[TGE-mail] Legislative Session wrap-up for neighborhood associations

[Jeanette Mott Oxford]

General Assembly Advances Wrong Priorities in 2007

The 2007 legislative session ended on May 18 with the rushed passage of a
deeply flawed health care bill that fails to improve medical care and
access for Missourians. This was a final disappointment in a session that
offered little to improve the quality of life for Missourians.

Although viewed by all involved as the top issue of the year, House
leadership did not set up debate on the Medicaid reform bill, Senate Bill
577, until the very end. Ninety-minutes of timed debate was allowed on
May 11. The bill’s final version was negotiated in secret during the
session’s final hours and rammed through with one-hour of debate just 40
minutes before the Legislature’s 6 p.m. constitutional deadline for
adjournment. Only a few thousand of the 170,000+ Missourians who have
lost Medicaid coverage since 2005 had coverage or services restored in
the new "MO HealthNet" law that many of us call "No HealthNet" instead.

The Legislature also voted to sell a significant portion of the Missouri
Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) to pay for campus construction.
The plan places in jeopardy MOHELA’s ability to fulfill its mission of
providing low-cost student loans and offering loan forgiveness. (I voted
no.)

I fought with others to prevent gutting of the new minimum wage law that
76% of Missouri voters approved in November, and we were successful. I
was pleased with an improvement to domestic violence laws that passed on
May 17, and we made some progress on fire safety in nursing homes,
although more remains to be done. 

Some of the legislation that passed is embarrassing for Missouri in my
opinion. For example, Missouri may become the hail-damaged vehicle
capital of the nation if Gov. Blunt signs SB 82, a salvage title bill.
Missouri also will vote on a Constitutional amendment requiring that all
public meetings covered by the Sunshine Law be conducted in English. The
sponsor of the initiative admits there are no reports of such meetings
being conducted in anything but English to date, so this is clearly
unneeded. Fortune 500 companies are increasingly racially and ethnically
diverse, and headlines on issues like this make it less likely that
Missouri will attract businesses that are growing in today’s global
economy.

The 2007 session will perhaps be best remembered for the unprecedented
chaos in the legislative process as the General Assembly spent much of
the last week trying to repeal or amend bills it had forwarded to the
governor just days earlier. I think we have an obligation to get it right
the first time, and I’m proud that I voted no on all the bills that were
later discovered to need "fixes."

I had many good ideas that deserved debate in 2007, but House Speaker Rod
Jetton refused to assign even one of my bills to committee. Here’s hoping
for a more bi-partisan and productive 2008!

Jeanette Mott Oxford
State Representative - 59th MO House District
314-771-8882 (home); 314-775-8940 (cell)
2910 Lemp, St. Louis, MO 63118
www.jmo4rep.com