Property rights, Medicaid, sex offenders laws figure into plans

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- More protections for property owners. Tougher penalties for child sex offenders. The restoration of regular Medicaid coverage for the working disabled.

Those are some the most likely results of the 2006 legislative session that begins today -- a session lacking some of the luster of last year's yet perhaps posing just as much of a challenge for the Republican-led legislature and GOP Gov. Matt Blunt.

Their challenge will be to maintain legislative unity in an election year, after having enacted the main prongs of the Republican's long pent-up agenda during the 2005 session.

The first Republican legislative and gubernatorial team in more than 80 years enacted various pro-business policies, rewrote the state's school funding method and cut or reduced Medicaid benefits for hundreds of thousands of Missourians last year in an effort to rein in what they described as excessive state spending.

House Speaker Rod Jetton is lowering expectations for 2006, when Republicans will open the session with a 96-64 majority in the House and a 22-11 advantage in the Senate. Special elections will fill three vacant House seats and an empty Senate seat before the session ends May 12.

"I just think it will be a little less productive," said Jetton, R-Marble Hill. "I don't think there'll be as much substantive bills passed."

Last year, lawmakers had two key bills on the Blunt's desk before their annual spring break: imposing new restrictions on liability lawsuits and workers' compensation claims. This year, Jetton predicts a slower pace with more conflict among Republicans in the House and Senate and governor's office, and among Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

One item likely to pass with little dissension is a tougher sentencing law for child sex offenders. It's on the priority list for Blunt, Jetton and Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons, R-Kirkwood.

The proposal would mandate a minimum 25-year prison sentence for certain sex offenses committed against children. It is modeled after Florida's Jessica Lunsford Act -- named for a 9-year-old girl who investigators said was kidnapped and murdered by a registered sex offender last year.

Another common topic on the priority lists is legislation granting more protections to people and businesses whose land is threatened to be taken by governmental entities or private developers through the use of eminent domain.

A June 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision in a Connecticut case upheld the legality of using eminent domain to take property from one private owner and transfer it to another private developer who would generate more tax revenues.

The ruling has prompted action in Congress and numerous states. In Missouri, a Blunt-created task force has recommended tougher standards for taking people's property with eminent domain. But legislators will have to work out one of the most critical details: the definition of what constitutes a "blighted" property subject to taking through eminent domain for the purposes of redevelopment.

The issue does not necessarily divide along partisan lines. It pits private property rights against economic development -- two topics lawmakers of both parties generally want to support.

In contrast, last year's Medicaid cuts proved a highly partisan issue -- denounced by Democrats and backed by Republicans. This year, some Republican reluctance to the cuts is likely to come forward, as lawmakers consider whether to restart a slimmed down version of a repealed program that provided Medicaid coverage to the working disabled.

Meanwhile, lawmakers will start considering some broader, longer-term changes to the Medicaid program that were recommended by a special joint House and Senate committee.

Blunt and House Democrats both have announced their support for requiring a 10 percent ethanol blend to be included in all gasoline sold in Missouri, a requirement already in place in only a few states. The move is backed by the agricultural community, especially by corn growers whose market for their products would automatically expand.

Legislative leaders and Blunt also have pledged their support for a $6.1 million increase in government aid for low-income Missourians struggling to pay high heating bills. The appropriation is likely to be passed quickly, so it can have an effect this winter.

A more protracted debate could occur over whether pharmacists should be able to refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception. That issue could get wrapped up in the Legislature's annual efforts to pass further restrictions on abortions.