Missouri lawmakers end session with flurry of activity

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri lawmakers targeted illegal immigrants and Internet harassers, curbed property tax spikes and potentially padded their campaign accounts Friday as they capped a slow session with a flurry of final-day activity.

In the last hour of the 2008 legislative session, House members voted to repeal Missouri's campaign contribution limits while senators gave final approval to a bill making online harassment illegal.

The harassment bill was a response to a suicide of a St. Charles County teen that has gained national attention. The money-limit repeal was a response to a Missouri Supreme Court decision striking down a prior attempt to allow unlimited donations.

Earlier Friday, lawmakers gave final approval to two of the measures that had been highlighted priorities by Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike, as well as Gov. Matt Blunt and some of the gubernatorial candidates hoping to succeed him.

One of those would deny public benefits to people who can't prove they are in the country legally and would penalize businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

The other is intended to ensure that local governments reduce their property tax rates when assessed property values rise by more than the rate of inflation.

Had either the illegal immigration or property tax legislation failed, Blunt had threatened to call lawmakers back for a special session.

The 2008 session adjourned at 6 p.m. Friday with House members following tradition by tossing their stacks of suddenly useless bills and amendments into the air. This year, someone also managed to lodge a green paper airplane between the chamber's clock and the wall.

Blunt and Republican legislative leaders praised the session as a success while minority Democrats dismissed it as a do-nothing year.

"We definitely exceeded the predictions of critics who said we would not be able to pass anything in an election year, and we proved them wrong by having a very solid legislative session," Blunt said at a post-session news conference where he was flanked by three dozen Republican legislators.

Blunt outlined his agenda of expanded health care, increased education funding, property tax limits and illegal immigration restrictions in his State of the State address Jan. 15. Then, a week later he stunned supporters and foes alike by announcing he would not seek re-election this year.

His sudden lame-duck status changed the dynamics of the legislative session.

He had less sway to press for his priorities. The best example: Blunt's Insure Missouri plan to expand government-subsidized health insurance to the working poor quickly fell flat in the House. Ultimately, it was left out of the state's $22.4 billion budget for next year.

House Minority Leader Paul LeVota, D-Independence, bemoaned the fact that lawmakers failed to extend health care to the uninsured and laid part of the blame on Blunt.

"It's one thing to say, 'I'm not going to run anymore.' But not providing the leadership that was needed made it a do-nothing legislature," LeVota said.

Several other prominent bills also went down to defeat. Among those: a proposal making it illegal to coerce women into abortions and a proposed constitutional amendment allowing a requirement for a government-issued photo identification for voting. Neither measure made it to the Senate floor for debate, although they passed the House.

Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons said lawmakers had concerns about the legality of the abortion-coercion legislation. The voter ID measure gained steam after a late-April U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a similar Indiana law, but Gibbons said it was too contentious to work out in such a short time.

Lawmakers also repealed a contentious 2007 land-use law that law allowed landowners to more easily seek to incorporate as villages, thus bypassing county planning or zoning rules. After a filibuster in the Senate, around 4 a.m. Friday, senators finally passed the village-law repeal -- contingent on a deal with House Speaker Rod Jetton that it would not take effect until Aug. 28. The House passed the bill and sent it to the governor a few hours later.