Love note from Jeff City

My Fellow Missourians:

My in-district day on Friday, Jan. 20, started at the El Dorado Springs High School.  I shared the first two hours with Civics class students about the legislative process and the day-to-day work of a state representative.  I then attended a ribbon cutting for the grand opening of the new Citizens Memorial Hospital El Dorado Springs Medical Clinic.

My very early morning drive to the Capitol on Monday was through a lot of thick fog.  I left home extra early to attend a tort reform forum given by the Federalist Society.  This was their first Missouri Capitol forum, and the conservative and libertarian legal organization used the small convention to discuss efforts by the Missouri Legislature to enact new laws regarding tort reform and other changes to the legal process.  Governor Eric Greitens opened the meeting by presenting his agenda for making Missouri a better place for businesses to relocate to our state and preventing the threat of frivolous lawsuits.

State of the Judiciary:

House and Senate members convened for a joint session this week to receive the annual State of the Judiciary Address.  Delivered by Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Breckenridge, the speech focused on the reforms and improvements made by the court system and the need to improve pretrial incarceration practices in Missouri.  She noted that the Missouri Constitution specifies individuals may be incarcerated before trial only when charged with a capital offense; when a danger to a crime victim, a witness, or the community; or when a flight risk.  Despite this, she said people are incarcerated because they are too poor to post bond. Breckenridge pointed out the likelihood that an individual will commit future crimes increases after only three days in jail.  She emphasized the success rate and promoted the utilization of drug courts. Drug court is a multi-phase program involving a comprehensive assessment to determine treatment needs and after care programming. Other services are based on the individual needs of the offender.

House members reject proposed pay increase (Hcr 4):

House members came together in bipartisan fashion this week to overwhelmingly reject a proposed pay increase for elected officials and judges. The House approved a resolution that would prevent the pay increase recommendations made by the Citizens’ Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials from going into effect. The commission meets every two years according to the state constitution.  Once the commission makes its recommendation, it automatically goes into effect unless the legislature rejects the proposal before Feb. 1.  It takes a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate to keep the increases from going into effect.  House members believe the difficult budget situation faced by the state this year makes it even more important to ensure taxpayer dollars are saved for priority items such as education and services for Missouri’s most vulnerable citizens.