Note: Today Gov. Nixon gives State of State Address, 7 pm TONIGHT

Missouri NEA Legislative Update Week 3, No. 1, January 16, 2012
By Otto Fajen
MNEA Legislative Director

LEGISLATURE OBSERVES MLK HOLIDAY; FOLLOWS WITH HEARINGS ON ANTI-WORKER BILLS

The legislature was not in session on January 16, in observance of the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The legislature returns on January 17, and most of the legislative work of the day will be committee hearings on familiar legislative attacks on working people.  Committees will hear bills proposing “Paycheck Deception” attacks denying public employees the use of payroll deduction for union fees, rollbacks on prevailing wage policies on public construction projects, the so-called “Right-To-Work” proposal that bans compensation to unions for the costs of negotiating a contract and other services rendered on behalf of non-member employees and legislation to weaken the state’s discrimination and whistle-blower law.

STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS

Governor Jay Nixon will deliver the State of the State Address to a joint session of the House and Senate in the House Chamber on January 17. The State of the State address gives the Governor a chance to present his vision for the state and his budget priorities.

BUDGET COMMITTEES

The House Appropriations-Education Committee will meet to hear public testimony on January 17.  The state is no longer meeting the funding requirements of its own school funding law, and in the 2012-13 school year and beyond, the sole impact of the cuts could fall on the most vulnerable, the so-called “formula” districts.

The Senate Appropriations Committee will take public testimony on education programs at its meeting on January 18.

PAYCHECK DECEPTION

The Senate Small Business, Insurance and Industry Committee will hear SB 435 (Jason Crowell) and SB 553 (Dan Brown).  Both bills would prohibit public employees, and public employees alone, from paying any union dues or other payments by payroll deduction.  Both bills would place the issue on a statewide ballot, rather than sending the bill to the Governor for approval.

Missouri NEA strongly opposes both bills.  These attacks are just more of the same old politics.  All employees have the constitutional right to an effective union voice in their employment and to work together to support political campaigns without undue interference from state policies that would undermine those rights.  The bills would impose unnecessary and burdensome paperwork requirements on payroll deduction of union dues and political contributions by public union employees.

PREVAILING WAGE

The Senate Small Business, Insurance and Industry Committee will also hear SB 439 (Rob Mayer) and SB 596 (Dan Brown) to eliminate prevailing wage requirements for five years in disaster areas identified by the Governor.

Missouri NEA opposes both bills.  Prevailing wage laws have been enacted at both the state and federal level to ensure that public construction jobs respect local wage rates and seek to support local employment.  States that have repealed prevailing wage laws have generally not seen any decrease in public construction costs, as the reductions in wage rates that hurt famies have been offset by lower productivity and higher costs associated with work site accidents due to the use of less-experienced, less-trained workers.

SO-CALLED “RIGHT TO WORK”

The Senate General Laws Committee will hear SB 438 (Rob Mayer), SB 514 (Jason Crowell) and SB 547 (Chuck Purgason).  All three bills would enact the so-called “Right To Work” provision in Missouri.  SB 547 would send the bill to the Governor for his approval, while SB 438 and SB 514 would send the bill to a statewide ballot instead.

The Association opposes all three bills.  All employees have the constitutional right to an effective union voice in their employment.  Federal law requires unions elected to represent a group of employees to negotiate contracts and support grievances on behalf of all employees in the group, including those who are not in the union.  Federal law allows unions the opportunity to receive compensation for the costs imposed on the unions by this obligation to serve all employees.  The so-called “Right To Work” provision undermines the federal policy by prohibiting the option for a union to seek compensation from non-members for services provided to them under the requirements of the federal law.

WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION AND WHISTLE-BLOWER LAW

The House Workforce Development and Workplace Safety Committee will meet on January 17 to hear HB 1219 (Kevin Elmer). The Association opposes HB 1219. The bill makes several harmful changes to the state’s anti-discrimination law in employment, disability and housing and significantly limits and weakens the “whistle-blower” protections that ensure front line employees with the best information and knowledge are able to hold public institutions and public officials accountable for faithfully fulfilling their public duties.  The bill is similar to SB 592 (Brad Lager).

IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT BY SCHOOLS

The Senate General Laws Committee will also hear SB 590 (Will Kraus) on January 17.  Among other provisions, SB 590 requires all public schools to determine whether enrolling students are born outside of the United States or are children of an unlawfully present alien. In such cases, the bill requires the parent or guardian to notify the school of the citizenship or immigration status of the child.

Missouri NEA opposes this unnecessary paperwork requirement on school personnel.  Federal policy requires that schools serve resident students, regardless of citizenship or immigration status, so the extra paperwork will not change the district’s responsibility to educate any resident student.  However, the bill will change the nature of the initial contact of district staff with every enrolling student in the state to one where the district must scrutinize the child’s immigration and citizenship status, not just residency status, at the time of enrollment.  Educators are not immigration enforcement personnel and should not be asked to take on additional, unnecessary, immigration enforcement duties.

VOTER ID

The legislature passed HCS#2/SJR 2 (Bill Stouffer) in 2011.  The SJR will now place proposed constitutional requirements for voter ID and early voting on a statewide ballot in 2012.  SB 442 (Bill Stouffer) is implementing legislation for SJR 2, should it be approved by voters.  SB 442 will be heard on January 17 in the Senate Financial and Governmental Institutions and Elections Committee.  The bill requires a person seeking to vote in a public election to provide election officials a driver’s license or other government-issued photo identification.

Missouri NEA believes voting is a constitutional right that should not be restricted by unnecessary voter photo identification requirements or other additional barriers to the voting franchise.  The Association opposes the bill.