Register your 2007-08 membership card.

By Otto Fajen
MNEA Legislative Director

MSTA ANTI-BARGAINING BILL REMAINS IN SENATE COMMITTEE
The Senate Education Committee completed its hearing on House Committee Substitute for House Bill 2059 (Kevin Wilson) on May 7, but no motion was made to vote the bill out of committee after the hearing was completed. The bill may now lack sufficient support in the committee to be passed out, and the chances for the bill’s passage appear to be dwindling. MNEA will need to continue the lobbying effort on the issue for the final week of session to ensure that H.B. 2059 does not pass this session as an amendment to another bill.

Missouri NEA opposes H.B. 2059. The bill discriminates against teachers by treating them unfairly, denying them their right to freely elect a bargaining representative and restricting their bargaining rights in ways imposed on no other public or private employees. The bill is also impractical and unworkable and will disrupt successful relationships in many of our largest school districts. MNEA’s diligent lobbying effort helped distance several committee members from the bill and caused others to express a belief that the bill should not be moved forward this session.

An effective bargaining process must have a unified employee voice. Piecing a bargaining team together from various groups builds a communications gap into the process and leaves teachers scrambling for a cohesive voice. The bill would force teachers to form a representative council, an extra layer of bureaucracy, which would make reaching agreement difficult.

The bill would make collective bargaining a more difficult and less effective process for teachers than for other employees, and it leaves them, once again, with fewer rights than other public employees. Unlike an elected representative, whose right to represent employees can be removed if it fails to represent them fairly, the council cannot be held accountable, disbanded or replaced with an elected representative organization, even if the council is totally dysfunctional.

Of the 35 states where teachers bargain collectively, no state mandates a process similar to the one proposed in these bills. The bargaining model that has proven effective over time in state after state is the exclusive representation model. In a historic decision in May 2007, the Missouri Supreme Court restored the right of all public employees (including teachers) to bargain collectively with employers. MSTA fought against collective bargaining for years and filed a brief last year urging the Supreme Court to deny teachers a voice in the collective bargaining process.

STATE BOARD OF MEDIATION APPOINTMENT
Gov. Matt Blunt recently appointed Rep. Jim Avery to be the chair of the State Board of Mediation. The State Board of Mediation is the state entity that oversees public sector collective bargaining in Missouri. The board conducts representation elections and serves as the appellate body for disputes of bargaining unit determination for employees currently covered under the public sector bargaining law. Education support personnel are currently covered under the public sector bargaining law, while teachers are specifically excluded.

Rep. Avery’s appointment must receive the “advice and consent” of the Missouri Senate, and the appointment was considered by the Senate Gubernatorial Appointments Committee on May 7. Rep. Avery’s appointment will help fill a void in state support for public sector bargaining. The fiscal year 2009 budget also includes funding for the State Board of Mediation. Rep. Avery’s appointment has the support of MNEA and many other groups within the public sector labor community. His appointment is generally seen as a positive step in supporting fair implementation of the public sector labor law.

STATE BUDGET NOW PASSED
All state budget bills were approved by May 8, one day ahead of the constitutional deadline. The bills are finally passed and will be sent to the governor for approval. Unlike regular bills, the governor has line-item-veto power to veto individual spending items in appropriations bills.

Meanwhile, the Office of Administration released disappointing and troubling news on May 2 when it reported that April 2008 state general revenues were 9.8 percent below corresponding figures for April 2007. This significant decline reduced the year-to-date increase in general revenue down to 2.2 percent and raises concern that the state revenue may not meet the “consensus revenue estimate,” a term that refers to the revenue estimate on which the budget is based. Without sufficient revenue, the newly elected governor may be forced to withhold spending authority to state agencies next fiscal year to trim state spending down to the available revenues.

TABOR
The Senate Governmental Affairs and Fiscal Oversight Committee continued its hearing on House Joint Resolution 70 (Allen Icet) on May 6. The committee met in executive session on May 7, but no motion was made to vote the HJR out, which indicates that the measure is unlikely to move forward during the remainder of the session.

HJR 70 is a constitutional spending limit similar to the Colorado provision known as “TABOR,” or the so-called “Taxpayer Bill of Rights.” The HJR would impose a permanent, constitutional spending limit on state government and would limit annual growth in state appropriations to a cost-of-living adjustment factor plus a population growth factor. The HJR even includes requirements for imposing further tax cuts if the spending limits are operational.

Missouri NEA strongly opposes this unneeded restriction. Legislators should be able to construct a consensus revenue estimate and appropriate according to that estimate. HJR 70’s limit would cause Missouri government to shrink year after year relative to the size of the overall economy. This measure will permanently diminish the state’s capacity to provide appropriate levels of public service and will ultimately make the state a less desirable place to live and reduce the state’s ability to attract desirable employers.

JOINT COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
The Joint Committee on Education met on May 6 and selected Sen. Rob Mayer as chair and Rep. Scott Muschany as vice-chair.

The committee also heard a presentation from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education commissioner Kent King regarding the commissioner’s proposal on how to cut expenditures for professional development and other critical needs now that the funding for those programs has been cut from $20 million to $15 million for fiscal year 2009. The commissioner’s proposed cuts included across-the-board cuts of roughly 25 percent for many programs, while some smaller programs were scheduled for elimination.

The discussion was precipitated by Gov. Matt Blunt signing Senate Bill 1066 into law. S.B. 1066 gives the joint committee authority to oversee those expenditures beginning on Aug. 28, 2008. Since the grants are generally approved at the May meeting of the State Board of Education and many staff positions are already under contract or will be within the month, the joint committee will seek to weigh in soon after the state board acts on the recommended funding list in late May with any concerns to ensure that there are no surprises when the joint committee’s oversight authority goes into effect on August 28.

EARLY CHILD CARE
The House Special Committee on Family Services met on May 7 to hear two bills:

1. House Bill 2264 (Jeff Grisamore) increases eligibility for child care subsidy benefits for the working poor. The bill raises the eligibility cap to 185 percent of federal poverty level. Missouri NEA supports this effort to improve access to quality early childhood education.
2. Senate Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 726 (Charlie Shields) creates a quality rating system for child care facilities. MNEA supports the bill as a positive step in improving the quality of early childhood education programs across the state.

The committee reconvened after session on May 7 to complete executive session and voted out a House Committee Substitute version of S.B. 726 to create a quality rating system for child care facilities.

LEGISLATIVE ACCOUNTABILITY DODGE
The Senate Pensions, Veterans’ Affairs and General Laws Committee heard House Joint Resolution 41 (Jane Cunningham) on May 7. The committee voted out a Senate Committee Substitute version of the resolution in executive session on May 8. The joint resolution, if passed by both chambers and approved by statewide vote, will prohibit a state court from instructing or ordering the state legislature or any local government to levy or increase taxes. The amendment will also prohibit any Missouri court from instructing or ordering the state or any local government on how to spend, allocate or budget fiscal resources.

The HJR is an obvious attempt to avoid accountability for the failure to meet the constitutional demand to adequately and equitably fund public education. HJR 41 would undermine the fundamental balance of governmental powers and leave the people of Missouri with no legal recourse to hold the legislature accountable for failure to live up to its constitutional obligations. Missouri NEA strongly opposes HJR 41.

VOTER ID RESTRICTIONS
The House hastily revived dormant House Joint Resolution 48 (Stanley Cox) in response to a Missouri Supreme Court ruling handed down recently regarding the permissibility of voter ID restrictions. The resolution was perfected on May 7 and finally passed on May 8. The HJR requires any 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 Missouri Supreme Court struck down the photo voter identification requirements enacted in Senate Bill 1019 (2006) as an unconstitutional restriction on voter access and found that this measure would have disproportionately suppressed voter turnout of the poor, minority and elderly voters. MNEA opposes any attempt to enact further voter ID restrictions or other measures that would have the effect of suppressing voter turnout among the most vulnerable of our citizens.

CAPITOL ACTION DAYS
Capitol Action Days conclude on May 13 with MNEA members from Governance District 11 visiting the Capitol. A series of Capitol Action Days throughout most of the session have allowed planned, face-to-face contact with legislators throughout the session. Each Capitol Action Day will start with a briefing at 10:00 a.m. to provide you with the most up-to-date information.

FINDING INFORMATION ABOUT BILLS
To find out more about legislation this session, go to: http://www.mnea.org/gr/legissues.htm. This page contains numerous links, including: the NEA Legislative Action Center, which addresses key education issues at the federal level; and, the Missouri NEA Legislative Action Center, which will address key education issues at the state level. This page contains links to legislative updates, the MNEA Legislative Platform, legislative priorities and other policy-related links.

To find information about a specific bill currently pending before the Missouri General Assembly, go to: http://www.house.mo.gov/billcentral.aspx. Type the bill number (example: HB1000) or sponsor name in the “search” box to find a link to the bill. This link will take you to a “home page” for the bill that provides bill text, bill summaries, fiscal notes and information on legislative action on the bill.

Legislative Update 2008
Missouri National Education Association
1810 East Elm Street
Jefferson City, MO 65101-4174
(573) 634-3202 or (800) 392-0236

Chris Guinther , President
Ben Simmons, Executive Director
DeeAnn Aull, Director of Programs and P.R.
Leila Medley, Political Director
Otto Fajen, Legislative Director
Judy Glover, Secretary