Kinder guest speaker at Friday coffee

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Kinder also touched on issues he's been talking about since his election last November, including state revenue.

"The state's revenue won't be growing as the same rate as last year," said Kinder, a Republican. "That's the bad news. The good news is it will be growing."

Revenue is expected to increase by 2.2 percent, he said, a significant decrease from the 8.1 percent growth rate last year.

Kinder said that the legislature will be dealing with tort reform, such as medical malpractice costs and so-called "loose venue." New legislation would make litigants have to file lawsuits in the counties where the incident took place, rather than changing venue to more sympathetic jurisdictions, like St. Louis, he said.