On Wednesday, May 22, Missouri State Representatives Josh Hurlbert (R-8), Chris Brown (R-16), Bill Allen (R-17), and Dan Stacy (R-31) joined Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher (R-89) at the Clay County Commission Room in Liberty for a town hall to recap the legislative session and answer voters’ questions about some of the bills that were passed. Speaker Plocher was there as part of his Mission Impossible Tour, a 16-stop swing across Missouri to recap the legislative session.

“With 31 sitting legislators running for higher office, most political experts said a productive legislative session would be an impossible mission to complete,” said Plocher, “and most thought a special session would be required to pass the FRA and get a budget done. However, we passed a balanced budget that cut spending by $1.2 billion from last year and saved a $1.5 billion surplus for a rainy day.” Plocher added, “We also got the FRA done, passed an education bill that increased teacher salaries, protected school funding, and expanded school choice for parents. Additionally, we defunded Planned Parenthood, prohibited illegal aliens from voting, and banned sanctuary cities in Missouri.”

Speaker Plocher stressed every state is now a border state and that over 4,000 illegal immigrants had been detained by the Missouri National Guard operating in Texas as a part of Operation Lone Star. As part of the budget, the General Assembly supported this deployment of guardsmen to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Rep. Brown highlighted two of his bills that made it to the Governor’s desk, HB 2062, which was a ban on eviction moratoriums, and SB 1388, which exempted the upcoming expansion of the Kansas City National Security Campus from sales taxes.

“The eviction moratoriums that came out of covid were violations of contract law and put a lot of landlords in a tough position. Just because their tenants were not paying rent did not mean the landlords’ debts and obligations were being waived. I’m glad that after three years of hard work we were able to get this important legislation passed,” Brown said, adding that, “The expansion of the Kansas City National Security Campus is a job creator for Kansas City. This federal project will create 2,000-3,000 jobs and the sales tax exemption only made sense as it is going to be a federal building at the end of the day.”

Rep. Hurlbert believed SB 727, the education omnibus bill, to be the biggest win of the session.

“This was a carefully negotiated package that was a win for public schools, a win for school choice, and a win for homeschoolers,” said Hurlbert. “We raised minimum teacher salaries from $25,000 to $40,000 and put $500 million more into the public education funding formula while also expanding the MOScholars K-12 Scholarship program statewide and increasing the protections for homeschoolers.”

Rep. Allen, who is wrapping up his first term in the Missouri House, was proud to have his legislation stiffening penalties for fentanyl dealers make it to the Governor’s desk as part of SB 754. The measure passed as part of an overall crime package last year, but was vetoed by Governor Michael Parson over unrelated concerns on compensation for wrongfully convicted victims and records expungements.

“Fentanyl is a crisis. 1,500 Missourians die from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids each year,” Allen said. “This measure increases penalties on those mixing fentanyl with other drugs, making it a felony with three to ten years of jail time for causing serious injury and up to life in prison if it results in death.”

According to the most recent data from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, 62 Clay Countians died from drug overdoses in 2022.

As demanded by the Missouri State Constitution, the 102nd Missouri General Assembly concluded the 2024 regular session on Friday, May 17.

KPGZ News - Brian Watts contributed to this story