JEFFERSON CITY — More than a dozen bills passed through the Missouri House on Wednesday, with most receiving bipartisan support.
“Today was a good day in general,” said Rep. Adrian Plank, D-Columbia. “I voted for probably 98% of them.”
One of the few measures Plank opposed was House Bill 3146, sponsored by Rep. John Simmons, R-Washington, which would change how ballot summary statements for measures proposed by the General Assembly are written and challenged.
The bill, which passed the House 90-55, would give the secretary of state a larger role in writing ballot summaries than the courts.
Under the legislation, the secretary of state would have three attempts to draft ballot language before courts could step in to make changes. Only circuit court judges would have the authority to rewrite ballot language themselves.
Legal challenges to official ballot titles or fiscal notes would have to be filed in Cole County Circuit Court. If the court determines a summary statement is fair and sufficient, it must be placed on the ballot.
If the court finds the language insufficient or unfair, the court may suggest revisions and require the secretary of state to create a new summary that meets those standards.
Higher courts, including appeals courts and the Missouri Supreme Court, would not be able to directly rewrite the language under an amendment to the bill. Instead, they could only send the ballot summary back to the circuit court for revisions.
Rep. Eric Woods, D-Kansas City, criticized the bill, calling it “a temper tantrum reaction to Senate Bill 22 being struck down.”
The bill was signed into law last year with some of the same provisions but was struck down by the Missouri Supreme Court earlier this year. HB 3146 follows the vow of some legislators to re-enact the restrictions.
“It came back around the corner, which is not the way we should be in the business of doing things. We know it’s not going to pass this year,” Woods said.
Lawmakers also passed House Bill 1664, sponsored by Rep. Brian Seitz, R-Branson, which is a package of many House bills. One part would reduce Missouri’s statute of limitations for personal injury cases from five years to three years.
Representatives said that the five-year window is outdated and too long. Missouri currently has the third-longest personal injury statute of limitations in the country, behind South Dakota and Maine, which each allow six years.
The legislation would also double the time survivors of childhood sexual abuse have to seek damages. Under the bill, victims would have 20 years after turning 21 to file a claim, up from the current 10 years.
Many Democrats and some Republicans voted “present” or “no.” Though they supported extending the window for childhood sexual abuse cases, there were arguments over decreasing the statute of limitations.
“You’re closing the door for people that are victims of a crime being able to come back and get redress for their grievances in a civil action,” said Rep. Will Jobe, D-Independence.
Jobe previously worked in a personal injury firm and was a public defender working in criminal law. While he supports the part of the bills that would benefit victims of child sexual abuse, he is against decreasing the statute of limitations, saying all victims need to have their day in court.
The bill passed with 95 representatives in support, 12 in opposition and an unusually high number of 39 voting “present.”
The House also unanimously voted to recognize the first week of June as “Rare Pediatric Disease Week,” also called “June’s Week,” in honor of June, the granddaughter of Rep. Mike Steinmeyer, R-Sugar Creek.
June is living with an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor, a rare pediatric cancer.
She received a round of applause from the full House chamber and later ran from the speaker’s dais toward the chamber doors to high-five several representatives moments before the resolution passed 147–0.