SENATE RESURRECTS INSURE MISSOURI

The Senate on April 23 gave preliminary approval to a revived version of Insure Missouri, a health care proposal Gov. Matt Blunt proposed with much fanfare last fall that seemingly died after encountering stiff legislative resistance, especially in the House of Representatives. While the new proposal, SB 1283, bears the Insure Missouri name and contains some features of the governor’s plan, it is actually modeled on an Indiana law that provides government subsidies for some low-income workers to buy private health insurance.
Under the bill, Missourians ages 19 to 64 with jobs that pay up to 225 percent of the federal poverty level could qualify if affordable health care isn’t available through their employer and if they pay $1,000 a year into a health care savings account. As with the original Insure Missouri, SB 1283 wouldn’t extend benefits to the elderly, disabled or children, nor would it restore coverage to the more than 180,000 Missourians who lost it due to the governor’s 2005 Medicaid cuts.

SENATE ENDORSES BILL TO CRACK DOWN ON IMMIGRATION

The Senate on April 3 voted 26-7 in favor of a wide-ranging legislative package intended to crack down on illegal immigration. The bill, SB 858, now heads to the House of Representatives. Provisions of the bill include prohibiting illegal immigrants from receiving most forms of state assistance, barring them attending public colleges and universities in most cases, requiring police to check the immigration status of arrestees and punishing businesses for knowingly employing illegal workers.

HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER WINS SPECIAL SENATE ELECTION

House Majority Leader Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, on Sept. 4 won a special election to fill a vacant seat in the Missouri Senate. Dempsey captured 56.2 percent of the vote to beat Democrat Ed Appelbaum.

Although Tom and I often voted very differently from each other he was one of the members of the house who I had a great deal of respect for. I wish him the best in the Senate.

REPUBLICAN STATE SENATOR SWITCHES PARTIES

In a bombshell announcement on Aug. 1, state Sen. Chris Koster of Harrisonville, the early frontrunner for the 2008 GOP nomination for attorney general, announced he is leaving the Republican Party and becoming a Democrat. One day earlier Koster resigned his Senate leadership position of majority caucus chairman.

A self-professed moderate, Koster said he was making the switch because the Republican Party has become too dominated by conservative ideologues. Koster has long enjoyed the support of some traditionally Democratic constituencies, such as organized labor and trial attorneys. During his three years in the Senate, however, Koster reliably voted the Republican position on major issues that Democrats strongly opposed, such as voter ID, cutting health care funding and removing campaign contribution limits.

Koster, a former Cass County prosecutor, declined to comment on whether he intends to continue his bid for attorney general, although he is widely expected to do so. Koster said he will not seek re-election to the Senate next year. House Minority Leader Jeff Harris of Columbia and state Rep. Margaret Donnelly of St. Louis have already announced their candidacies for the Democratic nomination for attorney general.