Mo. lawmakers vote to repeal village law

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Breaking a legislative logjam, Missouri lawmakers voted Friday to repeal a 2007 land-use law that has angered some residents in rural Missouri.

Political jockeying over the repeal of the village law had tied up other top issues -- including restrictions on illegal immigrants and restraints on property tax hikes -- as the 2008 legislative session ticked toward its mandatory 6 p.m. Friday adjournment.

Senators at 4 a.m., nearly 17 hours after their workday began, voted without dissent to pass the legislation under the 2007 law -- but only on the condition that the repeal cannot immediately take effect.

Just hours later, it was the second bill considered by the House on the session's final day. The House voted 131-7 Friday to send it to Gov. Matt Blunt.

At issue is a law that had been quietly passed last year with the support of House Speaker Rod Jetton. That measure made it easier for landowners to incorporate their properties as villages -- thus avoiding county planning and zoning regulations.

Immediately after the law took effect, representatives of a southwest Missouri developer who supports Jetton sought to turn property near Table Rock Lake into a village against the wishes of county officials and some neighbors. Since then, other landowners have made similar attempts to become villages in other parts of the state.

A majority of lawmakers -- some feeling duped by last year's bill -- have supported a repeal of the 2007 law. But Jetton has fought it.

On Wednesday, Jetton successfully urged House members to attach new restrictions on sexually oriented businesses to the village-law repeal. On Thursday, Democratic Sens. Victor Callahan, of Independence, and Chris Koster, of Harrisonville, aided Jetton's cause by filibustering the combined bill.

That led supporters to regroup, remove the provisions about sexually oriented businesses, and present a revised bill focused solely on the village-law repeal.

But Callahan and Koster resumed their filibuster. As Thursday turned into Friday, other Jetton allies -- first Sen. Luann Ridgeway, R-Smithville, and then Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau -- delayed a vote on the bill.

Meanwhile, Republican Senate leaders negotiated behind closed doors with Jetton, R-Marble Hill. Ultimately, Jetton agreed to tell his supporters to stand down in exchange for the defeat of a provision that would have made the village-law repeal effective immediately upon Blunt's signature.

Instead, the village-law repeal would take effect at the same time as most other bills, Aug. 28.

Sponsoring Sen. Jack Goodman, R-Mount Vernon, said the compromise was better than the alternative of a continued filibuster that could have resulted in the bill's demise.

Jetton has defended the relaxed village standards as a means of ensuring property rights for rural landowners.

Crowell accused opponents of the law of putting on a "parade of horribles" and argued that nothing truly negative has resulted from it.

"Sometimes what we believe, and sometimes the fears we have, don't actually materialize," Crowell said.

Goodman countered that by repealing the relaxed standards for creating villages, lawmakers actually were respecting local residents who had voted for their counties to establish planning and zoning regulations.

"Letting one landowner within that county thwart the will of the most vocal majority is not local control, that's anarchy," Goodman said.

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Village law bill is SB765.

On the Net:

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