Missouri Recovery Network
428 East Capitol, Second Floor Jefferson City, MO 65101
573-635-6669
CAPITOL REPORT #8
May 22, 2006
2006 Legislative Session Ends With a Whisper, Not With a Bang ………...... 1
Winning and Losing 2006 ……………………………………………………... 2
Treatment Provider Rate Increase in the Appropriations Bill ………..…… 3
Alcohol and Other Drugs in Three Bills Sent to the Governor….…………... 4
Other Bills of Interest to Advocates Await Action by the Governor ……...... 5
Tougher License Requirements for Teens?……….………………….………. 6
How to Monitor Governor Blunt’s Action on Pending Legislation …….….. 6
Omnibus Crime Bill Dies …………………………………………………....… 6
Bills and Policy Statements Restricting Alcohol in the Capitol Ignored…..... 7
Resolutions Encouraging Faith-Based Collaboration Fail ……….………... 7
Auditor Cites Deficiencies in Probation/Parole Checks on Treatment ….… 8
Missouri Voters Get a Chance to Decide Issues in November ………..…..… 8
KC Area “Youth With Vision” Project Appears on NBC Today Show .……9
The Power of Our Stories: Speaking Out for Recovery -- Video …….. …. 9
MSACCB Administrator Retires -- Recruitment Underway …….…….… 10
Industry Contributions to the Stigma of Alcohol Addiction (Editorial) ...... 11
2006 Legislative Session Ends With a Whimper, Not With a Bang
Advocates for addiction and recovery services had little to be happy about when the 2006 legislative session ended on May 12. For most interest groups in the areas of health and safety, the session was a disappointment. On the other hand, like people who are happy that gasoline sells for $2.70 per gallon when it could be $3.00, there are those who are breathing a sigh of relief because “it could have been much worse.” Some undesirable legislation failed to make the final cut and died when the 6:00 PM deadline arrived. A small increase in provider rates for treatment services (see page 3) was the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal landscape.
(Continued on Page 2)
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The only bill that could have provided new money to expand and upgrade substance abuse and addition programs, Rep. Deeken’s HB 1162, was not brought up for debate during the final week of the session. It ended up #10 on the House Calendar of Bills for Perfection. In previous years, bills that had attained that status could at least have gotten some floor time, if not the action needed, but a Senate filibuster, extensive House debate on several contentious proposals, and positioning while conference committees conferred chewed up a great deal of time.
As usual, high-profile bills were loaded up with amendments in one chamber, then sent back to the other chamber, where the original bill, which may have had substantial support, would be lost in the noise. Several bills that had been sent to Conference Committee, to reconcile differences between House and Senate versions, contained too much on which agreement could not be reached. A couple of them were “held hostage,” to force decisions on other bills. The jockeying on the final day was even more complicated than usual because the process lacked the kind of discipline that keeps things moving when prior agreement has been reached, or even what kind of compromise would be acceptable. Consequently, legislative leaders struggled to find “success stories” in their post-mortem press conferences and media interviews.
Of the total of more than 1,800 bills introduced this year, only 173passed. This is about 20% fewer than the number typically passed in a typical legislative session.
Winning and Losing 2006
It’s a truism in the Capitol that “nobody gets everything they want.” Nevertheless, a popular media game, played after a legislative session has ended, is to determine “winners and losers.” This is not a simple game, because winning and losing usually pertain to individual legislative proposals, not people, and even in those cases compromise may blur the distinctions between the two. With that in mind, this year’s losses include the following:
Governor Blunt failed to get two of his major initiatives passed: a plan to require school districts to spend at least 65% of their operating budgets on classroom costs, and a plan to sell assets of the state’s student loan authority (MOHELA) and use the money to pay for new buildings at state universities. The Governor, for his part, considers the session a success because he was able to achieve a balanced budget without raising taxes, and was able to reduce the size of the state’s workforce. He also noted that it would have been difficult to repeat the groundbreaking successes of last year’s session.
Religious conservatives were also considered losers because none of the bills dealing with the issues they made their priority passed -- promotion of prayer in school, tax support for religious schools, and reforms in school-based sex education.
Rep. Carl Bearden, the number two leader in the House, could be listed in the loss column because both his effort to tie the MOHELA proposal with tax credits for scholarships to both public and private colleges, and his support for the right to pray in public schools failed. .
Among the winners are state employees, who will receive their first significant pay raise in six years (4% for most; 8% to 12% for some) and farmers who will benefit from higher corn prices as the result of a bill requiring 10% ethanol content in gasoline in January of 2008. Proponents of the ethanol bill said that this will help reduce the nation’s “addiction” to foreign oil. Opponents suggested that it is a tax increase on all motorists because ethanol can cost more, and that it takes away consumer choice while making farmers dependent on the government.
The Kansas City Star listed doctors as winners -- both because they are receiving additional health care dollars, and because they succeeded in killing the Medicaid fraud bill. They were also successful in getting lawmakers to pass a bill which would give the Department of Insurance the ability to reject increases in medical malpractice insurance rates if considered excessive by market standards. The agency may levy fines against companies that do not follow the rules. The bill (HB 1837) requires insurers to disclose their rates and losses. It also creates a special board to study whether Missouri should create a health care stabilization fund.
Candidates for public office can be considered winners, although HB 1900 is a mixed bag. The bill eliminates limitson campaign contributions, but prohibits cash contributions from the many political party committees which have formed in recent years. It also prohibits legislators from forming caucuses to accept gifts from lobbyists (without being individually identified as recipients) and prohibits lobbyists from paying for out-of-state travel unless the trip is approved. The changes will make for greater public awareness of who finances candidates’ campaigns, but advocates for interests with fewer resources are quick to point out that big contributors will have even greater influence on the outcome of elections and access to legislators. In many ways, it will be business as usual. Rep. Rachel Storch (D-St. Louis) said “All of a sudden you cannot close the door on that donor … You cannot deny access to a $10,000 donor.” (Post-Dispatch, 5/21/06). She might have added that legislators can’t deny access to a $1,000 donor, or several smaller checks from employees of a particular interest group.
Treatment Provider Rate Increase Included
in Final Appropriation Bill
As projected in Capitol Report #7 (May 3, 2006), the first increase in provider rates in many years was included in the appropriation bill for the Departments of Mental Health and Health & Senior Services. The bill sent to Governor Blunt includes one section, which did not appear in last year’s bill. It contains the following language:
For the purpose of funding a provider rate increase to the Division of Alcohol and Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse and the Division of Comprehensive Psychiatric Service providers, that may include all or specific categories of private service providers:
From General Revenue Fund ………………………….………… $3,460,740
From Federal Funds ……………………………………..………. $1,658,704
From Compulsive Gambler Fund ………………………………….. $ 11,599
From Mental Health Earnings Fund ……………………………..... $100,314
Total …………………………………………………………….. $5,231,357
Comparative totals for the Department of Mental Health are:
Fund Source FY2006 Budget FY2007 TAFP
General Revenue ……………..…….. 514,691.270 554,004,413
Federal Funds …………………..….. 420,634,421 451,928,567
Other Funds ………………………….. 35,837,786 39.079.337
Total …………………………………. 971,163,477 1,045,012,317
The bill also reports that the number of FTE’s (Full-Time Equivalent Staff) has been reduced from 9,122 in FY 2006 to 8,826 for FY 2007. Governor Blunt considers a significant reduction in the state workforce one of the successes of the 2006 session.
Alcohol and Other Drugs in Three Other Bills
Sent to Governor Blunt
A wide-ranging unemployment insurance bill, HB 1456, includes several provisions dealing with workplace-related alcohol and other drug problems. It specifies that the test for alcohol or controlled substances as evidence to be included in the administrative record if the test was conducted by a laboratory certified by the U. S. Dept. of Health & Human Services or another certification body whose minimum standards meet the same standards as those of USDHHS. It expands the ways by which an employer may notify employees that a positive test may result in suspension or termination of employment.
The bill specifies that the results of any alcohol or other drug test are admissible if the employer’s policy clearly states that an employee may be subject to random, pre-employment, reasonable suspicion, or post-accident testing. It specifies that an employer may require a pre-employment test for alcohol or controlled substances as a condition of employment, and the tests are admissible if the employer’s policy clearly states than an employee may be subject to random, pre-employment, reasonable suspicion or post accident testing. It also provides that all methods of testing, criteria for testing, chain of custody for samples and specimens and due process for employee notification procedures do not apply to a claimant subject to the provisions of any collective bargaining agreement if the minimum standards meet standards. And it specifies that absenteeism or tardiness constitutes a rebuttable presumption of misconduct.
Chemical testing is also one of the subjects covered in a bill dealing with safe operation of motor vehicles. SB 872 includes “the Alan Woods Law,” which specifies that any state, county or municipal law enforcement officer who has the power to arrest an individual for driving with excessive blood-alcohol content or driving while intoxicated will administer a chemical test to any person suspected of driving a motor vehicle involved in a collision which resulted in a fatality or serious physical injury.
A person who is tested will have the right to obtain full information concerning the test. Full information is limited to (1) the type of test and procedures followed, (2) the time the blood, breath or urine sample was collected, (3) the numerical results of the test, indicating the alcohol content (4) the type and status of any permit which was held by the person who performed the test, and (5) the date of the most recent required maintenance of any breath testing instrument used. Full information will not include manuals, schematics, or software of the instrument used in testing, or other material not in the actual possession of the state, or in the possession of the manufacturer of the test instrument.
The third bill, SB 725, covered in previous Capitol Reports, allows culinary students older than 18 to taste, but not consume or drink, any beer, ale, porter, wine or other similar malt of fermented beverage as part of the required curriculum. A student younger than 21 ix prohibited from consuming unless the beverage is delivered as part of the curriculum and is used only for instructional purposes. Another provision in the bill, added as an amendment in the House by Rep. Bob Johnson (R-Lee’s Summit) on behalf of the alcohol industry, re-defines beer. Intoxicating and non-intoxicating beer are required to be brewed from a malt or malt substitute. Flavor and other non-beverage ingredients containing alcohol may be used in producing intoxicating and non-intoxicating beer but may not contribute to more than 49% of the overall alcohol content of the finished beer. The need for a new definition reflects the introduction of new alcoholic beverages to make them more attractive to potential consumers.
Other Bills of Interest to Advocates for Prevention,
Treatment and Recovery Which Await Action by the Governor
This year’s professional registration bill, SB 756, includes provisions dealing with out-of-state applications for licensure as a Professional Counselor or Clinical Social Worker. Pro-fessional counselors licensed in other states are allowed to apply for licensure in Missouri without examination if the applicant has had no disciplinary action taken against his or her license in the past 5 years or has met all eligibility criteria established by the American Association of State Counseling Boards or its successor organization. Clinical Social Workers licensed in other states are allowed to obtain a Missouri license if they have had no disciplinary action taken in the past 5 years and their current state license has substantially the same licensing requirements as those of Missouri.
SB 567notes that currently an employer may provide or contract for health insurance at a reduced premium rate for employees who do not smoke or use tobacco products. The bill allows an employer to provide or contract for health insurance at a reduced deductible levelfor employees who do not smoke or use tobacco. Insurers or small-employee carries offering these policies will not be in violation of any unfair trade practice.
SB 648 replaces the term “lunatic asylums” with “mental health facilities” when referring to facilities that must have stairs or fire escapes.
SB 974 extends from November 1, 2003 to November of each year the date by which the Department of Mental Health must develop a plan for persons on the waiting list for services for people with development disabilities.
SB 894, which changes laws relating to education, requires districts to adopt anti-bullying policies containing elements specified in the bill (see Section 160.775).
HB 1182 allows a parent, legal guardian or other person having legal custody of a child who is at least 15 years of age to petition a court to extend the jurisdiction of a juvenile court until the child is 18. These provisions will not apply to a child who has received a high school diploma or its equivalent. Law enforcement officers, juvenile officers, school personnel, or court personnel will not be held civilly or criminally liable if their action or failure to act was based on a good faith belief that a child was not under the jurisdiction of a juvenile court.
SB 912 requires the State Board of Education to establish a virtual public school program by July 1, 2007. Any student K-12 may enroll, regardless of the physical location within the state. State school aid will treat the student as part of the enrollment of the district at the choice of the student’s parent or guardian. The school district will receive 15% and the virtual school will receive 85% of the state aid attributable to the student. The virtual school must comply with all laws applicable to school districts, including the accreditation program, adequate yearly progress, annual performance report, teacher certification, and curriculum standards.
SB 778increases the application fees that must accompany an application for a “certificate of number” (similar to an auto license) of vessels on the state’s waterways and makes some of the money available to pay expenses of the Missouri State Water Patrol. Depending on the length of the vessel, the increases range from $10 to $25, $20 to $55, $30 to $100, and $40 to $150. The certificates are renewed every three years. The first $2,000,000 collected is to be deposited in State General Revenue, and the remaining amount is to be deposited in the newly created Missouri Water Patrol Fund.
Tougher License Requirements for Teens?
Legislators gave final approval to SB 1001, which toughens driver’s license requirements for teenagers. The bill increases the number of hours of behind-the-wheel instruction to get a learner’s permit from 20 hours to 40 hours, including a minimum of 10 hours at night. It also mandates that 16-year-olds with intermediate licenses cannot have more than one non-family member under age 19 as passengers for the first six months after getting the license, and no more than three non-family member passengers under the age of 19 after the six-month period. If signed by the Governor, the bill becomes effective in January. In debate, proponents cited statistics which show that teens are far more likely to die in a crash when driving with other teens. Opponents expressed concern that the bill will restrict the freedom of young drivers who may need to shuttle friends to and from school and places of employment.