Legislative session was orderly, productive

With Gov. Bob Holden jetting around Missouri and vowing to veto most of the budget for the next fiscal year, it's easy to forget what an exceptionally smooth and productive legislative session Missouri enjoyed this year.

That mostly had to do with the political makeup of both legislative chambers. For the first time since 1948, Republicans held majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Of course, the GOP leadership still faced plenty of challenges. Lawmakers entered the session facing a billion-dollar gap between revenue projections and spending requests. And there were 90 freshman in the House, thanks to term limits, who were mostly unproven as to their ability to navigate the complicated process called legislating.

Despite all that, the legislature approved a near-balanced budget without a major tax increase. Legislators finally managed to pass tort reform, limiting damage awards and preventing forum-shopping by trial attorneys. The concealed weapons bill heading to the governor allows law-abiding Missourians 23 years old and over to carry concealed weapons. And an abortion-reform measure, if signed by the governor, will require women seeking abortions to wait 24 hours between their initial visit and the procedure, valuable time to consider what they've learned about the procedure and decide whether it really is right for them.

The two measures Holden supports are those that take care of the state's oldest and youngest residents and undoubtedly got the most media exposure. A nursing home-reform measure increases fines for homes cited for substandard care. And a foster care-reform measure is expected to improve the conditions for children who must be removed from their parents and placed elsewhere.

Both of those measures came on the heels of newspaper investigations revealing the most horrid situations in some Missouri nursing homes and foster homes.

In all, 254 bills were sent out for the governor's signature, compared to 214 last year when Democrats still controlled the House and Republicans had a Senate majority.

Also important to note was the legislators' conduct near the end of the session. In past years, there has been a rush to restart stalled legislation, tacking it onto bills that still had a chance of passing, resulting in 100-page bills that harried lawmakers couldn't possibly get read and the occasional, inevitable mistake that had to be corrected later.

This spring, debate got out of the way earlier, so every lawmaker had ample opportunity to be familiar with everything that was passed.

As for the freshman legislators, they rose to the task of handling major reforms in a short period of time. The fact that they too will be gone after a maximum of eight years made hurrying along more vital.

Undoubtedly, a group of legislators who stayed that focused in the regular session will continue to do so in the special session coming up in June to address the state budget.