Judge strikes down law passed after legislature's quitting time

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Cole County judge struck down a wide-ranging state law affecting ambulance districts, retired firefighters and flood plain development Monday, ruling that the 2002 legislature passed the bill after a constitutional deadline to adjourn.

The ruling means the city of St. Charles could use tax incentives to help develop the flood plain along the Missouri River, if it so chooses. But the biggest impact may be in the way the legislature handles bills on the final, hectic day of its annual session, which the Missouri Constitution mandates must end at 6 p.m.

Legislators in years past often have treated the quitting time like a snooze button on an alarm clock -- extending the session just a little bit longer to finish work on a bill.

Yet attorneys for both the state and the plaintiff, the city of St. Charles, said this appears to be the first instance in which a law has been challenged based on the time it was passed.

Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan ruled there was "clear and convincing evidence" -- including a live television report from the chamber -- that the House passed this particular legislation after 6 p.m. on May 17, 2002.

"In an earlier time, it might have been true that time, like beauty, was in the eye of the beholder," Callahan wrote. "Unfortunately, in these modern times, there are more objective indicia of real time, and deference cannot be rationalized to justify blindness, lest the pact with the people be broken."

The judge struck down the entire law based on its late passage.

He also invalidated the specific provision banning new tax-increment-financing projects in the St. Charles County flood plain, ruling it violated a constitutional limit on bills containing more than one subject.

Sen. Doyle Childers, who sponsored the legislation, said the only practical effect of the ruling will be on the St. Charles flood plain, because the firefighter and ambulance provisions were re-enacted through a separate bill last year while the court challenge was pending.

But Childers, a 22-year legislative veteran, wasn't too pleased that Callahan took issue with the Legislature's time-keeping practices.

"I think it's maybe an intrusion of the judiciary into the legislative arena," said Childers, R-Reeds Spring. "I would like for us to pass the next judicial pay raise bill at about five minutes after 6 p.m., and then refer it to Callahan."

As initially passed by the Senate, Childers' bill dealt primarily with ambulance services. It was amended by a House committee to include provisions on firefighter retirement benefits. Then, on the next to last day of the 2002 session, the bill was amended by the full House to include the St. Charles County flood plain language.

Because the chambers had passed different versions, the legislation went to a joint House and Senate conference committee, which kept intact the provision on the St. Charles flood plain. The final version of the bill passed the Senate before 6 p.m., but then had to go back to the House for final approval.

Childers said the flood plain language was inserted as a "last-minute deal" common of the Legislature's final week, and didn't matter to him.

The city of St. Charles sued because "the city saw that as an impediment to growth in what basically is an industrial-commercial area," said Bob Hoeynck, an attorney for St. Charles.

Attorney General Jay Nixon's office, which defended the law, has not decided whether to appeal, said spokesman Scott Holste.