Missouri legislative session ends with ethics bill, not business bill

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri lawmakers approved new political ethics rules Friday but adjourned for the year after failing to forge a deal on a jobs bill backed by the governor.

Passage of legislation enhancing the state's campaign finance and ethics laws allowed lawmakers to check off one of their top goals for the 2010 session, though it wasn't as sweeping of an accomplishment as some had sought.

Big ideas about economic development and tax credit reform fizzled in the end, as did some of the moneysaving bills that had been counted on to prop up Missouri's budget.

Legislative leaders cited plenty of other accomplishments for 2010 -- an autism insurance mandate, revamped drunken driving laws, new restrictions on abortion clinics and sexually oriented businesses and a funding change for Missouri's main college scholarship program.

"I think we ended up having a very successful legislative session," said Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph.

Gov. Jay Nixon summed the session up with two words: "solid progress."

Nixon negotiated with lawmakers until the waning moments of the session on a bill that would have authorized new tax incentives for manufacturers that improve their factories in Missouri. Although the bill could have applied to other companies, the chief target was the Ford Motor Co. assembly plant near Kansas City.

Republican senators who balked at the creation of new tax incentives agreed to go along with the plan on two conditions: House passage of a bill revamping Missouri's pension system and Nixon creating a task force to recommend restrictions on Missouri's vast system of tax credits.

But the House never brought up the pension bill for a vote, and both bills ultimately failed.

The demise of the pension legislation likely will mean more spending cuts to state government, because lawmakers had relied on its savings just weeks earlier when adopting a budget for the 2011 fiscal year.

Numerous other bills did make it to Nixon's desk on the final day. Among them was a bill expanding the information that medical clinics would be required to provide to a woman at least 24 hours before she had an abortion. Nixon has not said whether he plans to sign the bill.

The ethics legislation passed Friday would beef up the investigatory powers of the Missouri Ethics Commission and cut down on the ability of donors to shroud contributions by shifting money among various political committees. But it does not reinstate campaign contribution limits and does not close the revolving door between legislating and lobbying.

"We have taken some very good steps," said Rep. Kevin Wilson, R-Neosho, chairman of a House ethics committee.

Rep. Tim Flook, R-Liberty, said the session was characterized by an odd mix of aggression and complacency.

"Some seniors are really frantic, and some have really gotten senioritis -- [adopting an attitude of] 'I'm just going to make my votes here and accept that I can't get things passed,'" Flook said.

Sen. Delbert Scott, R-Lowry City, acknowledges that he fell more into that latter category than the former. Because of his new private-sector job which began in December, Scott said he filed fewer bills than ever before.

As it was, senators and representatives repeatedly mocked each other in their final days.

House Democrats and Republicans found common ground by chastising Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, for leaving a legacy by insisting upon a requirement that each lawmaker be supplied his or her own key to the Capitol dome. Crowell said on the session's final day that he had inserted the mandate -- twice previously vetoed by governors -- into 13 bills this year, a fair portion of which passed.

Senators, meanwhile, poked fun at House Speaker Pro Tem Bryan Pratt, R-Blue Springs, who had declared an ethics bill passed by the House to be the "most comprehensive and sweeping ethics reform bill in the universe."

Senators sarcastically countered with their own cosmic analogies -- noting they would settle for the best bill in the galaxy, then proclaiming they had rescued the ethics bill from a black hole as they prepared to pass the final version.

Nixon opened his post-session news conference by quipping: "I really expect this will be the best press conference in the universe."