The Missouri Legislature has two weeks left before lawmakers pack their bags and head home. The regular session of the General Assembly runs from January through mid-May each year.

Despite the session soon coming to a close, many priorities are still up in the air. Plenty of work can still be accomplished over the next two weeks and bills are not officially dead until 6 p.m. on May 16. It is not a surprise to see bills cross the finish line within minutes of the 6 p.m. deadline.

A state operating budget is first and foremost for lawmakers. State House and Senate budget negotiations are on deck, as lawmakers flirt with the May 9 deadline to pass a state budget that begins in July.

The only Constitutional requirement that Missouri lawmakers have to fulfill is to pass a balanced budget each year. All other proposals passed during session are a bonus for some and heartburn for others.

One of the likely budget brawls will involve whether to fully fund the formula for state aid to K-12 public schools. The Missouri House and governor proposed to underfund the formula by about $300 million, while the Senate chose to restore the funding.

“If we’re going to pass legislation that we all know costs additional resources, we need to be ready to pay the bill when it comes due. It wouldn’t do us a lot of good to pass something that makes you feel good, and then when the time comes that someone needs it, it’s not there,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Lincoln Hough during committee work on the budget.

Another tussle is expected over Kehoe’s request for $50 million in state funding to send K-12 public school students to private school. The House backs the governor on this effort; the Senate does not.

Hough said he wants to make sure Missouri is fully funding its obligation to public schools before it starts to send taxpayer money to private schools.

The Senate also reduced funding and staffing for the Missouri Secretary of State’s and Lieutenant Governor’s offices. During Senate debate on the budget proposal, a few Senators voiced their opposition to these cuts.

The Senate budget proposal would eliminate 25 full-time employees within Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ Office. Hoskins previously served in the Senate before becoming Missouri’s top election officer.

His office told Missourinet that it is “very hopeful that this will be resolved in conference.”

“The Secretary of State’s Office provides an administrative backbone to state government – from business services to elections. These are non-negotiable government services. Cuts to staff and funding will greatly reduce the quality and availability of services to all Missourians,” a spokesperson said.

Once the Legislature wraps up its budget duties, lawmakers are expected to go another round on Proposition A’s paid sick leave requirements. House Speaker Jonathan Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit, said getting back to work on House Bill 567 is a priority for Republican leadership in both chambers.

“We want them (workers) to stay home and not come to work and get people sick, but the way in which Prop A does it with the hour-by-hour, with the misdemeanor penalties, that’s not workable. And so, I think what we’ll hopefully get to is something where employees do get the sick leave but do it in a way that’s fairer to employers,” said Patterson.

The bill would roll back Proposition A’s paid sick leave rules.

“There’s no point to try to attract businesses when you’re telling them with Prop A that it’s going to be very difficult for you,” said Patterson. “You have these sick leave provisions that can lead to criminal penalties. I think you’re doing things that are working against each other.”

Missouri Senate Democrats successfully blocked two attempted votes on the bill – eating up the clock for the May 1st deadline to pass and those requirements to begin.

Is there a middle ground with Senate Democrats? Minority Leader Doug Beck, D-Affton, is not showing his cards.

“I don’t know what to expect,” said Beck. “I’m just saying I am in good faith negotiations with the other side of the aisle on this. I welcome to have those conversations as we continue on. Whether or not we come to a conclusion, I don’t know. The law is now in effect. People are earning earned sick time, and anything we do at this point, they’d be taking away from people.”

Another top Republican priority the state Senate is expected to debate soon is a measure that would ask voters to scale back voter-approved abortion rights.

Sen. Beck is keeping his options open.

“I would like to have a conversation and probably wouldn’t necessarily be me in this particular case,” said Beck. “But I think we’re open to having conversations on how that would look. Again, I’m not speaking for anybody, but we have not offered that. We haven’t had those conversations, so none of that has happened.”

Rep. Brian Seitz is sponsoring House Joint Resolution 73 . It would make most abortion illegal again, with limited exceptions for medical emergencies, fetal abnormalities, rape, and incest.

“Voters in the past few years were given the choice between two extremes, choices with no middle ground, zero abortions or what we have now. There was no position to take via the ballot or in legislation that offered the middle ground, which is where most Missourians lie,” Seitz said during House debate on the measure.

Sen. Tracy McCreery, D-Olivette, does not agree with the proposal having a 12-week limit on abortions for victims of rape and incest.

“Some childhood sexual abuse survivors can take, on average, up to the age of…in their 50s, to be able to talk about what happened to them, but yet there’s this artificial deadline in HJR 73 that would say everything has to be taken care of in 12 weeks. So I would also like to have a conversation about, like Dr. Patterson said, about how we can best support survivors of sexual assault and incest,” said McCreery.

An unresolved bipartisan priority is a tax credit package to bolster access to childcare services. Since the pandemic, Missouri has been dealing with a critical shortage of childcare availability – preventing parents from rejoining the workforce and helping the economy.

House Bill 269 , sponsored by Rep. Brenda Shields, R-St. Joseph, would provide tax breaks to childcare providers, donors to daycares, and businesses who help to cover the childcare costs of their employees.

“We lost 30% of our childcare providers during the pandemic and only 3% have come back. So that is why we have a true shortage of childcare in our state,” Shields told Missourinet. “I mean, 89 of Missouri’s 114 counties and the city of St. Louis are childcare deserts, which means that for every five children that need care, there’s only one slot.”

Two bills sponsored by Rep. Cecelie Williams, R-Dittmer, that have both received unanimous House support – are House Bills 243 and 971.

House Bill 243 would update state law so that it no longer takes pregnancy status into consideration when a court is asked to dissolve a marriage or grant a legal separation. Twenty years ago, Williams left an abusive marriage while pregnant but she could not finalize her divorce until after her baby was born.

“We have a duty to protect our constituents, both male and female, and I can’t wait till we know that this is law. It will be my independence day, because no woman or man will have to endure what I’ve had to endure and go through something longer than necessary,” she said after the House passed her bill.

In Missouri, it is not illegal to put a GPS tracking device on someone’s vehicle to secretly monitor where they are going. House Bill 971 would change this.

Her legislation would make it a crime to place GPS devices, such as Apple AirTags, on vehicles to track people without their permission. Her bill would create the offense of unlawful tracking of a vehicle, with the punishment being a misdemeanor. Repeat offenses would be a felony.

“Did you know that 1 in 4 customers who purchased GPS tracking devices had a history of domestic violence offending,” asked Williams.

Exceptions would include for criminal investigations, a parent or guardian who wants to monitor their child driving the vehicle without them, “vulnerable adults” with disabilities, rental car companies, or if the vehicle is being repossessed.

Reps. Kemp Strickler, D-Lee’s Summit, and Bill Irwin, R-Lee’s Summit, are co-sponsors.

Tax relief is another effort on the minds of many Republicans. A variety of tax cut measures exist, including income, property, corporate, and revenue earned from the sale of stocks, bonds, and real estate.

What shape these bills will ultimately take is unknown, especially as Missouri deals with a challenging economy. Any tax-cutting measures passed will reduce what money the state has to work with in its budget.

Bills already sent to the governor this session include an anti-crime package that would form a state board to watch over the St. Louis Police Department. Rep. Brad Christ, R-St. Louis, sponsored the plan that would boost penalties against organized crime groups that ransack retail and grocery stores. House Bill 495 would also require law enforcement to report the immigration status of suspects arrested for certain crimes, as well as ban street racing and stunt driving.

Kehoe has signed this bill into law and St. Louis Alderwoman Megan Green is suing the state, challenging the provisions to require the city to fund the police department with 25% of the city’s revenue.

Another GOP priority bill the governor has signed is one that would restrict the court’s role of rewriting election ballot wording written by lawmakers. Senate bill 22 is sponsored by Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville.

Missouri courts have altered wording on proposed statute and constitutional changes that they deem unfair, misleading, or confusing. Senate Bill 22 gives more power to the Missouri secretary of state before the courts can make changes. The legislation also lets the Missouri attorney general appeal preliminary injunctions when they are used to put a state law on hold.

The last provision mentioned is one that several Democratic lawmakers have said is about Amendment 3, which restored abortion rights in Missouri. After the governor signed Senate Bill 22, Attorney General Andrew Bailey quickly requested a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood. The organization is challenging several of the state’s previous abortion regulations before Amendment 3 passed.

Bailey’s move aims to put a stop to abortions while the court case plays out.

The decision has prompted a lawsuit by activist Sean Nicholson. The lawsuit contends that the legislature’s passage of an emergency clause to make the bill effective immediately is not an emergency.

The Missouri Legislature passed two other significant proposals this session – Senate Bill 4 and House Bill 737 .

Senate Bill 4, sponsored by Sen. Mike Cierpiot, R-Lee’s Summit, would change the way in which utility rates are set. It will give utility companies the authority to use a so-called “future test year” model for setting rates based on projected costs. It will also let private electric companies regulated by the Missouri Public Service Commission seek rate increases for construction work in progress on new natural gas-generating plants.

Other provisions in the legislation require Missouri utility companies to wait 72 hours before disconnecting a customer’s service for nonpayment when the temperature is expected to fall below 32 degrees or soar above 95 degrees. Current law allows disconnection after 24 hours.

Kehoe signed the proposal into law last month.

House Bill 737 is a wide-ranging child welfare bill that bans child marriage and voids nondisclosure agreements in childhood sexual abuse cases. The plan makes it illegal for anyone under 18 years old to marry, instead of current law allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to get married to anyone under 21, if a parent approves.

Another section of the measure blocks the state from seizing foster children’s benefits to help pay for their care. Missouri currently seizes benefits, such as Social Security, VA, and pension funds, from foster children whose parents have died. The bill would only allow the state to use those benefits for “unmet needs” beyond what the state is obligated or agrees to cover, such as tuition and tutoring.

The legislation awaits a decision by Gov. Kehoe.