Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
Missouri News Network: Statehouse News for MPA Members
This report is written by Missouri School of Journalism students for publication by MPA member newspapers in print and online.
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Missouri News Network coverage this week includes a number of bills being passed in both the Senate and House on topics including education, crime and the interstate speed limit.
If you have thoughts or questions, contact Fred Anklam at anklamf@missouri.edu.
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FRIDAY
Schools could soon be the ones being graded
By Brandon Lorenz and Emerson Smith, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A bill passed by the state House on Thursday would create a standardized grading system that would be used to grade the schools themselves.
House Bill 2710, sponsored by Rep. Dane Diehl, R-Butler, would grade all public and charter schools and their districts on an A-F scale for their efficiency in educating students. The grading would be based on student performance, staff, finances and other categories.
The proposed plan holds the the State Board of Education accountable for developing the annual report but leaves the option to have the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) responsible to cover the cost.
There is also an option within the bill for the education board to hire a “private entity” to do the reports on the schools.
This bill follows Gov. Mike Kehoe’s executive order, announced at his State of the State address in January, that requires the education department to draw up a plan on how the grading system would work and present it to the State Board of Education for approval.
“Transparency drives improvement,” Rep. Cecelie Williams, R-Dittmer, explained on the House floor. “When we shine a light on performance, we create a space for innovation, collaboration and progress.”
With majority Republican support, some disagreement came from both sides of the aisle. The bill passed 96-53 with 13 Republicans voting no.
Most Republican opposition comes from how this grading system could affect schools in rural areas and low attendance schools. A provision was put in for students with “suspension, seclusion and restraint incidents.” Debate referenced that the Senate can make its own changes sending it back to the House floor again.
On the other side of the aisle, Democrats felt this bill was taking time away from more pressing issues within the state’s schools.
“The title of this is ‘school accountability,’ but I question our state’s accountability to the Missouri schools and children,” argued Rep. Kathy Steinhoff, D-Columbia.
She cited several statistics; according to U.S. News & World Report, in 2025 Missouri was ranked 33rd in the country when it comes to education. In addition, Missouri students are still behind academically after Covid. The Education Recovery Scorecard currently ranks Missouri 39th in Math recovery and 40th in English recovery.
The state also is ranked 50th in starting teacher salaries, she said.
“Before we ask our schools to increase the well legislated benefits for accountability, I think this body’s time would be better served looking at how we can be more accountable to our schools and the children of the state,” Steinhoff said.
The bill also includes incentives for schools and their districts to score high. A “Show Me Success Program” would grant financial awards to public schools based on improvement seen or reaching achievement goals. The bill also mentions that the funding from these awards will be used to promote teacher recruitment and retention rates.
The House debated the bill with some visiting fourth grade students and teachers viewing from the gallery on a school field trip.
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Senate passes criminal system changes for juvenile detention centers
By Emily Skidmore and KJ Drazen, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — The Senate passed a criminal and juvenile justice bill Thursday on a 20-9 vote after hours of negotiations.
SB 888, introduced by Sen. Nick Schroer, R-Defiance, seeks to classify older juveniles who commit felonies as adults and share fingerprints of juveniles involved in felonies to a central database.
The bill also allows an increase in the number of juvenile detention centers in the state and solidifies mandatory prison time for adults before parole eligibility.
While Missouri law allows inmates to serve a range of time before being eligible for parole, the bill sets fixed percentages of time served for each felony category:
Senators worked on finalizing the bill language and amendments as part of an ongoing effort this week with negotiations held until early Thursday before the vote.
Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, D-Kansas City, expressed concerns over the hasty manner of passing the bill. She stated that the Senate Committee of Fiscal Oversight was not able to do a thorough investigation of the fiscal note attached to the bill because of the late night and early morning meetings.
“No other agency had the opportunity to respond to this fiscal note,” Nurrenbern said. “We don’t know the fiscal impact of this legislation.”
Under SB 888, any county wanting to place a juvenile detention center may place “a sales tax up to one percent on all retail sales” for its establishment. Nurrenbern said that 1% of sales tax will result in about $1 billion annually for the state.
Sen. Doug Beck, D-Affton, also expressed concerns over the lack of information with the fiscal note during Senate debate.
“I guess we’re in a position now in the Senate where you vote up something that (you) don’t even know what the fiscal impact is,” Beck said sarcastically.
In addition to the fiscal note, there were concerns from Democratic senators on the vote excluding Sen. Steven Roberts, D-St. Louis, from participation as he is serving with Missouri’s Air Force National Guard overseas.
Roberts has been a vocal member from the Democratic Caucus regarding criminal justice reform in Missouri.
Beck emphasized this by stating that Roberts has been a part of every negotiation on a crime bill since he started in his position in 2021.
“He truly wanted to be involved in negotiations on this bill,” Beck said.
All the Democrats who spoke on the floor regarding the bill asked to delay the vote until next week when Roberts would be back.
Sen. Barbara Washington, D-Kansas City, and Sen. Karla May, D-St. Louis, also expressed concerns with certain issues getting prioritized in the bill as it seeks to change criminal justice in Missouri by creating more juvenile detention centers and stricter processing for juveniles committing felonies.
“Criminal justice reform means to better the system for society, and that means we don’t punish more folks, but we figure out what that root cause is,” Williams said.
The bill was passed with opposition from Democratic lawmakers. Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, and Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, were the only Republicans who voted no on the bill.
The bill moves to the state House, where members will continue to debate its provisions.
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THURSDAY
House committee passes new version of income tax elimination resolution
By Peter S. Pynadath, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — An effort to let voters decide whether to eliminate the state income tax passed out of committee on Wednesday with new revisions that would tie the reduction in income tax to overall state revenue.
The House Commerce Committee voted to pass the bill with a 7-3 vote. The new version of the bill contained notable differences from its original form, sparking debate during the hearing.
House Joint Resolution 174, carried by Speaker of the House Jonathan Patterson, R-Lees Summit, aims to phase out individual income tax. The bill would allow all goods and services to be taxed in order to make up for the loss in revenue from the elimination of income tax.
The resolution has no exemptions for health care or the agricultural sector, despite Gov. Mike Kehoe requesting the exemptions in his State of the State Address.
“There are no exemptions,” said Rep. David Casteel, R-High Ridge. “That’s to be fair to every industry sector within the state of Missouri — the broader the base, the less we have to raise those sales or use taxes.”
If passed, the resolution would reduce individual income tax by 0.01% for every $20 million in the state’s net general revenue. There would be a cap on income tax reductions of 1.6% each year.
This year, Missouri is expected to have $261 million left over in its general revenue funds, which is the lowest general revenue balance since 2018. This balance can vary each fiscal year, but is expected to decrease according to a report released in 2025 by Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick.
Once the individual income tax rate reaches 1.4%, the tax rate will be eliminated.
“I think this legislation puts forth a responsible path forward,” said Rep. Bishop Davidson, R-Republic, who sponsored a resolution similar to Patterson’s. Davidson said he believes the slower elimination of the income tax would alleviate some Democrats’ fears about fiscal impact.
Current laws have steadily lowered the income tax. Between 2015 and 2022, the income tax rate was reduced from 6% to 4.7% for top earners.
Without Patterson’s resolution, the top rate is expected to drop to 4.5% in the coming years if Missouri continues to meet general revenue targets.
The resolution includes the proposed language that would appear on ballots. It asks if the Missouri Constitution should be amended to do four things: “phase out the individual income tax based on revenue growth,” “reduce personal property tax and other local tax,” “modernize the sales and use tax” and “protect local funding for public schools.”
An amendment was offered by Rep. Nick Kimble, D-St. Louis, to change the language to clarify that sales tax may be increased to compensate for reductions in individual income tax.
Republicans on the committee said the language was deceptive and the amendment was rejected.
“This may be the worst amendment I’ve seen here in my five years here in the House,” said Rep. Brian Seitz, R-Branson. “The ballot language is very accurate — it says exactly what we are attempting to do, and this amendment changes that and puts it into the Twilight Zone.”
Rep. Steve Butz, D-St. Louis, argued that the proposed amendment is more honest to Missourians.
“Any plain reading of this amendment is more truthful to everybody, and I think everybody up here knows it,” Butz said. “The only way this works is to dramatically, dramatically increase and expand sales tax. I just think that the vast majority of Missourians are going to reject that idea.”
Minority Floor Leader Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City, argued that the current proposed ballot language, including the phrase “modernizing sales and use tax,” is different than the language in the resolution. Aune said the resolution would repeal provisions preventing taxes on certain sales and goods that are currently untaxed. She said she believes this aspect is not represented in the proposed ballot language.
“The ballot language proposed says ‘modernize the sales and use tax’ … if that is not the most disingenuous language I’ve heard,” Aune said. “The lack of courage in this building and in this room never ceases to shock me.”
Aune issued a statement later:
“HJR 173 and 174 would nullify existing state constitutional prohibitions against imposing sales taxes on services or real estate transactions, and broadly authorize the Missouri General Assembly to impose taxes on transactions involving any goods and services,” she said in the statement. “The legislation also would exempt sales tax expansions from being subject to provisions of the Hancock Amendment that limit growth in state revenue, and prohibit lawmakers from imposing major tax increases without voter approval.”
The statement said that the resolution would override constitutional restraints and allow for a sales tax on fuel for the first time in the state’s history. If approved, this could be added to the existing 29.5-cent-per-gallon fuel excise tax.
The resolution, if passed by the legislature, could go on the Nov. 3 state ballot.
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Shopping around for power: Bill aims to break up electric utilities
By Jana Rose Schleis, Missouri News Network
Don Mayhew believes in the free market.
“We have choice in a lot of different things. Go to a grocery store — there’s four different brands of green beans you can buy,” Rep. Mayhew, R-Crocker, said. “We know that competition in any marketplace is the foundation — the cornerstone — of our capitalist system.”
That’s why Mayhew, who represents a mostly rural House district that runs from the Lake of the Ozarks to Fort Leonard Wood, has proposed a bill that aims to break up Missouri’s monopoly utilities. Mayhew said it’s an effort to combat rising electric bills.
“Most of the cost of electricity to the consumer is in that power production end. So you put competition there,” he said.
Whether such a proposal would keep costs down is unclear, and Missouri’s largest electric companies — Ameren and Evergy — are against it.
Currently, corporate energy companies in Missouri are vertically integrated, an economic term that means they both make energy and distribute it to customers. Under Mayhew’s plan, the companies could do one or the other.
“The whole goal is to provide competition in the system to help regulate exorbitant fee increases,” he said.
As “natural” monopolies, electric utilities are subject to state oversight in exchange for being the sole provider of service in an area. Since market forces don’t exist to enforce quality, affordability and reliability, those responsibilities lie with state public service commissions.
If Mayhew’s proposal becomes law, corporate utilities operating in Missouri, such as Ameren and Evergy, would have to sell off their power plants, and other energy producers would be able to enter the market.
But Rob Dixon, Ameren Missouri’s vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs, argues that could lead to higher utility bills.
“When that happens, control over generation and electricity prices shift away from our state to external entities, raising costs for customers,” Dixon said.
Mayhew hopes over the long term that competition would keep Missourians’ electric bills under control. He knows his opponents are skeptical.
“They say, well, ‘electric prices don’t go down whenever you institute this.’ They’re probably correct,” Mayhew said. “But keep in mind, the electric rates don’t go down without it either and so now we’re just quibbling over the rate at which they increase.”
What does ‘restructuring’ or ‘deregulating’ mean?
More than a dozen states and Washington, D.C., have what’s called “restructured” or “deregulated” electric utility systems — including Illinois, Texas and Pennsylvania.
That means policymakers have separated energy generators, those that produce power, from the utilities that transport the electricity.
Kent Chandler is resident senior fellow at the R Street Institute — an economically center-right think tank — and the former chairman of the Kentucky Public Service Commission, the agency that oversees that state’s utility rates.
As electricity prices rise, so has public frustration over the growing costs. Chandler uses a political metaphor for the position monopoly utilities find themselves in.
“You never want to be the incumbent party at midterms because everybody votes out the incumbents,” he said.
Charles Hua is executive director of PowerLines, a national energy consumer education nonprofit that has been tracking increasing rate requests utilities submit to regulators.
He said those rising electricity prices have caught the attention of lawmakers from both parties across the country.
“Suddenly you have a lot more elected officials and politicians that are concerned about this issue and feel a need to express their action plans, their proposals for how they’re going to tackle this,” Hua said.
Although converting to this type of electricity marketplace is sometimes called “deregulation,” Hua cautions against that term.
“You’re not escaping regulation. It’s just you’re restructuring the market,” he said.
Hua’s organization works to teach people how to get involved in cases before state energy regulators by attending hearings and testifying about their experience with utility services and prices. He believes public service commissions are supposed to serve customers first and foremost.
“Somewhere along the way over the last century we’ve lost sight of that mission,” Hua said. “We’re seeing the consequences now where utility bills are skyrocketing and utility rate increase requests are going through the roof.”
As a former public service commissioner, Chandler said the tools available to most utility regulators across the country are insufficient to protect consumers against the drawbacks of a monopoly system.
“In my best day as a regulator, I still couldn’t hold a candle to the forces for good that competitive markets can create,” he said.
But Ameren’s Dixon believes Missouri’s regulated energy industry is working as it should and is keeping electricity reliable for both current and future needs.
“The regulations that we have in Missouri have done a good job of keeping rates as low as possible while we make investments in the energy grid to make sure that (for) Missourians, the lights come on when they hit that switch,” he said.
What the numbers say depends on who’s asked. Dixon points to research done on behalf of an organization representing investor-owned utilities that shows electricity prices are not going up nationally, but instead affect just a few states and regions.
“We are the 12th lowest state in the entire country for rate increases, and Ameren Missouri’s rates are 27% lower than Midwest and national averages,” he said.
But data from the federal government analyzed by the Retail Energy Advancement League — a pro-deregulation organization — shows that since 2008, the states where electricity prices increased the fastest were vertically integrated. Missouri is fifth on that list.
Dixon said he hears the public’s growing concerns about the rising cost of living and higher prices.
“I absolutely understand just the pocketbook issues that folks feel in their daily lives. But enacting legislation like this is not the answer,” he said.
Advice from a neighbor
Illinois saw a similar push to change how its utilities operate in the late 1990s. Citizens Utility Board of Illinois Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz said it came after years of consumer frustration from spiraling electricity prices driven by inefficient generation.
“It’s a move that made a lot of sense at that time but I wouldn’t say it’s a panacea for anybody,” she said.
Moskowitz said in the years since Illinois restructured its utility system, the dream of heading to the market to shop around to find the best deal on energy worked — at least for the state’s largest electric consumers, such as manufacturers.
“It’s definitely not so easy for the small energy user, someone who uses just a house worth or an apartment’s worth of energy,” she said.
Moskowitz said when Illinois markets opened up, residents got scammed into signing up with overpriced alternative energy suppliers. Illinois has since passed further consumer protections into law, but Moskowitz said she’s still seeing “a lot of really bad deals out there.”
“If you undertake this journey in Missouri, you need good consumer protections in place … and there also needs to be a lot of really individualized one on one consumer education to make sure that people aren’t walking into rip offs,” she said.
Ameren operates in both Missouri, a vertically integrated state, and Illinois, a restructured state.
Dixon said a restructured market would come at the cost of reliability for Missouri. He points to what happened in Texas during a 2021 winter storm when temperatures dropped to extreme lows, resulting in widespread power outages and monthly electric bills in the tens of thousands of dollars.
“Generators failed their state and Texans paid the price, and we don’t want that to happen here in Missouri,” he said.
But what will it cost?
Most businesses in a capitalist economy aim to produce the best product for the lowest price, in hopes consumers will choose their product over those of competitors. Essentially, doing a thorough and efficient job leads to profits.
But R Street’s Chandler said since electric monopolies earn a return on investment, they’re not incentivized to run power plants efficiently and pass savings that could come from that on to customers.
“Electric utilities are only incentivized to just invest, invest, invest,” Chandler said. “They make money the less efficient they are. If they need two power plants instead of one, that’s great, because they make a return on both of them.”
He said that has had a measurable impact on prices.
“States that have restructured and have quality retail competition have seen prices go up far slower than states that stuck with their vertically integrated utilities,” Chandler said.
Dixon disagrees.
“All you have to do is look around the country to see how this type of legislation works in other states,” he said. “Restructuring the market isn’t a one way ticket to reducing costs. In fact, it really is just the opposite.”
In an email, spokesperson Gina Penzig said Evergy — the electricity provider for a large portion of western Missouri — also believes deregulation would be bad for Missouri residents.
“If Missouri were to de-regulate, it would result in higher prices and a less stable grid,” she wrote.
One challenge is that since the technology used to make and deliver electricity is always changing, experts say so too must the way it’s managed.
“We’re never going to arrive at a solution that’s going to work permanently,” Moskowitz said. “We need to remain nimble, and we need to continue to think creatively about how to make our power system and the regulations that apply to it work for consumers.”
Deregulation or re-regulation
Although there was a wave of restructuring in the 1990s, not many states are making moves in that direction now. In fact, utilities in “deregulated” states are making a push to get back into the electricity generation business — what’s called “re-regulation.”
Left-leaning think tank the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recently published a report on the steps state lawmakers could take to address increasing electricity costs.
Rachel Jacobson is the organization’s lead researcher for state climate policy and the report’s co-author. She said the research is very mixed on whether breaking up electric monopolies has a significant effect on what customers pay each month.
“Ultimately, we believe that the risk of consumers getting hurt in re-regulation is high enough that we oppose those proposals,” Jacobson.
Recent changes to Missouri utility law
Mayhew has proposed legislation to break up electric utility monopolies for four years in a row.
“Senate Bill 4 came along in the meantime, which puts rate increases on steroids,” he said.
He’s referring to a massive utility bill passed last year and signed into law by Gov. Mike Kehoe.
The law, which Mayhew voted against, gives utilities a variety of new financial accounting practices, including authorization for a policy called “construction work in progress” that enables energy companies to earn revenue on power plants as they build them — a potentially yearlong process during which no additional electricity is made.
“We have pretty much turned all of that oversight that we would have normally had in that process over to the investor-owned themselves, who’s, let’s face it, and I don’t blame them for this, are more concerned about the bottom line of their stockholders than they are about increases in rates associated with cost overruns,” Mayhew said.
Mayhew’s 2026 legislation to break up monopoly utilities has yet to receive a hearing.
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Bills would prohibit AI from being spouses, therapists and managers
By Abigail Didonna, Missouri News NetworkTop of Form
JEFFERSON CITY — Several AI regulation bills were heard by the Missouri Senate Committee on General Laws on Wednesday.
Senate Bill 859, sponsored by Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, would designate artificial intelligence systems as non-sentient entities, barring AI from being legally considered a person, spouse or domestic partner.
Moon’s bill also prevents AI from serving as any officer, director or manager within a company. The bill would also ban AI from owning the title to any property, including real estate, intellectual property or digital assets.
The largest aspect of this bill declares that AI systems are not capable of bearing fault or liability, and requires the owner of any AI system be legally responsible for any harm the AI may cause.
Moon mentioned that these regulations do not conflict with the executive order that established the desired AI policy of President Donald Trump.
“It is the policy of the United States to sustain and enhance the United States’ global AI dominance through a minimally burdensome national policy framework for AI,” according to the executive order posted on the White House website in December of last year.
The executive order also established an AI Litigation Task Force, which is responsible for challenging laws inconsistent with that policy.
“You may be aware that President Trump does not want certain guidelines established,” Moon said. “The establishment of guidelines in this particular substitute would not violate the desires of the current administration.”
Jared Hankinson, who spoke in opposition representing the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, brought up issues with a lack of clarity in the bill’s language, deterrence toward investment and the federal government’s executive order.
“Legislation like this, we feel, does serve as a deterrent for those businesses that are making critical investments in states all across the country,” Hankinson said. “It does serve as a deterrent from them investing in the state of Missouri, bringing those dollars and some of those jobs to the state.”
Hankinson expressed concerns about conflicting with Trump’s executive order, noting that if litigation occurred, it could be costly.
SB 1324, sponsored by Sen. Brad Hudson, R-Cape Fair, would require any AI-generated content to be labeled as made with AI.
AI-generated content depicting a real person must have an additional disclaimer and consent from the depicted individual to be produced, unless used for parody or satire.
“This legislation is intentionally broad, it is a starting point, it is not an ending point,” Hudson said, “We wanted it broad so it can be amended as needed to truly address the concerns about artificial intelligence while still allowing it to be used in situations where it makes sense.”
Hankinson also testified against this bill, citing concerns about the burdens that adding watermarks would put on companies.
“It would be a very significant cost burden,” he said, “Bringing on staff, deploying the systems to be able to comb through all of the artificially-generated content that is created and then apply those watermarks. It would be a burden on businesses that they’re just not able to sustain currently.”
SB 1444, sponsored by Sen. Patty Lewis, D-Kansas City, would prohibit any person or company from advertising AI as a mental health professional or as capable of providing therapy services.
Marc Herstand, representing the National Association of Social Workers, spoke in support of the bill.
“Social workers also believe that healing happens within human relationships,” Herstand said. “AI cannot assess risk, interpret non-verbal cues, understand complex trauma responses, or sit with a client in crisis like a trained human professional can.”
Fourteen people came to voice their support for Lewis’ bill, with no individuals testifying in opposition.
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House bills protecting trafficking victims move to Senate
By Noah Symes, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A Senate committee heard a package of House bills Wednesday aiming to protect children from sex trafficking.
House Bill 2273, the lead bill in the package of sexual abuse bills, passed on the House floor with a vote of 148-2 and was sent to the Senate in early February.
The bill package would create the offense of “grooming of a minor,” and increase the amount of time victims of child sex trafficking can recover damages from injury or illness caused by sex trafficking. The bills would increase criminal penalties for child sex trafficking and related crimes and allow for the expungement of prostitution convictions regardless of age at the time of the offense.
Bill sponsor, Rep. Ed Lewis, R-Moberly, said Missouri is fourth in the country for human trafficking.
According to a report from Joslyn Law Firm, compiled using National Human Trafficking Hotline data, Missouri has 32.54 human trafficking victims per 100,000 people. Missouri ranks fourth by population and 10th for the 2,016 total number of reported victims.
“We’ve got to stop this modern-day type of slavery,” Lewis said.
Brad Boettler testified in support of the bill package for his son Evan Boettler, who died by suicide after falling victim to sexual extortion.
Boettler said he found messages on Evan’s phone demanding money and threatening the release of explicit photos. He believes his son thought his life was ruined.
Boettler said he and his wife, Kari Boettler, decided to go public with their family’s story after discovering how frequently sexual extortion occurs. The FBI describes “sextortion” as a growing threat preying on teens.
“I think everybody can agree on that our kids are definitely a precious resource and we need all the support and protection that we can give them,” Boettler said.
Madison Royer, the sister of two teenage girls who were groomed by their taekwondo instructor, also supports the bill package.
The bill that would establish the offense of “grooming of a minor” is soon to be renamed for her sisters, Evelyn and Sophie.
Royer said there is a gap in the law that prevents addressing her sisters’ case.
“The only law we have that would address this behavior is enticement,” Royer said. “Someone is prosecuted for enticement if they had texted the child specifically asking for sex, or they have raped the child.”
Royer said these bills would give victims the tools they need to address grooming.
Lewis said similar legislation was set to pass both chambers in 2025 and was minutes away from passing the Senate before the end of the session last year. Lewis said he is confident the bills will continue moving forward.
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States debate working with or against ICE
By Zoe Naylor, Missouri News Network
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose actions have been the subject of nationwide protests and contentious online debate, is the subject of legislation proposed in a number of states.
Some bills would prohibit ICE officers from wearing face coverings, operating near schools and churches and using surveillance technology for immigration enforcement. Others would require cooperation between state and local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement.
The topic of immigration enforcement and how it should be carried out comes after ICE has operated across the country to detain immigrants lacking proper documentation. After a crackdown in Minneapolis, when an ICE officer killed Renée Good and federal immigration agents killed Alex Pretti, the agency has received a range of responses across many legislatures.
As of Feb. 7, more than 68,000 people are in immigration detention. Over 39,000 were booked into ICE detention in January, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a database run by Syracuse University.
In at least 21 states, lawmakers have proposed regulations for how state and local law enforcement officials must interact with ICE.
Lawmakers who want to rein in ICE have proposed legislation prohibiting state and local law enforcement from cooperating with the federal agency.
Others have proposed pro-ICE bills to allow 287(g) agreements, a program that allows state and local law enforcement to join in enforcing immigration laws.
Several bills backing cooperation with ICE reference the Laken Riley Act, which requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain non-U.S. nationals who have been arrested for crimes like theft and larceny. The bills would extend the same requirements to the state, mandating immigration detainers for specific offenses, including federal crimes or crimes of violence.
State cooperation with federal enforcement
A major point of discussion is the extent to which state and local law enforcement should cooperate with ICE.
In Maryland, a law banning 287(g) agreements has passed, requiring termination of any immigration enforcement agreements by July 1. Bills against cooperation with federal immigration enforcement have been seen in Minnesota, Kansas, Arizona, New Mexico and Virginia.
In Minnesota, Republican and Democratic legislators are at odds over how to handle ICE’s presence despite a Feb. 12 announcement that Operation Metro Surge would end.
Bills include prohibiting government entities from acquiring and using facial recognition technology, placing restrictions on tear gas and flash bang grenades and keeping ICE agents away from schools.
One proposal in the Kansas legislature, House Resolution 6028, declares state sovereignty against federal overreach. It argues that ICE has violated the Fourth Amendment by forcefully entering homes and arresting people without valid warrants.
Some organizations, such as All In Chattanooga in Tennessee, are speaking against the 287(g) agreements.
Debu Gandhi, senior director of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, believes public safety is a priority when considering how ICE and local law enforcement ought to interact. One concern with agreements between the two is that they’re a drain on time and money.
“It takes away resources from their day jobs of policing and protecting public safety,” when the goal should be “community-oriented policing,” he said.
Gandhi hopes to see transparency, accountability and “reasonable use-of-force guidelines,” as well as federal officers being unmasked and carrying identification.
“You expect that of our local police. Is it too much to expect out of federal law enforcement? I don’t think so,” Gandhi said.
In the Arizona legislature, where Republicans control both chambers, Democrats have tried unsuccessfully to cut off cooperation. Two bills — one to prohibit 287(g) agreements and another that would void existing agreements — died in committee.
New Mexico’s Democrat-controlled legislature fast-tracked the Immigration Safety Act, which bans government bodies from detaining individuals with federal civil immigration violations and contracting with ICE on detention facilities. It was signed into law on Feb. 5.
“This legislation reinforces protections for New Mexico’s immigrant communities amid tremendous amounts of fear and uncertainty,” Democratic Rep. Eleanor Chavez said.
Republican lawmakers representing areas surrounding the state’s three existing ICE detention centers warned about the potential loss of jobs, but supporters argued the state should invest in job retraining and economic development.
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico commended the law for “cementing New Mexico’s place as a national leader in protecting immigrant communities and refusing complicity in the Trump administration’s mass detention and deportation system.”
The ACLU in Tennessee is pushing back against state cooperation with ICE. The organization assisted seven Nashville city council members in their lawsuit accusing the state of acting unconstitutionally for prosecuting local officials who adopt or vote for policies that conflict with the state’s mandated views on immigration enforcement, according to the legal complaint.
On her first day in office, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger rescinded her predecessor’s executive order that allowed 287(g) agreements. In mid-February, she instructed state agencies to terminate any such agreements.
Virginia House Bill 1441 would prohibit law enforcement officers from assisting federal authorities in enforcing immigration laws unless provided an official judicial warrant. House Bill 1438, incorporated into the bill, proposed that no state law enforcement agency can enter a federal immigration enforcement agreement unless the names of federal officers are provided seven days in advance, the federal officers clearly identify themselves, and do not conduct immigration enforcement at schools, churches or courthouses, among other factors.
Favoring cooperation
Legislation in favor of working with ICE includes protections for officers, requirements for cooperation and allowances for local officers to serve immigration warrants.
Minnesota Republicans say they intend to revive a bill requiring local governments to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. Additionally, two bills were introduced that would protect the personal information of public safety officers and make protesting at peoples’ homes a crime.
Kansas House Bill 2771 arranges liability and legal protections for officers. Also, Senate Bill 452 would extend laws that apply to state and local police to also cover federal law enforcement, like statutes dealing with interference with law enforcement, access to public buildings and some traffic and vehicle regulations.
Calling his interest “big picture,” Senate President Ty Masterson, a Republican, said he wanted to avoid situations seen in other states where law enforcement operations are disrupted.
“I don’t want the situations going on in Minneapolis happening in Kansas, right?” Masterson said.
Rabbi Moti Rieber, executive director of Kansas Interfaith Action, said the bill would expand immigration enforcement while shielding officers from accountability.
“We will protect our neighbors with every non-violent means at our disposal,” Rieber said. “Because God’s law outweighs Masterson’s law.”
In Arizona, six out of 15 counties have 287(g) agreements.
In the Republican-controlled legislature, cooperation measures are advancing. The Senate has approved a bill that would require state and local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE and to check the immigration status of anyone detained if they suspect the person is in the country illegally.
“Arizona will no longer be a safe harbor for illegal activity or a place where federal laws are ignored,” bill author Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers said in a news release.
The website of the Federation for American Immigration Reform said it aims to “reduce overall immigration to a more normal level” to maintain a high quality of life.
Ira Mehlman, FAIR media director, said part of what the organization wants is not just reduced immigration, but public safety, management of resources and accountability for those who commit crimes.
“The laws exist to protect the interests of the American public,” he said, and that sanctuary cities can attract people who come illegally because they know they will be protected.
In Missouri, 21 immigration-related bills have been proposed, with a mix of approaches.
Senate Bill 1265 aims to fine municipalities that consider themselves sanctuary cities, considering the “transportation, concealment, or inducement” of an undocumented immigrant a class D felony and allowing local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws.
Only one bill in favor of stricter immigration enforcement has been introduced in the Missouri House. House Bill 2134 would allow offices to participate in the Warrant Service Officer Program, granting them authority to serve immigration warrants.
Face coverings for law enforcement
Many ICE agents have been seen with much of their faces covered, sometimes wearing hats, sunglasses and gators that cover the mouth and nose. Several bills nationwide are looking at agents’ workwear while trying to balance officers’ anonymity and ability to identify them.
In Minnesota, bills would ensure ICE agents are easily identifiable, keeping them from being what sponsor Democratic Rep. Leigh Finke described as “secret police.”
One bill would ban masks and require agents to have visible identification. Another would require vehicles that transport detainees to be marked as law enforcement and restrict the use of civilian vehicles in ICE activities.
“No more secret police, no more broken families, no more illegal detentions and no more killing of our citizens,” Finke said. “Let’s stand together ... and say, ‘no more.’”
In New Jersey, Senate Bill 3112 would prohibit on-duty officers from wearing face masks or disguises. A similar bill was introduced last year, but didn’t progress. This time, legislators from both parties have voiced support. On Feb. 12, an identical Assembly measure advanced out of committee on a 5-2 vote.
“Transparency and public trust are essential to effective law enforcement,” Republican Sen. Jon Bramnick said.
In Virginia, Democratic Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim introduced Senate Bill 352, which would ban most law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings that hide their identity on duty, with some exceptions. It passed the Senate and is now under review in the House.
“We should not wonder who’s approaching us,” said Democratic Sen. Michael J. Jones.
Privacy and location restrictions
Many states have bills proposing restrictions on where ICE can operate, how entities interact with the agencies and how surveillance technology is used and by whom.
In Kansas, House Bill 2692 would limit warrantless searches and prohibit raids in locations such as places of worship, schools, daycare centers, hospitals and courts.
Senate Bill 287 would carve out strict boundaries on law enforcement participation in federal immigration enforcement in “sensitive places” such as schools, hospitals and places of worship.
In New Jersey, several privacy bills have been introduced. Bill SR130 demands the reversal of the federal policy, in which the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, shares private taxpayer information with ICE.
In Georgia, House Bill 1050 would protect student data and records from federal immigration officers. ICE’s obtaining of these documents would require a court-issued warrant, consent from parents or a medical emergency.
Part of the bill also requires schools to have counselors or officers as the ones to interact with the federal officers.
“They should just be civil about it, right? They don’t have to be purposefully brutal and mean about it, and that includes, in my opinion, asking for school systems or even going into schools to go after kids,” said Democratic Rep. Eric Gisler, sponsor of HB1050.
Senate Bill 464 would limit federal immigration officers from accessing surveillance footage to track or identify individuals without a reason or offense.
In Missouri, House Bill 1926 would keep the citizenship status of patients private between health care providers and patients. Democratic Rep. Gregg Bush introduced the same bill in 2025, but it did not pass. He says it, more than likely, will not pass again.
“There are people that are in the legislature that don’t want to have this conversation about what it means to be a non-white person in this country, even if you are a citizen,” Bush said.
Virginia Sen. Salim introduced Senate Bill 783, which stated that federal immigration officers cannot enter a home without a judicial warrant, that state police would investigate any shooting that occurred during an ICE officer’s official duties and that ICE cannot use surveillance technology to conduct immigration enforcement.
This article was produced through the Statehouse Reporting Project, a collaborative effort by collegiate journalism programs across the country. The lead reporter was Zoe Naylor of the University of Missouri, and contributors were Sarah Shockey of Rowan University, Elliot Akerstrom of the University of Kansas, Natalie Ogami of Arizona State University, Victor Martinez of the University of New Mexico, Aleks Arwood of the University of Georgia, Grey Steele of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Hannah McDonough of the University of Missouri, Abbey Mulcahy of the University of Minnesota and Alessandra Caceres Mendoza of Virginia Commonwealth University.
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Bills advancing nuclear power heard
By Emma Farrel and Emily Skidmore, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri lawmakers heard bills in both chambers this week aimed at reshaping Missouri’s energy future and focusing on nuclear power.
House Bill 2598, sponsored by Rep. John Black, R-Marshfield, was heard by the House Utilities Committee on Wednesday and addresses concerns that the development of data centers will take power from the grid, making the grid less reliable for consumers, as well as driving costs up.
“I’m presenting to you a concept that, at the least, might be described as innovative,” Black said. His bill mirrors a bill heard in the Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection, Energy and Environment Committee on Tuesday.
The bills would create the Missouri Advanced Nuclear Energy office within the Department of Natural Resources to provide grants for eligible nuclear projects.
Supporters of the bill describe it as a “kickstart” that could position Missouri as competitive in attracting high-tech industry. Some lawmakers said the bill resembled a nonprofit generation model with the plant privately owned but unable to make profit.
David Patterson, CEO of Bridgeton Nuclear, testified in favor of the bill and said it would help establish Missouri as a leader in nuclear technology.
“This program would be the first of its kind in the U.S., and it would signal loud and clear that Missouri is friendly territory for advanced nuclear development, both to the government and to the commercial community as well,” Patterson said.
Opponents of the bill raised transparency and equity concerns. Lisa Pinette with ArmorVine argued that there has not been enough transparency with the public about energy issues regarding data centers.
“It is offensive, that now since there has not been an open and honest dialogue with the people of Missouri, they are now getting data centers put and placed right on top of them, having their property taken, their water being depleted from them, and their energy prices skyrocketing,” Pinette said.
“When you say that then a $16 billion project comes into the community, and they get all the taxes abated, then it has to be equally distributed among everybody else,” Pinette said. “Are you partnering with these corporations and data centers, or are you going to partner with the people of Missouri?”
Senate Bill 1116, introduced by Sen. Travis Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit, also seeks to advance nuclear energy in the state through the establishment of a Missouri Advanced Nuclear Energy Office in the Department of Natural Resources.
Fitzwater emphasized that with the bill fulfilling energy needs across the state, it will in effect create more opportunities for Missouri residents.
“We have a future that has a massive energy demand, and so we’re trying to create an environment in Missouri where we can meet that demand,” Fitzwater said.
Callaway County, a county Fitzwater represents, is the only county in Missouri that houses a commercial nuclear power plant with the Callaway Energy Center. The plant generates nearly 15% of the state’s energy, according to the Missouri Department of Natural Resource.
Supporters of the bill gravitated toward the introduction of grants within the act and the potential advancement of projects within the state relating to nuclear energy.
“It sends not only a statewide signal, but a national signal that Missouri is embracing technologies of the future,” said Jared Hankinson, a representative of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce.
However, opponents of the bill cited concerns over costs related to nuclear power in addition to the nuclear energy being a nonrenewable resource.
“It’s a completely unnecessary and risky investment,” said Elyse Shaeffer, policy coordinator for Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
The question of renewable energy came up on Wednesday during a hearing on House Bill 2807, sponsored by Rep. John Hurlbert, R-Smithville.
The bill would reduce Missouri’s renewable energy standard from 15% to 7% and expand the definition of qualifying renewable energy sources to include nuclear energy. Hurlbert described the bill as a response to increasing demand for “dispatchable” energy across the state.
Tyler Travers, policy director for Renew Missouri, spoke in favor of the bill.
“If we’re going to be adding nuclear, as well as potentially battery storage, this becomes an overall forward thinking and pragmatic piece of legislation,” Travers said.
Opposition for the bill centered around economic concerns and consumer costs. John Coffman, a representative for the Consumers Council of Missouri, warned that the proposal could increase electric rates.
“We don’t like the fact, actually, that the renewable energy standard now has a surcharge attached to it,” Coffman said. “In this case, my biggest concern is that the new nuclear that would be added, whether it is defined as renewable energy or not, would be allowed to pass through the RESRAM surcharge.”
The renewable energy standard rate adjustment mechanism is a monthly charge to energy bills. This charge allows companies to recover the costs of investments in renewable energy.
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Interstate speed limit could increase to 75 mph
By Nolan Haberstroh, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri’s max speed on rural interstate highways could increase. The Senate Wednesday approved a bill that would increase the speed limit to 75 mph.
Senate Bill 1408 is sponsored by Sen. Jamie Burger, R-Benton. “Basically, in the interstates of Missouri, the rural parts of the interstates, where the existing speed limit is now 70, I want it to go to 75,” Burger said, adding later that he “probably rarely” drives the speed limit.
The increased limit would not apply to urbanized areas, which the bill defines as any area containing more than 50,000 residents at a population density equal to or greater than 1,000 people per square mile.
The legislation aims to make travel between urban areas faster.
Burger said a speed increase would be unlikely to increase accidents considering recent technological advancements made in car safety.
Sen. Stephen Webber, D-Columbia, raised concerns about the proposed increase, likening residents getting on the highway every day to wildebeests crossing a river knowing one of them won’t make it alive.
“I was thinking how scary that would be, that must be terrifying. Running through this river, one of them is going to get eaten, they don’t know which one is going to get eaten,” Webber said. ”And then I realized one day that that’s actually the life we live every day. It’s like, we all get on the highway, and somebody is gonna die on a Missouri highway, certainly this week. Statistically, probably today.”
Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, D-Kansas City, agreed with Webber’s hesitation toward the bill, citing the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s testimony on the legislation.
“Highway Patrol is saying if we look at some of this data, when speeds increase, unfortunately the chances of having a fatal crash are also going to increase, which I think are valid concerns,” Nurrenbern said.
Webber expressed an understanding of the bill’s intent, even claiming to relate to it in part.
“I’m not gonna pretend I don’t go 75 sometimes,” Webber said.
Webber later reiterated his apprehension.
“I think that this will lead to some Missourians dying, and I don’t want to read news reports for the rest of my life and wonder if that was one of the people I would have chose to help or not,” he said.
The bill needs an additional vote in the Senate before it can move to the House for consideration.
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Bill proposes tiered certificate system for elementary teachers
By Chase Pray, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A Missouri House bill that would allow the State Board of Education to issue associate teacher certificates under a three tier program was heard by the Elementary and Secondary Education Committee on Wednesday.
Applicants must have completed a background check and a state approved associate teacher preparation program or a similar program that requires at least 60 credit hours, literacy and reading coursework and a capstone project, under the bill.
HB 2776 sponsor Rep. Willard Haley, R-Eldon, said the bill is aimed at addressing a shortage of fully qualified classroom teachers across Missouri.
“We have approximately 4,500 teachers in the state that are classroom teachers of record, who have no more than a substitute certificate, and some of them, at the beginning of school, didn’t even have a sub certificate at that point,” Haley said. “And so, it’s (the bill) a big need.”
Committee Vice Chairman Rep. Brad Banderman, R-St. Clair, highlighted Haley’s effort to address an issue he also believes needs attention.
“I think what you just said is what needs to be highlighted,” he said. “We have over 4,000 teachers on record in the state of Missouri who are either full-time substitutes or lack a substitute certificate. Your work to try and address this in another pathway should be commended.”
The bill would establish three tiers:
A Tier I associate teacher certificate allows educators to be employed as a classroom teacher of record for up to four years. During this period, they must complete at least two years of district mentoring and participate in professional development through the Missouri Beginning Teacher Assistance Program.
A Tier II certificate can be awarded to educators who’ve completed two consecutive years of service in a Missouri public school as a teacher of record, successfully met evaluation requirements and been offered a third contract. Teachers at both of these levels are guaranteed a minimum salary of $35,000.
A Tier III certification would be granted to teachers who have completed a minimum of three years of service and 60 hours of professional development. Educators at this level can receive the same pay and retirement benefits as fully certified teachers.
Haley emphasized that this program would only apply to educators certified to teach at the elementary level.
“We were faced with the question about having someone who graduates high school at the age of 18 and then goes to college and gets their 60 hours for this credential at age 20 and then is placed in a high school that has kids that are 18,” he said. “And many people said, ‘I don’t want a 20 year old in charge of a class of 18 year olds.’”
Rep. Kem Smith, D-Florissant, expressed concern that this system would likely send educators in the lower tiers to schools that are already facing significant troubles.
“I’m working with schools that could possibly be labeled as a D or F school and those will probably be where the Tier I teachers go to work,” she said.
“Kids aren’t cogs, you can’t just put a dime in them and say ‘OK, now you learn how to read,’” she added.
Smith also questioned the validity of the tier system.
“I’m going to tell you now, if my kid had to go get surgery, I wouldn’t want a Tier I doctor,” she said. “I don’t want kids to have to face a Tier I teacher.”
Despite these concerns, HB 2776 was approved by the committee in a 14-4 vote.
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Bill seeks to increase protection for elders in care facilities
By Sawyer Bess, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — The Senate General Laws Committee heard a bill Wednesday that would mandate long-term care facilities to carry at least $1 million in liability insurance.
Senate Bill 910’s sponsor, Sen. Adam Schnelting, R-St. Louis, said he believes requiring care facilities to have liability insurance would help guarantee financial reimbursement to victims of abuse or neglect.
The bill would also increase penalties for abuse or neglect in facilities and require public warning be noted on the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services’ website for poor care at a facility.
Long-term care providers like nursing homes and assisted living facilities are not required to carry liability insurance for cases of elder abuse.
Schnelting said facilities could instead hold a reserve of $1 million in an account as long as it is separate from their operational fund.
Schnelting and Lt. Gov. David Wasinger heard stories from Missouri residents during their 2025 “Protect our Seniors” tour regarding cases of elder abuse.
“When someone gets hurt or their loved one gets hurt, facilities shouldn’t be able to just say ‘Well, you’re out of luck, I don’t have the insurance,’” Schnelting said.
Schnelting and other supporters compared the bill to owning a car, where having car insurance is about protecting others and establishing responsibility.
“I was appalled to find out that these owners are not regulated or required to carry insurance,” said Jane Opperman, an occupational therapist who discovered the lack of regulation after starting her own senior care facility. “We are taking care of a very vulnerable population here, and we owe the families that respect and that accountability,” she said.
Nikki Strong, representing the Missouri Healthcare Association, is concerned that “good” long-term care providers could struggle to continue providing care.
“The unfortunate reality of Senate Bill 910 is that the unintended consequences of this bill ... will most likely force facilities out of business,” Strong said.
Other opponents said that adding higher costs could be destructive to rural providers, which already struggle with lower patient counts.
The bill would require the Missouri DHSS website to mark long-term care facilities with an icon if they have previously committed abuse or neglect. Medicare’s website already uses a similar icon system to flag abuse.
Oppermann said she supports icons as a method of transparency because families looking for long-term care providers already struggle to choose the right care facility.
“When they are already overwhelmed and vulnerable, just a little icon would make a significant impact on their searches,” Oppermann said.
The bill would make elder abuse by a care provider a class E felony, up from a class A misdemeanor. The DHSS would also have to report cases of neglect to the House, Senate and the lieutenant governor.
Similar legislation requiring care providers to have liability insurance failed to pass in the General Assembly in 2009.
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Senate committee weighs hemp bill ahead of federal regulations
By Anika Austvold, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — Conflicting testimony was heard Wednesday on a House bill that would redefine hemp in Missouri. The bill would restrict intoxicating hemp products ahead of new federal regulations scheduled to take effect later this year during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.
House Bill 2641, sponsored by Rep. Dave Hinman, R-O’Fallon, would align Missouri law with federal legislation that bans intoxicating hemp-derived products beginning Nov. 12.
The bill would establish the “Intoxicating Cannabinoid Control Act,” which sets limits on the amount of THC allowed in hemp products and classifies products exceeding those limits as marijuana.
Under the legislation, most intoxicating hemp products could only be produced and sold through Missouri’s licensed marijuana system, addressing growing concerns about unregulated hemp products being easily accessible.
“The biggest goals have been keeping the products out of the hands of children and testing them to make sure that the businesses are selling the same products,” Hinman said.
Supporters of the legislation said it would help Missouri prepare for upcoming federal regulations and clarify the difference between hemp and marijuana products.
Section 781 of the federal bill HR 5371 would ban intoxicating hemp products nationwide by redefining hemp under federal law to exclude products containing intoxicating cannabinoids. If implemented, the change would make those products illegal to produce or sell across the United States.
Tom Robbins, a lobbyist for the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association, testified in favor of the bill, explaining that aligning Missouri’s laws with federal standards would allow state and local authorities to enforce the restrictions once they take effect.
Law enforcement officials also voiced support for the bill. Ozark Police Chief Justin Arnold said officers are increasingly encountering unregulated hemp products that minors can easily purchase.
“Ultimately, the products that are being discussed are intoxicating, they’re unregulated, and they are on store shelves where children can go in and buy them,” Arnold said.
A key provision of the bill addresses hemp-derived beverages. Most intoxicating hemp products, such as gummies and vapes, would be restricted and regulated like marijuana if they exceed the bill’s THC limits. However, the legislation includes a carve-out allowing certain hemp beverages to remain unregulated if federal restrictions are delayed.
Jake Silverman, a lobbyist for the Missouri Hemp Trade Association, testified against the bill, saying that limiting regulations on beverages unfairly favors one segment of the market and would remove most hemp products currently sold in Missouri.
“If it’s okay to regulate beverages in the future, why is it not okay to regulate the gummies and the vapes and the flower as well,” Silverman said.
Others said the legislation could have significant economic consequences for businesses that rely on hemp product sales.
“Small businesses would close, jobs would disappear,” said Tara Latil, of CBD American Shaman, who testified against the bill. “Consumers are not going to stop seeking those products; they’ll just simply turn to online sellers or unregulated sources.”
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Possible new driver's license requirements discussed in committee
By KJ Drazen Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY – The Crime and Safety Committee heard a bill Tuesday that would establish new driving offenses and procedures for young drivers.
House Bill 3220, sponsored by Rep. Mike Jones, R-Kansas City, includes one provision that would increase requirements for first-time applicants with the intent to keep roads safer.
Currently, the law requires a parent or legal guardian to provide a written statement affirming that a younger driver's license applicant will receive 40 hours of behind-the-wheel driving practice with an additional 10 hours worth of nighttime driving.
Additionaly, the bill would require the parent or legal guardian of the applicant to document the 40 hours in the application.
During the hearing Tuesday, most of the comments from the public focused on a new driver's education program.
The bill would also require those who are under the age of 21 or who have never had a driver’s license to complete a program approved by the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission within the 90 days before applying for a license. To complete the program, new drivers would be required to have a minimum of six hours of driving simulation instruction and an additional six hours behind the wheel with an instructor.
The Department of Transportation would be responsible for working with public or private institutions to create free programs for applicants. The new requirements may also be completed through an approved driver education class in schools.
The bill would also establish the Driver’s Education Training Fund, which would be used by the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission to fund the driver’s education programs. In order to fund the program, license applicants will be asked if they want to voluntarily donate to the fund.
Currently, applicants are asked if they want to donate to various organizations, such as the organ donor program and the Medal of Honor recipients fund.
Many testified in support of the driver’s education program, including Deanna Rhodes-Widmer, a member of the Missouri Driver’s Education Coalition and Freedom of Road Riders, a motorcycle rights organization. She expressed having a driver’s education program in place is important, especially for motorcycle riders.
“It’s not just the kids that are getting killed, it's the drivers and the riders," Widmer said. “I can’t tell you how many times they pull out in front of us and how many friends we’ve lost.”
The bill also increases penalties on the driver's license point system, used to determine whether a driver's license should be revoked or downgraded. It would increase the penalties for any incidents involving loss of life or serious injury, leaving the scene of an accident and alcohol consumption.
The bill now awaits a vote from the committee.
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House committee considers expanding financial literacy curriculum
By Hannah McDonough, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — The House Financial Institution Committee heard two bills Wednesday that could expand the requirements for a personal finance class in schools.
Rep. Philip Oehlerking, R-Ballwin, and Rep. Chanel Mosley, D-Black Jack, introduced the bills to educate students about financial issues they will likely experience.
"These bills are about preparing Missouri students to succeed in the real world, to understand money, avoid death traps and become financially responsible adults," Mosley said.
Missouri students are already required to take a half credit personal finance class, according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. These bills would expand the curriculum and require review every seven years to make sure the curriculum is up to date.
The curriculum would encompass areas of finance, including paychecks, budgets, banking services, investing, credit, interest, contracts, taxes and loans.
“Students will sign contracts before they understand them,” Mosley said. “They will take out loans before they understand interest, they will receive paychecks before they understand taxes. This bill equips them before those decisions define their futures.”
Professionals in the industry would be able to provide input on what is being taught in the course.
“It’s created by a working group of various industry leaders from the banking industry, entrepreneurs, the investment industry, the student loan industry, and ... the insurance industry,” Oehlerking said.
Several banking groups in Missouri, including the Missouri Mortgage Bankers Association and Missouri Bankers Association, support the bill. David Kent, a lobbyist for the Missouri Bankers Association, pointed out the need for periodic reviews of the curriculum.
“Back eight to 10 years ago, who would have thought that you could access online, through your phone, all of your account information, etcetera, and who knows what the future is going to bring,” Kent said.
Students would be required to take the class after completing ninth grade but could take it during ninth grade if a school counselor deems it beneficial for the student.
Additionally, the requirement to take the class can be waived for students transferring into a Missouri school if they have already completed a similar course.
The changes would go into effect during the 2027-28 academic year.
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WEDNESDAY
Property tax reform bill advances in House with bipartisan support
By Sophia Gromowsky and Caroline Sweet, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A bill revising the property tax system received initial approval from the House with broad bipartisan support on Tuesday.
House Bill 2780, sponsored by Rep. Tim Taylor, R-Bunceton, would separate assessed valuation changes by subclass, implement protections for property valuation and alter school funding based on property taxes.
Legislators from both parties agreed on the need for property tax reforms in the state. Taylor and Rep. Kathy Steinhoff, D-Columbia, likened the current system to a patient that is “bleeding out,” saying that HB 2780 would help to stabilize the situation while greater changes are considered.
“Let’s stop the bleeding, and then we’ll step back and look at our patient and figure out how we can make it better,” Taylor said.
Steinhoff, who serves as the ranking minority member for the Special Committee on Property Tax Reform, said she hopes the bill will prevent spikes in property taxes for residential homes.
“We may not be able to fix the previous harm that was done to that patient,” Steinhoff added. “We may not have caught it in the past few years, where we saw spikes particularly in residential properties, but it will hopefully, going forward, prevent that from happening again.”
Property taxes are currently determined by using the average year-to-year change in assessed valuation between four types of property within a tax district: residential, commercial, agricultural and personal. This average is then compared against inflation, with provisions of the state’s constitution requiring that property tax rates be reduced if the change in assessment values is greater than inflation. Under HB 2780, each property category would belong to its own subclass, with each change in each subclass being directly compared with inflation.
This would prevent stagnant valuations in one category from diluting valuations in others, allowing greater tax rollbacks when the increase in assessed valuation rates is greater than the rate of inflation in one category.
Taylor said that this provision would mainly impact residential properties. He said that the greatest concern he heard from constituents while traveling through the state was that they would be taxed out of their homes, as residential properties skyrocket in value.
The national median existing single-family home price rose 1.7% in 2025, with a 4.2% increase in the Midwest region, according to the National Association of Realtors. Assessed valuation typically reflects rising housing prices.
Another provision of the bill would require assessors to conduct physical inspections on any properties when their assessed valuation rises more than 15%. Taylor said this provision intends to allow for more fair and accurate assessments on properties when valuations jump at a high level. This will give taxpayers greater confidence that their homes are being assessed for full value, Taylor said.
Another major discussion point was on a provision that would lower the school district tax rate requirement from $2.75 to $2.20.
Under current property tax law, public school districts qualify for Foundation Formula funding beyond the level set in 2005, only if they have a property tax levy of $2.75 or greater per $100 of assessed valuation.
HB 2780 would set the floor for these rates to $2.20, allowing school districts with excess funding to lower their property tax if needed. The Foundation Formula is the primary form of state-level funding for public education and is distributed to schools on a per-pupil basis.
Steinhoff voted against HB 2780 in committee last Tuesday because of the reduction in required property tax rates, but signaled her support for the legislation on the House floor this week.
Steinhoff said her main concern was that the proposed reduction may interfere with the work of the governor’s Missouri School Funding Modernization Task Force, which is simultaneously working to change the Foundation Formula and is set to deliver a report by this December.
“One of the biggest places where those two things meet is this $2.75, and I would hate for them to be doing work based on that being the foundational number, and then we come over here and change that number,” Steinhoff said.
In response, Taylor said that it was important to start the process despite this potential conflict.
Steinhoff said she would support the bill as it moves forward in the legislature after hearing more about the provision.
“I felt a little bit more comfortable voting yes this time, but I still have those reservations,” she said. “I’m concerned we haven’t vetted it as much as we should, but I do think, by passing this bill out of the floor, it’s going to start to garner a little bit more vetting.”
“I’m really excited that this bill is much better than it was the first time it was on the floor,” Steinhoff added.
HB 2780 is often paired with HB 2668, sponsored by Rep. Ben Keathley, R-Chesterfield. HB 2668 mainly addresses ballot language for voting on property tax measures and when property tax changes can appear on the ballot. Both bills passed through the Special Committee on Property Tax Reform together last week, but Keathley’s bill still awaits approval on the floor.
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Senate looks to fully ban controversial reading instruction system
By Noah Symes, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A bill that would ban three-cueing and establish new reading assessments was heard in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday.
After legislation prohibiting three-cueing as a primary instructional method passed last year, legislators are now aiming for an outright ban.
Three-cueing, also known as the Meaning Structure Visual system, teaches kids to read by using context. Kids are encouraged to figure out unfamiliar words by looking for meaning, whether that be in the sentence, the grammar or any pictures. Legislators aim to return to phonics, which focuses on sounds and the connection between written language and spoken language.
Senate Bill 1442 aims to ban three-cueing. The bill would also establish the “Missouri Universal Reading Screener,” a new reading assessment for first through third grade. Students identified as reading deficient by the assessment will be retained, meaning they will not be promoted to fourth grade until their reading scores improve or they receive an exemption.
Sponsor of the bill, Sen. Brad Hudson, R-Cape Fair, said Missouri students have fallen behind, citing the National Assessment of Education Progress, or NAEP, reading scores.
“In 2003, Missouri was ranked 14th out of 50 states in NAEP fourth-grade reading scores,” Hudson said. “By 2024, however, Missouri was ranked 38th.”
Hudson said 42% of Missouri’s fourth graders were reading below NAEP’s “basic” level in 2024.
Since 2021, at least eight states have banned three-cueing from the classroom, with many others passing restrictions on the method.
“Reading unlocks doors to the entire world, and it is time we give our students the key,” Hudson said.
Cory Koedel, director of education policy at the Show Me Institute, said the retention of reading-deficient students is the component driving his support of the bill.
“It seems like our human nature to want to be kind and help them along, but that doesn’t help them,” Koedel said. “It is not a kindness to promote someone in early grades who can’t read.”
Dava-Leigh Brush, a representative of the Missouri Equity Education Partnership, testified in opposition to the bill. Brush said she doesn’t like the three-cueing system, but opposes an outright ban.
Brush recalled teaching English to children from Nepal and using strategies from the three-cueing system after finding phonics wasn’t working.
“While it may not work for a lot of kids, it may work for one kid,” Brush said. “(Three-cueing) should not be the primary way to do it, but it should be a tool in a box.”
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Bill increasing authority of nurse practitioners was debated in committee
By Kennedy Voss, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A sea of white coats flooded the hallways of the Capitol on Tuesday as doctors waited to speak in opposition to two bills that would loosen restrictions on advanced practice nurse practitioners.
Advanced practice nurse practitioners, or APRNs, are nurses who have obtained a graduate degree. They have more training and autonomy than registered nurses, but are currently required to enter into a collaborative practice agreement with a licensed physician.
Senate Bills 979 and 1016 would allow APRNs to work without the oversight of a physician, and includes language about the prescription of certain Schedule II drugs like adderall.
The sponsors of these bills, Sen. Nick Schroer, R-Defiance, and Sen. Patty Lewis, D-Kansas City, said that the bills are meant to address the lack of health care access across the state, specifically in rural communities. They also addressed that many other states across the nation, including several bordering Missouri, have already instituted similar laws.
Currently, APRNs are also required to pay a monthly fee to physicians they work with. This can cost them between $4,000 to $50,000 annually.
“There are 36 states that have transitioned to practice for full practice authorities,” Lewis said. “All of our boundary states have transitioned to full practice authority, except for Tennessee.”
Lewis said she has heard firsthand from nurse constituents who have left Missouri to practice in a bordering state like Kansas. This migration of providers comes at a time when Missouri is already suffering from a lack of access to health care, especially in rural areas.
One of the APRNs who spoke in support of the bill, Marcy Markes, has seen the effects that the current restrictions have on rural health care communities. Markes, the owner of Columbia Allergy and Asthma Specialists, said she has had to close three rural clinics and is currently suing the state to overturn the restrictive laws.
“The National Academy of Medicine has recommended removing unnecessary scope and practice barriers to improve access,” Markes said. “Full practice authority does not eliminate collaboration; health care is inherently collaborative.”
Opponents of the bill cited concerns that nurse practitioners do not undergo the same training as a licensed physician, and expressed concerns about potential patient outcomes and safety if the restrictions were removed. APRNs only require 2,000 hours of training, while family physicians require over 10,000 to 15,000 hours.
Some who spoke in favor of the bill, like Jamie Murphy from the Missouri Hospital Association, asked for an increase in practice hours before APRN certification.
“The Missouri Hospital Association supports these bills, but we have a caveat; we would like 4,000 hours of collaborating practice before you transition practice, not the 2,000 in the bills,” Murphy said.
Some opponents, like Keith Ratcliff of the Missouri Academy of Family Physicians, pushed back against the idea that allowing APRNs more freedom would help the rural health care crisis. Ratcliff said one of the biggest obstacles to APRNs in rural communities was actually geographic proximity regulations, which have since been abolished.
APRNs previously had to follow regulations requiring them to practice within a certain distance of their physician.
“There’s no longer an excuse that you have to be within 30 miles or 50 miles or 70 miles of your collaborating physician. That’s gone,” Ratcliff said. “But yet, we see no migration of nurse practitioners to our rural areas.”
Opponents also cited concerns with one of the provisions of the bills that would allow APRNs to prescribe Schedule II drugs, which can often be addictive. Emily George of JC Peds spoke about her concerns with overprescribing these stimulants.
“In the last decade, stimulant prescribing has increased by 50%, and a lot of that prescribing is being done by nurse practitioners,” George said. “I’ve seen both as a parent and a prescriber that patients have had difficulty finding medications due to intermittent shortages and the increased prescribing.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the restrictions on APRNs were lifted, but were put back in place in 2023. Since then, several bills have tried to loosen the restrictions again, but none have been passed.
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House bills aim to bring more movies to Missouri
By Anika Austvold, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — The House Economic Development Committee heard legislation that would expand Missouri’s Show MO film tax credit program on Tuesday.
In an effort to attract larger production opportunities, House bills 2124 and 2058 would restructure Missouri’s film tax credit program into one pool. Sponsored by Rep. Colin Wellenkamp, R-St. Charles, and Rep. Jeff Vernetti, R-Camdenton, the bills would replace the current system, which sets aside $8 million annually for film productions and $8 million for television series, with a single $16 million annual cap that could be used for either type of project.
“We do know that combining these buckets and eliminating the bifurcation between eight and eight will bring more productions to the state because the industry has told us,” Wellenkamp said.
Wellenkamp said the current structure limits Missouri’s ability to compete with other states that offer more flexible incentive programs.
Vernetti pointed to Netflix’s “Ozark” as an example of this. While the show boosted tourism in his district near the Lake of the Ozarks, it was primarily filmed in Georgia, a state that offers uncapped film incentives. He argued that a more competitive and flexible credit system might have kept more of that production, and its economic benefits, in Missouri.
Supporters of the bill also pointed to the economic impact of the 2014 film “Gone Girl,” which was filmed in Cape Girardeau. The production injected millions of dollars into the local economy and continued to draw tourism to the area after filming concluded.
Kelley Hiatt of the St. Louis Film Office testified in favor of the bill, saying the tax credit is “not a Hollywood handout,” but rather an investment in Missouri communities. Hiatt said film productions generate revenue for local businesses while creating jobs for Missouri workers.
Rachel Kephart of the Kansas City Film Office also testified in support of the legislation. She said Missouri has built a competitive framework through the Show MO program but needs greater flexibility to continue to attract larger productions.
Kephart pointed to the Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso,” which was recently filmed in Kansas City, Missouri, even though much of the storyline takes place on the Kansas side of the border, as an example of how tax incentives influence filming decisions.
“They did not shoot a single frame in the state of Kansas,” Kephart said. “That decision had nothing to do with sentiment. It wasn’t about geography, it was about policy. It was about productions following structure that makes financial sense, and right now, this is a region that makes sense.”
If passed, the credits would expire in 2035, unless renewed by lawmakers.
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Social media education bill is heard in House committee
By Jordan Davis, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A House bill that would implement social media education was heard in the House Children and Families Committee on Tuesday.
Bill sponsor Rep. Melissa Schmidt, R-Eldridge, has seen the effects of social media on children and said education could ensure more online safety prevention.
“Social media can distract from homework, exercise, disrupt sleep, limit family activities and oftentimes, encourages isolation,” Schmidt said.
House Bill 3077 would require school curricula in middle and high school to include the navigation of social media, responsible usage and the impact on well-being. The class could be an addition to career readiness programs or employment opportunities, according to the bill.
School district staff and families would receive resources to assist their children. This would include the implementation of parental controls on social media apps. It also plans to combat the negative influence that social media can have on overall student well-being.
“We are charged with educating and protecting children, and we are charged with teaching them how to recognize danger,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt said she has been working with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to make sure the bill is feasible for all districts.
Multiple representatives suggested the bill be combined with another bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Murphy, R-St. Louis, which would establish a pilot program around media literacy and critical thinking. Schmidt said the bills were too different to be combined efficiently.
“I think, you know, several years ago, pilot program was probably a good strategy, and that’s nothing against Rep. Murphy,” Schmidt said. “My bill also says really clear, defined standards around what the curriculum needs to highlight. So, those are some of the key differences.”
Rep. Ann Kelley, R-Lamar, said this bill adds to an already extensive school curriculum. Instead, it should be embedded into other classes, rather than carving out additional separate learning time, she said.
There were several testimonies in favor, including Stephanie Embry, the technology director for the Lebanon Arthur School District. She noticed that during her time as an educator, there was a sharp decline in the attention span of her students with frequent use of social media.
Embry wanted to combat this as an instructional technology coach.
“Responsible social media use can be embedded directly into the research, the reading and the critical analysis that our students do every day,” Embry said. “Teaching them to identify AI generated, deep fakes or manipulative content is simply modern day reading comprehension.”
Embry said this legislation gives “families the instruction manual that they would need and have been asking for,” for their students.
Others think the bill can prevent sexual extortion or exploitation in children. Cara Gerdiman, the executive director of Kids Harbor Child Advocacy Center, mentioned a learning program through her organization that emphasizes child sexual abuse prevention in 20 school districts. This has been well received in her community.
Gerdiman said that many schools want more information on this prevention program to eradicate abuse that may come alongside social media in adolescents.
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Bills policing bathroom use face House committee scrutiny
By Erin Hynes, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — Over three hours of public testimony were heard Monday evening on House bills prohibiting the use of multi-occupancy restrooms in accordance with one’s gender identity.
The House Emerging Issues Committee heard two bills aiming to prohibit the use of a bathroom not aligned with a person’s biological sex. Dozens of Missouri residents stayed at the Capitol past 10:30 p.m. to testify against the legislation.
HB 1893, sponsored by Rep. Wendy Hausman, R-St. Peters, allows private schools for K-12 students to restrict facilities, like multi-occupancy bathrooms, to a person’s biological sex.
HB 2075, sponsored by Rep. Brandon Phelps, R-Warrensburg, bars certain facilities, such as bathrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms, from being used by more than one biological sex.
If passed, these two bills combined would prevent a person from entering areas aligned with their gender identity in many public spaces. In compliance with the updated law, HB 2075 would require renovation to any spaces with multi-gendered restrooms.
Timothy Faber, an ordained minister, testified in favor of both bills.
“If you choose to go to a private school, then you should abide by their rules,” Faber said. “The more the state requires private schools to do this or that, whatever it may be, the less private they become.”
Phelps described his bill as providing clarity, consistency and safety to a “straightforward but important issue.”
Temara “Jaz” Jasmine, a transgender woman from Missouri, said this legislation reflects a more recent phenomenon, not a long-standing issue.
“I have been an out transgender person for nearly 20 years, and this moral panic that’s happening now, this is only a few years old,” Jasmine said. “This is a moral sex panic, and I am tired of being victimized by it.”
Many transgender and gender nonconforming Missouri residents spoke about their experiences, and said that forcing someone to use the bathroom aligned with the gender on their birth certificate would not accurately reflect who they are or how they appear to the public.
Rep. Elizabeth Fuchs, D-St. Louis, pointed out that HB 1893 and 2075 do not address how intersex individuals may be affected by this legislation. In Missouri, intersex is not an option on a person’s birth certificate, which these bills use to determine sex.
Some opponents also questioned the enforcement of these bills, including Columbia College student Luna Trask.
“Would I be required to scan my birth certificate at the door to enter the bathroom? That seems absurd,” Trask said. “I am a student, I should be home studying for my midterms right now. Instead, I’m here testifying about what bathroom I’m allowed to use.”
A third bill, HB 2536, sponsored by Rep. Becky Laubinger, R-Park Hills, provides broader restrictions on spaces based on biological sex, including restrooms, changing rooms, correctional centers, juvenile detention centers, schools and higher education institutions.
If passed, HB 2536 would require facilities to separate by biological sex for “private, personal spaces” where one might get undressed or sleep.
HB 2536 faced similar scrutiny from some representatives and the public, and they questioned what precedent this could set for Missouri.
Rep. Wick Thomas, D-Kansas City, pointed out how the implications in the bills may negatively affect Missouri, including the “bathroom policing” they introduce.
House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City, does not serve on the emerging issues committee, but chose to attend the hearing. Aune said she showed up to be a supportive voice in the room for the LGBTQ+ community.
“It’s really important to me that these folks who travel across the state to have their voices heard, to defend the very core of their identity, that there’s a smiling face in the room,” Aune said in an interview.
Aune noted that testimony on these bills has dwindled over the past six years, as families with transgender kids and previously vocal advocates leave Missouri.
These are just three of nearly 50 bills pertaining to gender in Missouri this year, according to an independent research organization, Trans Legislation Tracker. Other bills discuss participation in sports, conversations in the classroom, access to gender affirming care and bathroom policies.
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Bill would provide transparency in school spending
By Nolan Haberstroh and Xavier Asher, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A Senate bill requiring greater transparency in the use of funds in public schools was debated Monday, with questions raised about the failure to include similar requirements for charter schools.
Senate Bill 1029, sponsored by Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, would require public school districts to maintain a publicly accessible database on their websites detailing transactions made using school district funds.
The bill aims to give taxpayers easy access to the expenditures carried out by the school districts they fund. Brattin said he hopes that the transparency mandated by this legislation will deter school districts from spending taxpayer dollars carelessly.
Currently, information about incoming funds, outgoing funds, expenditures, debts, salaries and other finances are published by districts in the form of a lengthy, jargon heavy file, Brattin said. He said these documents are too convoluted for the average taxpayer to understand.
“It’s in a PDF format, and it's much more difficult to understand as opposed to something that's in an interactive format," Brattin said. “This (bill) isn’t creating new spreadsheets or anything. It’s actually just utilizing and taking the information that they should, by law, already have and making it more accessible and readable to the people.”
Brattin said he wants to enlist the help of online tools to transform antiquated school district websites into ones that can be easily navigated by taxpayers who want to see how their money is being spent.
While every senator who spoke supported an increase in transparency and accountability, several Democrats raised concerns over the exclusion of funds given to charter schools and the state’s MOScholars program from the bill's provisions.
Both charter schools and the MOScholars program use taxpayer money to provide parents with tuition for their children to attend private schools — charter schools through vouchers, and MOScholars through scholarships.
Democrats argued that all taxpayer money that goes towards funding education should be held to the same standard, and said that it’s hypocritical to demand accountability from public schools while letting the spending habits of charter schools and MOScholars recipients go unaccounted for.
Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, D-Kansas City, raised concerns over cost of implementing of the reporting, but ultimately supported the aim of the bill. Nurrenbern’s primary goal was to add an amendment including charter schools in the bill, arguing their use of public funds should render them subject to the bill’s provisions.
“What I’m asking is that this would also be applicable to charters,” Nurrenbern said. “Charter schools are public schools, and we would want to make sure that they also have to comply.”
Nurrenbern later addressed Brattin directly, reiterating her support should the amendment be adopted.
“Essentially everything that’s in this legislation, Senator, I think should be applicable to schools that are taking our tax dollars,” Nurrenbern said.
The bill was laid aside after several hours of debate.
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House bills would change child safety rules on motorcycles
By Faith Jacoby, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — Three bills regulating child safety on motorcycles and motor-tricycles were heard by the House Transportation Committee on Tuesday.
The bills, HB 1831, HB 2328 and HB 2553, aim to establish more safety provisions for child passengers riding on motorcycles and motor-tricycles.
If the bills pass, the implemented law would be named "Calvin's Law," after Calvin Spurlock. Calvin died in a motorcycle accident in March 2025, said his grandmother, Janet Bond, who testified in favor of the bills.
"The aim of this proposed law is to prevent other families from suffering the devastating loss of a child due to insufficient motorcycle safety laws," Bond said. "No family should have to endure the pain we have experienced."
Sponsored by Reps. Terri Violet, R-St. Charles, Bill Lucas, R-Jefferson, and Scott Miller, R-St. Charles, the bills would make it unlawful for a child 10 years of age or younger to ride as a passenger while on a highway, unless certain requirements are met.
The bills would require the motorcycle or motor-tricycle to have a passenger seat, and all passengers 10 years of age or younger must be wearing protective headgear.
"For me, at the end of the day, this bill is about prevention," Violet said. "It's about making sure the young children are protected, reducing the risk of serious injuries, or even worse."
The bills would also allow for authorities to stop, inspect or detain a motorcycle or motor-tricycle operator when there is "reasonable basis to suspect that a violation involves a child passenger under 10 years of age."
In opposition to the bill, Tony Shepherd, a representative for American Bikers Aimed Toward Education of Missouri, argued that most motorcycle riders follow safety precautions.
"Most of us are responsible adults that are asking the government to stay the heck out of our lives," Shepherd said.
Violations of the law would be punishable as an infraction and a fine of $100.
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Proposed bill would close schools on election days
By Hailey Sanford, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A proposed bill would close schools on election days because of safety concerns.
Rep. Jamie Gragg, R-Ozark, brought HB 1787 to the House Elections Committee. He has filed the bill in the two previous sessions, but it was heard for the first time on Tuesday.
If the bill passes, elections held in November and April would be considered school holidays, and children and staff would have the day off.
Gragg said the goal of the bill is to protect children’s safety, as numerous polling sites are located inside public schools. Gragg was unsure of the total number of polling places located in schools, but said four out of 14 polling locations in his district are schools.
Since public schools are government-owned buildings, it is easier to rent them out and less costly compared to churches or other alternative locations, Gragg said.
Gragg said there are guards in banks, courts and even McDonald’s, but most schools only have a locked door. Currently, many polling locations inside schools increase security or partition voters from students.
“It’s just, our children are our (most) important items, so we need to protect them. These are just two days when we’ve got so many people going in and out of the building,” Gragg said. ”We’ve got all these people that we have no way of vetting all of them.”
Rep. Dean Van Schoiak, R-Savannah, pointed out that parents will have to find child care for the two days.
Gragg said many parents will bring their children when they vote and use it as a learning experience. However, some parents still have to work on election days, so this would not completely solve the child care issue.
Rep. Eric Wood, D-Kansas City, suggested election days should be constituted as state or federal holidays to give parents the day off as well.
Fourteen states consider election days as public holidays, including Kentucky and Indiana. Missouri is not one of these states, but employers are required to provide paid time off to vote.
Having two additional days off in the school year can disrupt the already tight calendars that school districts have in place. Gragg hopes to not add additional days, but it would be up to the districts to adjust for the holidays.
Gragg said there has been support for his bill from school administrators and the general public.
“I’ve talked with many superintendents and principals around the state, not just my area, and they have all wholeheartedly liked this,” Gragg said.
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MONDAY
Senate committee weighs stricter requirements for voter registration
By Chase Pray, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A Senate bill that would require first-time Missouri voters to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship was heard Monday in the Local Government, Elections and Pensions Committee.
Senate Bill 986, sponsored by Sen. Ben Brown, R-Washington, specifies the type of identification that would be accepted. These include a valid U.S. passport, a Real ID or a military ID with a record of service.
A government or Missouri-issued ID would be acceptable if accompanied by a certified birth certificate, hospital birth record, final adoption decree or a consular report of birth abroad.
Voters would also be required to personally provide all information on their voter registration form.
Brown credits the Missouri General Assembly’s passing of Amendment 7 by a two-thirds margin in 2024 as evidence of support for stricter election safeguards.
“The people of the state made it clear where they stand on this issue, and it is now incumbent upon us to ensure that we follow through on this mandate and that it is enforced,” he said.
The bill specifies that voters who are already registered, or are transferring their registration within the state, would be exempt from these documentation requirements.
Chad Ennis, vice president of the Honest Election Project, said the bill would lead to fairer Missouri elections.
“A single vote may not sound like a big deal, but since 2023, Missouri has had 16 elections that were either tied or within one vote,” Ennis said. “And so every single illegal vote dilutes the vote of a person.”
People who testified against the bill point to difficulties certain groups could face in meeting these documentation requirements.
“Two-thirds of African American U.S. citizens don’t have a valid passport,” said Denise Lieberman, director and general counsel of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition. “(And) 69 million female citizens nationwide don’t have a birth certificate that comports with their current legal name (because of marriage).”
Lieberman added that she believes this bill would make it more difficult for many Missourians to vote.
“For a nonfrivolous and statistically significant portion of Missouri’s voters, this becomes a hardship that can be extremely difficult, if not impossible to overcome,” Lieberman said.
Election officials would be required to reject any application that isn’t accompanied by the required documents. Applicants would be notified of this decision within 10 business days.
Any documentation received before 7 p.m. on Election Day would be registered by the date the application was first submitted.
To ensure proper voter registration records are kept, each circuit court clerk in Missouri would be required to submit monthly lists to the secretary of state of individuals who identified themselves as noncitizens when called to jury duty.
Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, D-Kansas City, raised concerns about the privacy concerns these reports could cause.
“So that would be sunshinable, and Senator (Brown), you’re well aware what’s happening across our nation,” Nurrenbern said. “I think the last thing we need are voters being targeted because their name appears on a list.”
In response, Brown expressed a desire to embed privacy protections to ensure these lists wouldn’t be misused.
Brown also addressed concerns that the system doesn’t properly account for people who become citizens after being initially flagged as noncitizens.
“In that case, they would have their U.S. naturalization documents, and that is one of the methods that can be used to prove your citizenship,” he said. “You would then be classified as a verified voter.”
Similar legislation about proof of citizenship has already passed in nine states. The bill also aligns closely with the SAVE Act, which requires proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. That act is still being considered in Congress.
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Missouri considers getting rid of vehicle safety inspections
By Hannah McDonough, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — House bills to eliminate auto safety inspections in Missouri were heard in a Senate committee hearing on Monday.
Currently, Missouri requires drivers to get their vehicle inspected prior to registration every other year. The only vehicles exempt from this are vehicles under 150,000 miles and within 10 years of the year the model was first manufactured.
Should the bills pass, most vehicles would not be required to get safety inspections.
“Eliminating vehicle regulatory inspections is the way we can reduce unnecessary burdens on citizens,” said bill sponsor, Rep. Ann Kelley, R-Lamar.
The legislation comes with a few exceptions. If it is a commercial vehicle, prior salvage vehicle or has been in an accident before, then the vehicle would still need to be inspected.
The bills received support from several witnesses. Lobbyist Tony Shepherd is a retired auto tech who has conducted many state vehicle inspections. He pointed out the inconvenience of the process of getting a safety inspection, as oftentimes it is not just one trip and the inspection is done.
“Many times, unfortunately, your car is not going to pass. You’re going to get a phone call that says, ‘well, you need a set of wiper blades,’” Shepherd said.
Then the driver has to get the car fixed by a mechanic and bring it back to be inspected again. Shepherd noted that for a lot of drivers, this means missing one or more days of work.
Casey Garber testified on behalf of Carvana, stating that currently they are required to do a safety inspection before the sale of a vehicle. That would not be required under the new legislation.
“We believe this will be good for our customers and give them a better customer experience,” Garber said.
Mark Fiegenbaum from the Missouri Farm Bureau also testified in favor of the bill.
“We don’t believe the vehicle inspections adequately make the roads any safer,” Fiegenbaum said.
Several other states, such as Texas and Florida, have already passed similar legislation. However, each state has their own specific rules on auto inspections and may have different exceptions than Missouri.
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WEEKEND
House committee moves forward two revised property tax overhaul bills
By Caroline Sweet, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — Two bills that would overhaul how property taxes are collected are set to reach the House floor after being voted out of the Special Interim Committee on Property Tax Reform last week.
House Bills 2780 and 2668, sponsored respectively by Rep. Tim Taylor, R-Bunceton, and Rep. Ben Keathley, R-Chesterfield, saw major revisions in committee last week after Taylor’s bill was sent back from the floor.
Democratic representatives opposed the bill’s perfection in the House, saying it hadn’t been debated on the floor for long enough.
“We are ramming these property tax fixes through so quickly with very little debate and very little opportunity for these local municipalities to have their voices heard in the conversation,” said Rep. Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City, in a news conference on Feb. 19, two days after the bills were sent back to committee.
After returning to committee, provisions in Taylor’s and Keathley’s bills were rearranged to simplify proceedings on the floor.
“Each one of them is going to take on the nuances of the combined bill, or the final bill, that we had,” Taylor said.
Now, HB 2780’s main provisions include tax siloing, property valuation protection and changes to school funding based on property taxes. HB 2668 addresses ballot language for voting on property tax measures and when property tax changes can be on the ballot.
Current Missouri tax legislation combines the change in assessed valuations between the four types of property — residential, commercial, agricultural and personal. Under HB 2780, each category’s assessed valuation would remain independent so that stagnant valuations in one category would not dilute the valuations in the others, allowing for more rollbacks on taxes when valuations increase beyond inflation.
A provision that would require assessors to conduct physical inspections before increasing assessment values by more than 15% was originally included in Keathley’s bill but will now be carried forward by Taylor in HB 2780.
Most of the debate in the committee hearing last Tuesday centered around school district tax levies.
Under current property tax law, school districts qualify for Foundation Formula funding for public schools beyond the level set in 2005 only if they have a property tax levy of $2.75 or greater per $100 of assessed valuation. A new change to HB 2780 would set the floor for these rates to $2.20, up from an earlier version of the bill which would have set them at $1.50 per $100 of assessed valuation. The Foundation Formula is the primary form of state level funding for public education and is distributed to schools on a per pupil basis.
“For transparency, when I sat down and we drafted this initial legislation, I chose $1.50 out of the air,” Taylor said Tuesday.
Rep. Mark Boyko, D-Kirkwood, proposed the change to lower the floor to $2.20.
In response, Taylor expressed satisfaction that the bill was being negotiated and debated by the committee.
HB 2668’s election provisions would aim to help ballot measure readability. It would require that property tax ballot measures not be labeled as “no tax increase,” except in certain circumstances.
One provision would require voting on property tax measures to be moved from April elections to the November general elections. A change was made to the provision when the bills were rearranged last week to allow township counties to be exempted from this move because it would not give them enough time to make changes to assessments as their property tax process is different than other types of counties.
Under the bill, all other counties would be required to vote on tax measures in November.
The special committee passed HB 2780 by a vote of 11-5 and HB 2668 by a vote of 9-6. Two Republicans voted no on HB 2780, and only one voted no on HB 2668. All five Democrats present at the meeting voted against 2668, but Boyko and Rep. Will Jobe, D-Independence, voted in favor of HB 2780.
Faith Jacoby contributed to this story.
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State senator reports threats over gambling machine votes
By Abigail Didonna, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A senator sponsoring a contentious gambling bill recently warned fellow legislators to disregard threats from lobbyists about their votes on the issue.
Sen. Jason Bean, R-Holcomb, warned his House and Senate colleagues in an email that they should disregard threats of federal or state investigation of their votes on the gambling bills being considered by the Missouri General Assembly.
In the email, Bean described receiving intimidating phone calls from lobbyists implying legal risk for those who vote to legalize and regulate these machines.
“There has been vigorous debate on this issue for many years, but never have I seen on this issue or any other issue the threat of federal/state prosecution for those who choose to vote a certain way — especially when those allegations are false,” Bean wrote in his letter.
Attorney General Catherine Hanaway also rejected the notion of legal action. She said in an interview with This Week in Missouri Politics that she has no intention of policing lawmakers’ votes.
Bean is sponsoring SB 862, a bill that would regulate the illegal “no-chance” slot machines that are popular in gas stations, bodegas, bars and restaurants. The bill would also set up a regulatory framework governing video lottery gaming terminals, allowing them to operate legally in Missouri.
Bean’s bill is similar to HB 2989, which narrowly passed in the House on Feb. 18.
“This is the first time I have addressed my colleagues in both the House and Senate. I feel I must stand up for and protect the interest of ALL members on an issue that is not partisan,” Bean wrote. “It is critical that members have the freedom to express themselves openly and honestly, without threat of retribution.”
A text message received by one of Bean’s colleagues threatened legal investigation based on lawmakers’ votes, he said.
“After AG Hanaway announced the federal and state investigations, now no one can claim they don’t know this is illegal and anyone voting for this bill is likely to be swept up in their investigation,” Bean reported in his letter.
“It is not my interest to focus on any given lobbyist, but to put the entire lobbying corps on notice: We will act to protect the members of our body, and we will not stand silent while these kinds of tactics threaten our members and our deliberate process,” Bean’s email said.
Bean declined to speak further on the topic when contacted by the Missourian.
“I don’t like what’s happening right now,” Hanaway said on the politics program. “Some testimony I gave in House Appropriations (Committee) is sort of being leveraged by some to indicate that there is some right way to vote on this bill and that there is a wrong way to vote and that law enforcement officials will investigate a particular vote.
“The legislature is there to do its job; I’m here to do mine,” she said. “Theirs is to make the law, mine is to enforce the law.”
Hanaway recently filed a lawsuit against five retail shops in Dunklin County for possessing illegal gambling machines and has vowed to crack down on the issue.
The machines are nicknamed “no-chance” machines because the outcome is not selected randomly like other slot machines but instead operates on a series of predetermined outcomes.
“Right now video lottery terminals are illegal in Missouri. I think they’re having a very corrosive effect on our economy the way they are, I think they’re gonna encourage a violent element, but if the Legislature decides to make them legal, fine,” Hanaway said.
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Senate weighs creating prison Ombudsman, establishing 'Bentley's Law'
By Noah Symes, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — Two bills to add more oversight of Missouri prisons and create a payment system for children whose parents have been killed in car accidents await votes in a Senate committee.
Advocates gathered in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week to voice their support for Senate Bill 1509, which aims to establish an ombudsman for oversight of inmate care. The committee also heard testimony from advocates for another piece of legislation known as "Bentley’s Law" in a fifth attempt at bringing the policy to Missouri.
An ombudsman is an independent and impartial reviewer who works to oversee or investigate an organization. This bill would establish an “Office of State Ombudsman for Inmates,” which would oversee the Department of Corrections' care of inmates.
The office would be headed by an Ombudsman, who would serve a six-year term appointed by the Governor.
The bill sponsor, Sen. Angela Mosley, D-Florissant, said she worked with both the Department of Corrections and supporters of the policy on the bill.
Maria Miller, whose brother Larry Miller was killed in a Cameron prison, testified in support of the bill.
Miller said her brother’s death is a result of “failure and neglect.”
Miller called for increased transparency for investigations regarding inmate deaths so “that no other family has to experience what me and my family has been through the last 12 years.”
Tammy Reed, whose son died in the Tipton Correctional Center in 2023, also testified in support of the bill.
Reed said her son, Brandon Pace, was only 6 months from coming home when she got the call that he had passed away. She said from that moment she has fought for transparency for what happened to her son.
“Why, as a mother, should I have to fight?” Reed said. “Thinking my son is in an institution where he is to be protected, where he is to be rehabilitated to come back to society."
Reed alleges in a 2024 lawsuit that prison officers pepper-sprayed her son, handcuffed him and placed him in a cage. She also alleges her son's cries for help were ignored, and he was denied medical care for over four hours until his death. Reed said she worked as a correctional officer for 27 years and “was always held to a higher standard.”
Bentley's Law
Earlier in the same hearing Wednesday, Cecilia Williams advocated for increased accountability for reckless drivers who are responsible for a parent's death.
Williams became the guardian of her two grandchildren, Bentley and Mason, after their parents were killed by a drunk driver in 2021.
It was after her son’s passing that she contacted her representative at the time, now Sen. Mike Henderson, R-Desloge, and spoke to him about "Bentley’s Law," named for her grandson.
Senate Bill 1135 would establish "Bentley’s Law," which would require drivers who caused the death of a parent or guardian while driving intoxicated to pay child support, at the petition of a living parent or guardian, until the child becomes an adult.
“They can afford to go out and take a chance of killing someone,” Williams said. “They can afford to pay for the children who did not ask for this to happen to their family.”
Williams said legislation similar to "Bentley's Law" has been passed in seven other states and in the Cayman Islands. The law and similar legislation are being considered across the country and in Ontario, Canada.
This year will mark the fifth year Henderson has brought "Bentley’s Law" to the Missouri general assembly for consideration. She said she blames no one particular person, but hopes to get it to the governor's desk this session.
“I am very proud of this state, and I am very proud of the fact it has made its way, almost, to the finish line,” Williams said.
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Student athlete transfer bill sparks discussion
By KJ Drazen, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A bill that would bring oversight to appeal decisions made by statewide activities associations with the intent of making the transfer process for student athletes easier is getting attention.
House Bill 2403, sponsored by Rep. Mark Meirath, R-Excelsior Springs, is seeking to create an appeal process outside of the Missouri State High School Activities Association.
MSHSAA has been the subject of several bills, including efforts to put a state board over the association that governs sports and other activities.
The bill would provide a “Transfer Board” that would oversee athletic transfer situations. The board would be composed of three members appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, three members by the President Pro Tem of the Senate, and one by the Governor.
This bill would also be known as the “Rue Wells Act," in honor of student athlete Rue Wells. His senior year of high school, Wells was denied eligibility by MSHSAA to play varsity basketball after transferring from Springfield to Liberty High School due to safety reasons.
However, his transfer was seen as by MSHSAA as unnecessary and his participation in sports was denied.
There was some pushback Thursday at a House Government Efficiency Committee hearing on the bill focused on how the “Transfer Board” would be selected.
Rep. Don Mayhew, R-Crocker, expressed his concern with the members being selected by the Speaker of the House and President Pro Tem.
His uncertainty came from interjecting more politics into what is already a political system.
Mayhew offered up his own idea on how this board should be composed after expressing how important he thinks it is to have an oversight board.
He mentioned that the board should be composed of people who have a good basis of knowledge on how the system works. He gave examples that included coaches and former coaches.
The next step for the bill would be a committee vote.
