Lawmakers fail to override veto of Mo. student curator bill

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri lawmakers failed Wednesday to override Gov. Matt Blunt's veto of a bill that could have given voting rights to the student member of the University of Missouri Board of Curators.

Sponsoring Sen. Chuck Graham mounted an effort to override Blunt's veto, but the Columbia Democrat picked up little support from Republicans.

His effort failed by a 16-17 vote. But it wasn't actually that close. A veto override needs 23 votes in the Senate.

The legislature convenes each year in September to consider whether to override gubernatorial vetoes -- something which takes a two-thirds majority in each chamber. The student curator bill was the most notable of Blunt's vetoes this year and the only one on which a lawmaker even made a motion for an override.

The legislation originally passed the Senate 31-2 and the House 100-47, despite opposition from the Board of Curators. Blunt vetoed the bill in July, calling it "riddled with problems."

After Wednesday's failed override effort, Blunt spokesman Rich Chrismer called the legislation a "controversial mandate on the University of Missouri that did not win the support of the higher education community."

The Board of Curators currently has nine voting members -- one from each of Missouri's congressional districts. A student serves as a 10th, nonvoting member.

Under the bill, the student member would have been given voting rights if Missouri loses a congressional district as a result of the 2010 census. Supporters had said the bill could have addressed a potential clash between the Missouri Constitution, which states there shall be nine curators, and state law, which prohibits more than one curator from each congressional district.

The student member would not have been allowed to vote on hiring and firing decisions, with the exception of the president of the four-campus system.

Blunt cited six concerns while vetoing the bill. He said it would have given students a "stakeholder" role on the board that others at the university do not have and it would have made the governing board of the University of Missouri inconsistent with other state schools.

Among other things, the Republican governor said it would have been extremely difficult to find someone whose full-time student status matched the two-year term on the board. He noted that student curators tend to turn over more than regular curators, who serve six-year terms.

Graham said Wednesday that students deserve a university vote in return for their tuition payments. He called it "condescending" for people to suggest a student isn't worthy of voting on the university's governing board.

"We allow 18 year-olds in this state, in this country, to vote," Graham said. "We trust these young people to fight and die for us in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Graham was a lone voice Wednesday. No one else spoke either for or against his motion to override Blunt's veto. Because the override attempt failed in the Senate, where the bill originally began, the House never got a chance to vote on the override.

Senate Majority Leader Charlie Shields said lawmakers didn't care that strongly about the issue.

"It just didn't rise to the level of overriding the governor," said Shields, R-St. Joseph. "They are few and far between, and they're on major issues."

The last time the Legislature successfully overrode a veto was in 2003, when the Republican-controlled House and Senate overrode three by Democratic Gov. Bob Holden related to guns and abortion.

Until 2003, Missouri lawmakers had overridden just three vetoes since the Civil War. And never in Missouri history had a Legislature overridden vetoes on more than one issue in a single year.

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Student curator bill is SB873.

On the Net:

Governor: http://www.gov.mo.gov

Legislature: http://www.moga.mo.gov

Curators: http://www.umsystem.edu/ums/curators