JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – More championships for the Kansas City Chiefs could mean less work for lawmakers at the Missouri Capitol.
With a big parade scheduled for Wednesday in Kansas City, leadership in both the House and the Senate is considering no action late in the week to let lawmakers celebrate the Chiefs.
“It’s starting to become a habit,” House Majority Leader Jon Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit, said. “I think they (the Chiefs) are a dynasty.”
A win for the Chiefs means a day off for lawmakers. Patterson said taking Wednesday and Thursday off allows legislators to attend the Super Bowl victory parade and rally.
“We have extra days this year; with leap year, it’s a long session, so I think we’re going to take two days off from legislating and let people celebrate the Chiefs,” Patterson said. “This is just a great thing for Missouri, for Kansas City. I went my entire life without seeing a Chief’s Super Bowl so for it to happen, I think you just have to enjoy it. I told my kids that. This is not normal, and you should really enjoy it.”
While the House has passed a handful of bills this session, including child care tax credits, the Senate is moving at a crawl, and a victory parade and rally would only continue to stall any possible progress.
“We would like to get to talking about real policy that matters in this chamber instead of playing this charade of the next campaign speech or whatever it might be,” Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, said.
Nearly six weeks into session, the Senate has spent only a few hours debating one piece of legislation that would remove some providers, like Planned Parenthood, from the state’s Medicaid program.
The conflict in the upper chamber revolves around initiative petition legislation, making it harder for voters to amend the constitution.
“IP (initiative petition) reform to protect Missouri’s Constitution is very, very important to this state,” Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, said. “It’s important that our elections aren’t bought by special out-of-state interests.”
Republicans say it’s a priority this year to make it tougher to approve a referendum. Currently, it takes a simple majority—more votes for than against—to pass a referendum.
This comes as a group circulates a petition to ask voters if abortion rights should be enshrined in the constitution.
“IP is about every issue,” Sen. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, said when asked if the GOP is only pushing this topic because of the possible referendum. “We shouldn’t have every issue in the constitution.”
Even with a shortened week, the committee started debating initiative petition Monday afternoon, shortly after gaveling in. The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, would require a majority vote in a majority of U.S. Congressional Districts, meaning five out of the eight districts, to approve a petition.
“They want to go to IP because that’s their number on priority, taking Missourians’ voice away at the ballot box,” Rizzo said. “We want to go to child care tax credits. Simple put.”
The initiative petition process is how Missouri voters approved recreational and medical marijuana and expanded Medicaid.
Coleman’s legislation would need voter approval even if it were to pass the General Assembly. The question on the ballot has what some are calling “ballot candy” because it asks if only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote on constitutional amendments.
Under Coleman’s version, the question would read:
“Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
Allow only U.S. citizens to vote on constitutional amendments;
Forbid foreign countries from funding constitutional amendments;
Ban constitutional amendments allowing lobbyists’ gifts to lawmakers; and
Pass constitutional amendments by a majority vote in a majority of congressional districts?”
Republicans want those initiative petition changes on the August ballot to protect the state’s constitution if the abortion question makes the November ballot.
Under current law, campaigns are required to gather 8% of legal voters in six of the eight congressional districts to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.
