Analyzing the Successes and Shortfalls of Missouri’s 2024 Legislative Session
**GOOD LEGISLATION THAT PASSED
VETERANS SUICIDE PREVENTION (HB 1495): Bolsters efforts by the Missouri Veterans Commission and Department of Mental Health to reduce suicide rates by military veterans.
KC LANDFILL (HB 1751): Requires landfills proposed in Kansas City within one mile of another municipality to be approved by both cities. This legislation addresses a controversial attempt to put a landfill in Kansas City near a residential area of Raymore.
WASTEWATER SLUDGE (HB 2134): Regulates and restricts the use of industrial wastewater sludge for agricultural fertilizer.
FIVE-DAY SCHOOL WEEK (SB 727): Requires school districts located in more populous cities and counties to have five-day school weeks unless voters approve a four-day schedule. It also authorizes increased state funding for districts that maintain five-day schedules, but only if lawmakers make future annual appropriations for that purpose.
K-12 EDUCATION FORMULA (SB 727): Modifies how average daily attendance is calculated under the statutory formula for distributing state funding to local public school districts. This should increase the amount of money needed each year to claim “full funding” of the formula, but is subject to lawmakers making future annual appropriations for that purpose.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION (SB 727): Authorizes increased funding for preschool programs operated by public school districts, but only if lawmakers make future annual appropriations for that purpose.
MINIMUM TEACHER PAY (SB 727): Increases the annual minimum pay for starting teachers from $25,000 to $40,000, and raises the minimum salary for more experienced teachers from $33,000 to $48,000. State funding for the raises is subject to lawmakers making future annual appropriations for that purpose.
FEDERAL REIMBURSEMENT ALLOWANCE (SB 748): Renews until 2029 a voluntary tax paid by hospitals and certain other medical providers that enables the state to leverage additional federal Medicaid funds.
BLAIR’S LAW (SB 754): Increases criminal penalties for negligently engaging in celebratory gunfire within a municipality.
PROPERTY TAX FIX (SB 756): Fixes a several issues that came to light with a law passed in 2023 authorizing Missouri counties to exempt homeowners age 62 or older from paying local property taxes.
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**GOOD LEGISLATION THAT DIDN’T PASS
FOOD TAX (HB 1418/HB 2401): Sought to exempt food from state and local sales taxes.
GOOD TIME CREDIT (HB 1777/HB 2203): Sought to give credit to offenders for participating in programming and having good behavior for time subtracted off of the offenders minimum eligibility-for-release date and conditional release date.
LOCAL GUN LAWS (HB 1462): Sought to authorize local governments to enact firearms regulations deemed appropriate for their community.
PERIOD PRODUCT/DIAPER TAXES (HB 1474/HB 1579): Sought to reduce sales taxes on period products and diapers.
CHILD CARE TAX CREDIT (HB 1488/SB 742): Sought to establish state tax credits to expand the availability of child care services.
KIDS & GUNS (HB 1535): Sought to prohibit children from carrying firearms on public property.
CROWN ACT (HB 1900): Sought to establish the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act to prohibit hairstyle-based discrimination.
FOREIGN FARMLAND OWNERSHIP (HB 1957/HB 2138): Sought to restrict the ownership of Missouri farmland by foreign countries or businesses.
EQUAL PAY (HB 2037): Sought to prohibit employers from engaging in gender-based pay discrimination.
PREGNANT DIVORCE (HB 2402): Sought to repeal an antiquated state law that prevents a woman from obtaining a divorce if she is pregnant.
WOMEN’S HEALTH CARE (HB 2413): Sought to require health insurance to cover a year’s supply of birth control, among several other provisions pertaining to women’s health
MISSOURI NONDISCRIMINATION ACT (HB 2478): Sought to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing, banking or public accommodations.
PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY (HB 2618): Sought to reinstate Missouri’s presidential preference primary, which the legislature eliminated in 2022.
CHILD MARRIAGE (SB 767): Sought to completely outlaw child marriage.
FOSTER KIDS (SB 862): Sought to prohibit the Missouri Children’s Division from seizing the federal survivor benefits of children in the foster care system to pay for the state’s cost related to their care.
VIOLENCE AGAINST BLACK WOMEN (SB 890): Sought to Create the Missing and Murdered African-American Women and Girls Task Force to develop policies to address violence against Black women.
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**BAD LEGISLATION THAT PASSED
DEFUNDING WOMEN’S HEALTH CARE (HB 2634): Attempts to prohibit Planned Parenthood, one of the state’s largest providers of health care for women, from receiving reimbursements from Missouri Medicaid program for non-abortion services.
PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHERS (SB 727): Expands tax credits that redirect revenue from the state treasury to provide vouchers to pay for private school tuition for certain students.
POLICE DOGS (SB 754): Significantly enhances criminal penalties for harming a police animal, including making it a felony if the animal requires any level of veterinary care, even in cases of self-defense in response to an unlawful attack.
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**BAD LEGISLATION THAT DIDN’T PASS
ST. LOUIS POLICE TAKEOVER (HB 1481): Sought to restore state control over the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, which ended after 152 years when Missouri voters approved a statewide ballot measure in 2012 restoring local authority.
ST. LOUIS EARNING TAX (HB 1481): Sought to exempt remote workers who live outside of St. Louis city for companies based in the city from paying the local 1 percent earnings tax.
TRANSGENDER MEDICAL CARE (HB 1520): Sought to make permanent a law set to expire in 2027 that makes it illegal to provide gender-affirming medical care to minors.
GUNS EVERYWHERE (HB 1708): Sought to repeal existing bans on carrying firearms on public transportation or in churches without the pastor’s permission, lower the minimum age for obtaining a concealed weapon from 19 to 18 and restore conceal-carry rights to people who pleaded guilty to certain crimes, including violent misdemeanors.
INITIATIVE PETITIONS (HB 1749): Sought to impose a host of procedural restrictions aimed at making it harder to successfully use to the initiative petition process to bypass state lawmakers and put proposed legislation directly on the statewide ballot.
LICENSE FEE HIKES (HB 1775): Sought a 50-percent increase in the fees charged by the privately operated vehicle and driver’s license offices.
CHILD LABOR (HB 1795): Sought to relax state laws restricting the use of child labor.
OPEN ENROLLMENT (HB 1989): Sought to allow students to attend public schools in districts other than the one in which they reside.
CORPORATE INCOME TAX (HB 2274): Sought to completely eliminate the state’s corporate income tax.
ERASING TRANSGENDER PEOPLE (HB 2309): Sought to legally erase the existence of transgender Missourians by statutorily defining people as “male” or “female” based on their reproductive system at birth and defining additional terms –such as “man,” “woman,” “girl,” “boy,” “mother” and “father” – in ways that would exclude legal recognition of the gender identity of transgender people.
PUNISHING IMMIGRANTS (HB 2523): Sought to allow undocumented immigrants who commit a minor offense to be charged with felony trespass simply for being present in Missouri.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION (HB 2619): Sought to prohibit state agencies from promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace.
ABORTION (HJR 131): Proposed a constitutional amendment asking voters to lock into the Missouri Constitution an existing state statute that bans abortion in nearly all circumstances, including cases of rape or incest.
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