Leaders in both parties, chambers dissatisfied at midpoint of Missouri legislative session
(The Center Square) – Missouri taxpayers should be concerned about legislative progress during the first half of this year’s session, according to legislators in both houses and in each party.
A $4.6 billion supplemental budget bill that included $1.9 billion in federal COVID-19 funds for public schools and a 5.5% pay raise for state employees is the only item signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike Parson this year.
Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, and a candidate for the seat of retiring Republican U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, and Majority Floor Leader Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, both said the bill was positive. However, a weeks-long stalemate in approving a Congressional map and a controversy regarding an amendment to a bill assisting survivors of sexual assault led a bipartisan group of senators to hold a news conference this week criticizing the chamber’s conservative caucus.
“The Senate is by nature – and by the way it was formed – meant to be deliberative,” Rowden said during a media briefing on Thursday. “It was not meant to be dysfunctional. … I’m fine with deliberative, I’m not fine with dysfunction.”
House Republicans issued a media release on Thursday highlighting passage of 35 bills that have been sent to the Senate.
Rep. Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, and the minority leader, said Missourians must demand better outcomes, including more progress toward passing the state’s budget by the May 6 deadline.
“When there is such extremism in state government and the lack of balance when it comes to partisanship, this is what you get,” Quade told reporters. “We have dysfunction everywhere. Yes, in the House we passed a whole bunch of bills, but we know they’re not going anywhere. Compared to years past … the budget is further behind than we’d like. But this is what happens when one party has complete control and the extremists of that party take over. We need to bring balance back to Jefferson City if we want to see government function.”
The Senate’s conservative caucus held its own media briefing after Schatz and Rowden concluded. They emphasized banning the teaching of critical race theory in schools, keeping obscene materials out of public schools, protecting women’s sports and ending taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.
“There’s a lot of unfinished business,” said Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake St. Louis, who is term limited and running for St. Charles County Executive. “The good news is that many of our members have been reaching out to a lot of our colleagues outside the conservative caucus. … I’m hopeful in the second half of the session we can work together and get those things done.”
Sen. John Rizzo, D-Independence, and minority floor leader, said the Republicans’ infighting reminded him of the Democrat’s disagreements in the 1990s.
“I can still remember watching it fall,” Rizzo told reporters. “It reminds me a lot of the infighting. They’d become so powerful, they just could never see themselves being in the minority and that slowly ticked away.”
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