Lawmakers begin filing bills for next legislative session

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- State lawmakers on Monday began submitting bills for the 2002 legislative session on topics ranging from collective bargaining to equal rights for women.

While many of the bills filed will never find their way to the chamber floors for debate, those that do often look significantly different.

Last year, lawmakers submitted more than 1,600 pieces of legislation and of those, 201 were signed into law by the governor.

Pre-filed legislation still must be formally introduced when the session begins Jan. 9. Then the leadership in the House and Senate assigns the bills to committees where testimony is heard and bills are often fine-tuned or combined with other legislation.

Then bills that survive the committee process are sent to the chambers where they originated and wait to be debated.

Submitting legislation early gives it a head start over others but also gives opponents more time to plan strategy for the session.

"Like anything else, it's much more important that you have good legislation than getting it filed early," said Sen. Ed Quick, D-Liberty. "Sure, these bills are going to be different in the end."

Some legislation is crafted after interim committee hearings while others still are nearly identical or similar to those that failed to get approval in previous years.

Many bills filed Monday dealt with state employees' ability to bargain collectively, after Gov. Bob Holden expanded those powers with an executive order in the summer.

Sen. John Russell filed three bills that deal with collective bargaining, the focus of a special committee headed by the Lebanon Republican.

Among Russell's proposals includes provisions that would allow state managers to exempt workers from union membership and preventing union dues from being deducted from workers' paychecks.

"In effect, some of these are designed to counteract the executive order," Russell said Monday. "It will be difficult for these bills to pass."

Another area expected to get a lot of attention is funding for new sports arenas.

Sen. Harry Wiggins, D-Kansas City, filed legislation that would provide up to $7 million each for improving Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium. Funding would not be available for five years.

Meanwhile, female Democratic House members Monday announced as priorities legislation they filed dealing with women's issues.

One issue familiar to lawmakers is found in a bill sponsored by Rep. Deleta Williams, D-Warrensburg, that seeks to have Missouri ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.