Gov. Blunt sees half his agenda realized

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- When Gov. Matt Blunt laid out his legislative agenda earlier this year, he optimistically titled it "Moving Missouri Forward."

Blunt's agenda moved -- but not as much has he would have liked, and not always in the direction he had envisioned.

The Republican governor's agenda included five main items:

* A requirement that public school districts spend at least 65 percent of their money on items related to classroom instruction.

* Tougher penalties for offenders who commit sex crimes against children.

* A three-pronged proposal for "meaningful pro-life legislation," including new restrictions on who can teach sex education in public schools, protection for pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions on moral grounds, and state tax credits for contributors to pregnancy centers that discourage abortions.

* New restrictions on the use of eminent domain to take private property for redevelopment.

* A mandate that Missouri gasoline contain a 10 percent ethanol blend.

Not long after his State of the State speech in January, Blunt added a sixth priority to his agenda: Enactment of a $450 million spending plan for the proceeds of a proposed asset sale by the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority. Blunt sought to turn the student loan profits into cash for university buildings and endowments for student scholarships, professors and a new fund that would help spin-off university research for commercial products.

When lawmakers concluded their annual session on Friday, about half of Blunt's agenda had passed and half failed. An average around .500 is outstanding for a baseball player. But it's a bit of a disappointment for a governor who had batted close to 1.000 in his rookie year, when the Republican-led Legislature passed nearly everything he proposed.

"Last year was very historic in nature," Blunt said near the end of this year's legislative session, "but you can't have the most successful legislative session every year."

The successful eminent domain and sex offender bills both were wide-ranging pieces of legislation that overcame opposition through compromises and ultimately passed with overwhelming support. Legislators said Blunt's staff played a role in helping guide those along.

Yet both issues also were helped by national inertia.

Legislators across the country are considering more restrictions on eminent domain after last year's unpopular U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the power to take property from one private owner and give it to another who can generate more tax revenues.

Similarly, other states also are considering tougher sex offender laws modeled after Florida's reaction to the abduction and murder of a girl last year. Authorities say she died at the hands of a registered sex offender.

No one person, including the governor, can claim too much credit for either the eminent domain or sex offender legislation, said David Webber, a political scientist at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

"Obviously, they were both reactive and pretty much keeping in line with what other states were doing," he said.

Blunt was out front in proposing Missouri mandate a 10 percent ethanol blend in its gasoline. He promoted the idea during his 2004 gubernatorial campaign, when he said only one other state had a similar requirement. Since then, the requirement has been enacted in a few more states and embraced in Missouri by rural Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

As is common, however, Blunt's ethanol proposal underwent a transformation in the Legislature. The starting date was delayed until 2008, and then only kicks in when the price of ethanol-blended fuel is below the price of traditional gasoline.

Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons made a point of those changes when listing the ethanol bill as success.

"We did not accept the mandate that was originally proposed by the governor," said Gibbons, R-Kirkwood, "but set it more as a standard."

Blunt's "pro-life" agenda nearly failed in its entirety, despite solid anti-abortion majorities in both chambers. But in the final hours of the final day, lawmakers passed the tax credits for contributors to nonprofit centers that discourage pregnant woman from getting abortions.

A bill barring abortion providers from participating in sex education courses passed the House but never made it to the Senate floor. Gibbons said it would have been too controversial and time-consuming too late in the session.

The pharmacy proposal -- intended to protect those who object to dispensing emergency contraception -- never received debate in either the House or Senate.

Neither did Blunt's 65 percent plan for classroom spending, which was rolled out well before the legislative session. By the time lawmakers convened in January, it had close to a 0 percent chance of passage -- due largely to opposition from school district leaders.

The governor poured perhaps his greatest effort into the $450 million spending plan for his proposed student loan sale. It was a proposal that even critics acknowledged was bold. But ultimately, it fell victim to disagreement among Blunt's fellow Republicans.

Unfortunately for Blunt, the failure of his MOHELA spending plan is probably the most memorable event of the 2006 legislative session, Webber said.

Blunt acknowledged its demise as his greatest disappointment.

Democrats suggested Republicans were intentionally distancing themselves from the governor.

"I think you see buyer's remorse on the part of Republicans in the Legislature who are regretting now in an election year that they rubber-stamped this governor's agenda" last year, said House Minority Leader Jeff Harris, D-Columbia.

But Blunt said his relationship with lawmakers remains fine, even if they didn't deliver on all of his desires.

"By and large," he said, "we were very successful with most of what I wanted to achieve this year."

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Capitol Correspondent David A. Lieb covers Missouri government and politics for The Associated Press.