by State Rep. J. Eggleston
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A new year has arrived, and with it comes the dawn of a new era in both state and national government. Our nation will soon swear in a new president. Our state has a new governor. And as of January 4th, Missouri has begun a new legislative session and sworn in the 99th General Assembly in our state’s history.
These administrations will take our state and our country in a new direction compared to that of the last eight years.
By virtue of the public’s vote, Republicans will control not only the Missouri House and Senate but, for the first time in 8 years, also the governor’s office. With this reality, a large part of the Republican agenda will likely get passed. What that agenda will look like is taking shape.
From all that I have heard and learned, the key topics of the 2017 session will be Labor and Workforce Development, Ethics, and Tort Reform.
Right To Work will get the most press on the topic of Labor and Workforce Development, but the most impact to our district may be reforms to Prevailing Wage law. This affects the costs of building or remodeling our schools, jails, city halls, and other government buildings.
Currently, there is no distinction in current Prevailing Wage law between urban projects (high cost of living areas) and rural projects (low cost of living). Rural communities pay the higher urban rates for construction on public buildings, frequently making some projects unaffordable or awarding those projects to urban construction companies. The result is detrimental to our local construction firms and to the budgets of our schools and local governments.
Reform to Prevailing Wage would help stretch taxpayers dollars.
Some ethics reform was brought up and passed last session, and will likely be a focus again this session. The Speaker of the House would like to see a total lobbyist gift ban, meaning lobbyists would not be allowed to pay for anything for a legislator, including something as small as a cup of coffee. Fine with me – I’m grown up enough to pay for my own coffee.
The new governor would like to see a year-for-year waiting period for legislators who become lobbyists. Last session, we passed a one-session waiting period, but Gov. Greitens wants that lengthened.
Tort Reform means changing the lawsuit rules so that those who are financially damaged by businesses can sue and receive just compensation but, at the same time, not encourage unjustified lawsuits in order to extort settlement money from defendants.
The high costs of the settlements in frivolous lawsuits are just passed on to the consumer. So we will all pay more for our products and services unless meaningful Tort Reform is passed.
Prior attempts at tort reform were always vetoed because our previous governor was part of the trial attorney association who are against these tort reform measures.
Whatever changes in law come from your legislature in 2017, I am confident they will be passed with the aim to make our streets safer, our cost of living more affordable, and to give our children a brighter future.