Be good stewards of taxpayers' money. That was the message that the MCC delivered this week in a public hearing before the Senate Governmental Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Committee. The bill being discussed was SB 61, sponsored by Senator Joe Keaveny (D-St. Louis), that would authorize the state auditor to do a one-time study of the cost of administering the death penalty in Missouri.

Click here to read Senate Bill 61. 

The senate committee was reminded that Missouri has had the death penalty since 1977, but no study has ever been done to find out the cost to taxpayers. The MCC believes that regardless of a lawmaker's position on the death penalty it is a matter of fiscal responsibility to know the expense of this public policy. With that information lawmakers can then decide if the death penalty is a wise policy for the state.

Among the other witnesses to testify in support of SB 61 was Barbara Davis, who lost her father to murder. She told the committee she was ambivalent about the use of the death penalty, but felt that the state spent an enormous amount of money for the trial and appeals on the case of the person who was eventually executed for her father's murder.

The committee took no action on the bill.

Click here for the Action Alert.

Click here to find your Senator. 

This week, senate and house committees debated bills that would re-establish tax credits that benefit food pantries, pregnancy resource centers and children in crisis centers. The bills also provide tax credits for improvements made to homes housing the disabled. These tax credits expired last year when the general assembly failed to re-authorize them.

Senate bills 15, 19, and 20 flew through the Senate Jobs, Economic Development and Local Government committee, passing unanimously by a vote of 10-0. These bills, now rolled into one (SB 20), will now go to the Senate Rules Committee for final passage and then to the floor for debate.

Click here to read Senate Bill 20. 

On the house side, a hearing on a companion bill - House Bill 87, sponsored by Eric Burlison (R-Springfield) - devolved into a acrimonious debate on abortion rights when NARAL pro-choice spokesperson Pamela Sumners testified that a NARAL survey showed pregnancy resource centers in Missouri provide misleading medical information to pregnant women and fail to refer them for contraception and abortions.

Click here to read House Bill 87. 

MCC Network members are encouraged to contact their state Senators to ask for their support in voting for SB 20 when it comes to the Senate floor for debate.  

Click here for the Action Alert.

Click here to find your Senator. 

It's that time of year when lawmakers begin the budget process.

This week the Senate Budget Committee kicked off its annual routine by getting input from citizens across the state. Advocates spoke in favor of financial assistance for education, mental health, the elderly, and other programs funded through the various state departments. More than 30 people testified during the hearing, but no assurances were given that their requests would be met.  

Meanwhile in the Missouri House, various appropriations committees started their budget process by hearing presentations from the different state departments. Next week house committees will also be taking public testimony from interested citizens.

Part of the budget process is to determine what tax revenue the state can expect to collect. Last month the governor's office and leaders of the house and senate agreed on a consensus revenue estimate that the state will have about $7.9 billion in general revenue for fiscal year 2014. That is about $237 million more revenue than in the current year. Overall the state budget is about $24 billion, which includes money received from the federal government.

The budget process will begin in earnest next week after Governor Nixon gives the State of the State Address to the general assembly.  

The legislature has until May 10 to approve a state budget for the upcoming year.

The director of the Department of Mental Health (DMH), Keith Schaeffer, went before a House Appropriations Committee this week to explain how expanding Medicaid could improve access to mental health services for 300,000 Missourians. A DMH fact sheet distributed to committee members noted that the federal funds obtained through the Medicaid expansion could replace some of the state funds now used to provide mental health services.

The DMH fact sheet distributed to committee members touched especially upon the need to improve services for troubled young adults. Lack of services to young adults can end up affecting everyone, the fact sheet notes:

"What this means in real-world terms is that most young adults, experiencing early-stage mental illnesses, like Schizophrenia or Bipolar Disorder, will go for years with inadequate treatment, or none at all.

As their illnesses progress, they move from crisis to crisis, appearing in hospital ERs; they are involuntarily committed by courts to short-term, episodic inpatient treatment; and they often resist outpatient mental health treatment, either because they don't think they need it, or because they feel stigmatized by it.

And their desperate families don't know where to turn for help.

The sad outcome of all this is that thousands of confused, vulnerable young people decompensate and become long-term victims of poverty, poor health care, crime and abuse before they ever enter DMH's services continuum.

And although people with mental illness are far more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators, a small number strike out at society. We hear about them in local, state and national news, and we mourn their actions."