Update on my legislation this week…
I introduced my Industrial Hemp bill (HB 202) on the House floor. It was voted on & received unanimous approval: 154 to 0. It has been sent to the Senate and first read already.
My ATM “smash & grab”/HB 725 was voted out of the Rules Committee on Legislative Oversight by a vote of 7 in favor & 0 opposed. It will now be placed on the calendar to be heard on the House floor during session.
HB 644, which requires the department of revenue to establish and maintain a system for online verification of motor vehicle insurance, has been referred to the Insurance Policy Committee to be heard and voted on.
See FB link for pictures: https://www.facebook.com/RepFrancis145/
First Half of Session
As the 2023 session reached its midpoint I want to list our accomplishments. Thirty House Bills have been sent to the Senate. The second half of session we’ll spend more time with the Senate and the Governor’s office.
Some of the priority bills approved during the first half of the legislative session include:
Promoting School Choice – HB 253 would establish the Public School Open Enrollment Program to improve quality instruction and increase parental involvement, provide access to programs and classes, and offer opportunity by allowing students to attend a public school in a nonresident district. The bill would allow districts to opt in as a receiving district and cap the number of students who may transfer out of a district at 3% of the previous year’s enrollment.
Here’s the question to ask: Should your address be the main determination as to what public school your children attend? I believe it shouldn’t. Should the child and family be the center of educational focus? I think they should.
I believe open enrollment is a step in the right direction for educational reform, for offering choices and accountability within the public school system.
Curbing Violent Crime – HB 301 would allow the governor to appoint a special prosecutor in areas of the state with an excessive homicide rate. The bill specifies the governor would be empowered to appoint a prosecutor in any circuit or prosecuting attorney’s jurisdiction that has a homicide rate in excess of 35 cases per 100,000 people and where the governor determines there is a threat to public safety and health.
Supporting Law Enforcement – HBs 702, 53, 213, 216, 306 & 359 will take the politics out of policing by placing the St. Louis Police Department under the control of a state-appointed board of commissioners, which will stabilize the department so it can perform the basic job of law enforcement.
Protecting the Constitution – HJR 43 is designed to protect the state constitution from the influence of out-of-state interests by allowing voters to decide if the state should raise the threshold to modify the constitution in the future. The measure would change the threshold required to approve changes to the state constitution. Currently, changes to the constitution require only a simple majority for approval. If approved by the legislature and voters, HJR 43 would raise the threshold to 60 percent voter approval for passage.
Developing Missouri’s Workforce – HB 417 will help employers develop and retain skilled workers by allowing the Department of Economic Development to award grants to qualifying employers for each employee or prospective employee who obtains upskill credentials. Credentials that could be eligible under the program include manufacturing technology, cybersecurity, blueprint reading, medical assistants, pharmacy technician and medical records coding.
Ensuring Access to Life-Saving Exams – HBs 575 & 910 ensures coverage for diagnostic breast examinations and supplemental exams will not have a copay or deductible in an effort to ensure women have access to these life-saving exams.
If we do not offer diagnostic testing without a copay, we will not receive the benefits of early cancer diagnosis. Diagnosing breast cancer early benefits us all. First and foremost it saves the lives of women that we care about and the mothers of our children. It reduces overall cost of healthcare. A study found the national cost savings with early diagnosis would be $26 billion each year.
Expanding Access to Physical Therapy – HBs 115 & 99 Under the bill, a physical therapist would no longer need a prescription or referral from a doctor in order to evaluate and initiate treatment on a patient. The bill states the physical therapist must refer to an approved health care provider any patient whose condition is beyond the physical therapist’s scope of practice, or any patient who does not demonstrate measurable or functional improvement after 10 visits or 30 days, whichever occurs first.
Direct access is about individual choice in health care decisions through the elimination of unnecessary and burdensome regulations.
Providing Property Tax Relief – HB 713 would change current state law that requires assessors to determine vehicle values by using the National Automobile Dealers’ Association Official Used Car Guide. The bill would repeal that requirement and instead have assessors use the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) for all vehicles for the original value of all motor vehicle assessment valuations. The bill establishes a 15-year depreciation schedule that would be applied to the MSRP to develop the annual and historical valuation guide for all motor vehicles.
The bottom line is after 15 years of paying taxes on a vehicle you finally, truly get to own it.
Simplifying Vehicle Sale Tax – HB 415 simply states that licensed motor vehicle dealers would collect and remit sales tax on all motor vehicles sold. Vehicle sales tax is the only sales tax not collected at the point of sale. This will put Missouri in line with the other 47 states that require dealerships to collect the vehicle sales tax.
The way the process will work is that you will go into the dealership, you’ll do all of your paperwork. You will leave with a temp tag, but that will start the ball rolling for the Department of Revenue to issue your plates and you will receive them in the mail.
Protecting Missouri Farmland – HBs 903, 465, 430 & 499 is a critical national security bill that would protect fair competition and limit foreign ownership of Missouri farmland by defined enemies of the United States of America. It would limit foreign ownership of Missouri farmland to 0.5%, from the current restriction in statute of 1%. The bill also would prohibit a foreign business from certain countries from purchasing any land in the state. Nations on the “Restrictive Country” list in the bill are defined as China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela. The bill encourages friends and allies of the United States to continue cooperating with Missouri-based companies, especially in agriculture research and development.
HB 70 adds other designated school personnel to the list of employees a school district may designate as a school protection officer and allows designated school personnel the authority to carry a weapon on school grounds if they have obtained a concealed carry endorsement or permit.
This will just allow school districts and school boards more discretion in who they choose to be their school protection officer. We want to make sure we have the best person in this position and so we want to leave that in the hands of our local communities and school boards.
HBs 133 & 583 would create the “Entertainment Industry Jobs Act”.
This act would encourage and incentivize artists to come and do their pre-concert practice, set stage construction, sound and lighting purchases, staging and personnel hiring from Missouri companies. This is a particular industry that would be really new to the state of Missouri.
HB 202 repeals the Industrial Hemp Regulatory Program in Missouri. I passed a bill in 2019 that allowed Industrial Hemp to be grown in Missouri.
This bill would give the authority to regulate industrial hemp to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which would help hemp producers by reducing fees on their operations.
HB 461 establishes the Broadband Development Council to explore ways to expand access to broadband services; the potential for increased use of broadband for education, career readiness, workforce preparation, and alternative career training; ways to encourage state and municipal agencies to expand service to better serve the public through the use of streaming, voice over Internet protocol, teleconferencing, and wireless networking.
State and federal governments have distributed millions of dollars in grant funds for the expansion of broadband throughout the state. This bill would establish a council to provide stakeholder engagement and legislative oversight to ensure the effective use of the funds.