it is beginning to look as though the speaker of the house and the governor have forgotten this important bill and another year might pass without taxpayers receiving any significant and meaningful tax relief and the state will continue to illegally collect far too much tax money under the Hancock limit.

It is possible debate could include the efforts to ban partial birth abortion in Missouri, next week. If you have any thoughts or concerns regarding legislation this session, please feel free to contact me.

David Schwab represents the 157th district