Vaccines, school curricula and police: some bills to watch in Missouri legislature

Missouri lawmakers will have a packed agenda when they return to Jefferson City on Jan. 5.

The General Assembly must draw and approve a new Congressional map. It has a March 24 deadline to approve a state education department plan for spending $200 million in federal funds to address pandemic challenges in schools. Gov. Mike Parson is asking for passage of a 5.5% raise and $15-an-hour minimum wage for state workers by Feb. 1, as Missouri struggles to recruit and retain staff.

It will all play out as legislators running for state and national office jockey for advantage in an election year.

Here’s a sampling of bills to watch.

COVID: Republicans have filed a raft of bills targeting both public and private COVID-19 vaccine requirements. One would bar schools from requiring students to get the vaccine. Several would force restaurants, concert venues and other businesses to serve the unvaccinated. At least two propose requiring certain exemptions from vaccine mandates for businesses. Others would allow businesses that mandate the shot to be held liable for employee “injuries.”

SCHOOLS: Culture-war fights that roiled school boards throughout 2021 will be taken up by lawmakers. They have filed bills to ban race-related teachings and exert more control over locally-elected boards, which make curriculum decisions based on state standards. There is a “parents’ bill of rights” promoted by Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is running for U.S. Senate. It would require schools to allow parents easier access to already publicly available information on curricula, teacher training, vaccine exemptions and the school choice program lawmakers passed this year. It would allow Schmitt’s office to sue districts over violations.

KCPD: Mayor Quinton Lucas’ attempt to assert local control over a portion of police spending has triggered a backlash. Missouri lawmakers are moving to increase Kansas City’s budgetary obligations to the department. Northland Republicans want the city to commit a minimum of 25% of its revenues to the department each year. The current legal minimum is 20%.

ABORTION: Republicans are poised to push an aggressive new slate of anti-abortion measures, encouraged by an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision expected to severely reduce or even eliminate the federal right to end a pregnancy. The state’s ban on abortion at eight weeks, currently held up in federal court, may itself be validated by the Supreme Court decision. But one legislator is moving ahead with a proposal that mirrors the new Texas law empowering private citizens to sue doctors or anyone who facilitates an abortion after a heartbeat is detected. Other measures include requiring women to undergo an ultrasound before an abortion and raising criminal penalties for illegal abortions.

FEDERAL STIMULUS SPENDING: Missouri expects to be flush with a record $11.4 billion in revenue for the new fiscal year that begins in July. It must also decide how to spend $2.7 billion in federal funds from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act. Universities, local officials, law enforcement and other groups are all vying for a share. Some prospective projects include a $400 million broadband expansion plan that Parson has backed and an overhaul of the state’s IT system. It remains unclear whether Republicans will again try to undermine funding for Medicaid expansion, which went into effect in October. That has given Missouri an additional $1 billion from the federal government. As of mid-December, more than 48,000 of the roughly 275,000 eligible low-income residents had enrolled.