Legislature '07: Capital comeback

Veteran legislators return to Jefferson City.

By James Patrick Schmidt

Published Jan. 23, 2007

When the Missouri General Assembly held its first session in Jefferson City on Jan. 3, the politicians representing Columbia were all veterans at the state capitol. Even though there are no new faces, each member has legislation he or she would like to sponsor or support in the state of Missouri.

Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia
19th District
Assistant Senate Minority
Floor Leader

Issues involving students will remain a major focus for Graham in the 2007 legislative session, Graham's Chief of Staff Ted Farnen said.

"The senator has proposed a bill that would allow the student member of the UM system Board of Curators to be a voting member," Farnen said. "He feels the student representatives have been very good over the past 20-plus years, and the policies passed have a big effect on the students so they should have a vote in these decisions."

Another student issue at the front of Graham's agenda is watching over the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative, including the sale of parts of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority.

"He wants to make sure that what is done is legal," Farnen said.

One use of the money supported by Graham is the funding of a new Health Sciences Research Center at MU. Besides the legality of the sale, Graham also wants to monitor the effect on student's access to loans.

Graham will support the sale of parts of MOHELA "as long as it is shown that it doesn't hurt the students' ability to get loans at a good rate," Farnen said. "If it would result in the rates going up for students that wouldn't be a good thing."

Graham also wants to focus on the improvement of the state Medicaid program, which is set to expire in 2008. Although Graham is not planning to propose any bills, he feels the issue is very important.

"It is important to help as many of the people who were cut off of health care previously," Farnen said. "It's most important that more Missourians have access to health care."

Rep. Jeff Harris, D-Columbia
23rd District
House Minority Leader

Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives are focusing on their Moving Missouri Forward initiative, an effort led by Harris.

According to the initiative's Web site, there are seven issues in the plan: "increase access to health care, create jobs that will support our families, improve our schools, protect our children and families, restore integrity and accountability to government, protect Missouri consumers and prepare Missouri for natural and manmade disasters."

The Web site also lists legislation submitted by Democrats.

"A big part of that is to restore health care coverage to the 100,000 Missourians whose health care was cut in 2005," Harris said.

Harris also said the plan focuses on increasing access to higher education.

"I've introduced legislation that would make college tuition at places like Mizzou tax deductible to give moms and dads and students a break from the rising and high cost of tuition," Harris said.

Besides increasing access to higher education, Harris also hopes to increase the higher education budget.

"I have urged the governor to increase funding to higher education by $112 million," Harris said. "That's the recommendation that had been made by the Coordinating Board for Higher Education, and I think it is a good one and we need to do it."

Higher education is not the only focus of the plan, though.

"In addition, we are making sure we have world class elementary, middle and high schools," Harris said.

Harris said the Democratic Party feels this initiative is the best plan for Missouri.

"We are making sure that we are forward looking and forward thinking," he said.

Rep. Ed Robb, R-Columbia
24th District

This legislative session the focus for Robb is scholarship increases and tax credits.

"One piece of legislation I have is the increase in the Bright Flight Scholarships that would double the stipend value on these scholarships," Robb said.

Robb has also submitted legislation offering a tax credit for students to move out of their school district based on performance.

"The Milton Friedman School Scholarship program is a tax credit and a scholarship program that would allow parents who have children in failing school districts to move their child to another public school or a private school depending on space in local public schools," Robb said.

Another piece of legislation Robb has proposed is to increase the film production tax credit by $10 million. A film production company cannot receive more than $1 million in tax credits, according to the Missouri Department of Economic Development Web site.

A new market tax credit is also on Robb's agenda for this session.

"This is a tax credit for investments in areas that are deemed poor," he said. "In essence, it's for places with above average unemployment or above average poverty."

Robb said the program would offer incentives for Missourians to take advantage of some of the $15 billion in federal new market tax credits.

"You'd expect Missouri to get about 2 percent," Robb said. "But we actually get less than 1 percent."

Rep. Judy Baker, D-Columbia
25th District

The points of the Moving Missouri Forward initiative that Harris mentioned are also present in this session's plans for Baker.

"The priority for me is the restoration of the health care cuts of the 100,000 people in poverty," Baker said. "I would like to see them completely restored to health care since they have no other means of receiving health care besides the federal Medicaid program."

Besides the focus on health care, Baker also supports additional funding to higher education.

"I'd like to see substantial increases of the higher education funding this year," Baker said. "The past increase was so paltry it could not keep up with inflation, and there haven't been any substantial increases since 2001. Tuition has been skyrocketing and families are beginning to suffer, and I'd really like to see that turned around."

The sale of parts of MOHELA is another issue that Baker wants to resolve this session.

"I am very hopeful that we will find a way to fund the capitalization project as outlined in the Lewis and Clark Discovery project," she said. "We will be working hard to that end."

Baker also hopes to address the need of health professionals in the state, which is an issue she said she has attempted to address before.

"I am working on a health professions shortage planning commission - the same bill I put in last year," she said. "The bill would create a commission that would study and make recommendations on the critical shortage of health professionals in the state of Missouri."

Another point of Baker's personal agenda is an effort to make driver's education more affordable and accessible in Missouri.