Now back from spring break, the Missouri General Assembly is on track to have one of its most productive sessions in recent years.

A dozen bills have been passed by both chambers and sent to Gov. Mike Kehoe’s desk. As Missouri lawmakers gear up for the second half of the session, local legislators are working to get their priority bills across the finish line.

The Beacon reached out to more than 40 representatives and senators from the greater Kansas City area for this story. Here’s what they had to say.

Passing the state budget

In addition to members’ individual bills, passing the state budget will be a major priority over the coming weeks. Kehoe in January presented his proposed budget, which totaled nearly $54 billion, and since then, legislators have been cutting and adding items.

Kehoe’s first budget comes as federal COVID-era stimulus money is running dry. Republican lawmakers are also pushing to reduce or eliminate taxes on income, property and capital gains, which would significantly cut into the state’s revenue.

Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Kansas City Democrat, said her biggest priority for the second half of the session is “making sure that we pass a good, fiscally sound budget.”

“With inflation up, revenues flat and perhaps even down (and) our one-time money from the federal government expiring, our spending obligations will need to be paid for,” she said. “The proposal from the governor is underfunding our neighborhood schools by $297 million while at the same time adding general revenue — to the tune of $50 million — to the (school) voucher program.”

Kehoe’s proposed budget includes $4 billion for the foundation formula, the state’s public school funding mechanism. But it falls nearly $300 million short of the additional $500 million the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requested for 2026 to meet the state’s “adequacy target.”

Nurrenbern said she would be working with colleagues — including Springfield Republican Sen. Lincoln Hough, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee — to fully fund the foundation formula and “really examine” the governor’s proposed funding for the voucher program.

In addition to helping to shape larger programs within the state budget, local legislators like Rep. Anthony Ealy, a Grandview Democrat, have sought to secure funding for projects in their districts. Ealy said he was working with Sen. Barbara Washington, a Kansas City Democrat, to include budget items for development and public safety projects in Grandview and Hickman Mills.

Keeping sports teams in Missouri

Sports teams were also top of mind for Nurrenbern, who said she would be pushing for her bill creating a Clay County Sports Authority to pass the General Assembly.

North Kansas City has been touted as a possible location for a new Kansas City Royals stadium. If passed, the bill would allow the creation of a commission to advise and decide on sports-related issues in the county. 

Nurrenbern said this change would “allow a professional team to come in, whether to build a stadium or a training facility or a convention or exhibition space. There’s a lot of potential, and North Kansas City has done an incredible job over the last several years really positioning themselves to get some of these top-tier projects.”

Health care priorities

For Sen. Patty Lewis, a Kansas City Democrat who said she is the first nurse to serve in the Missouri Senate, many priorities revolve around health care, including her “women’s health” bill.

“It includes additional blood testing for pregnant women, updates to mammography notification, annual supply of birth control, updates to expedited partner therapy, and addresses that victims of sexual assault get routed to the appropriate level of care,” she said.

Lewis said she would also be pushing to pass her bill broadening the definition of telehealth, a bill that Rep. Pattie Mansur, a Democrat from Kansas City, is carrying in the House. 

Mansur said that since the pandemic, many Missourians have utilized telehealth appointments to meet with their doctors, but not all Missourians have reliable access to video calls.

“Audio-only was not written in as a necessarily acceptable mode of receiving your medical visits, but not everyone has the ability to have an audio-visual visit,” she said. “There’s inconsistent Wi-Fi, (and) broadband is not consistent and accessible to everyone, (but) almost everyone has access to a cellphone.”

Another bill Lewis said she will push aims to expand the authority of advanced practice registered nurses, which Lewis said will help to keep Missouri’s nurses from moving to neighboring states where there are fewer restrictions on how they can practice.

Addressing the decline in the number of nurses and other health care workers in Missouri is also a priority for Rep. Brandon Phelps, a Warrensburg Republican whose wife is a physician. 

Phelps said he will work to pass his bill requiring health care facilities to post signs warning of the potential criminal repercussions for assaulting health care workers, in an effort to discourage further attacks.

Rep. Mark Sharp, a Kansas City Democrat, said health care was also on his list of priorities. Specifically, he said he wants to change how the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services grants “trauma center” status to hospitals.

“In south Kansas City, in my district, St. Joseph Medical Center is seeking to become a (Level) III trauma center. Currently, any folks that are in south Kansas City, if they are picked up by an ambulance service or EMS and they have (Level) III trauma needs, they cannot be dropped off at St. Joseph Medical Center and have to go to another medical center,” he said.

Sharp’s bill would prohibit DHSS from denying trauma center status to a hospital simply because of its proximity to other trauma centers.

Another health problem facing Missourians is amyloidosis, a rare disease caused by the buildup of a protein called amyloid in organs. Ealy said many don’t know about the disease but he has seen it impact his own constituents, which is why he made raising awareness a priority this session.

“One of my constituents, Mike Lane, is with the Amyloidosis Army. It was about two years ago when he was first trying to go to different communities to inform people about it,” Ealy said. “(It’s often) misdiagnosed, and people don’t find out they had amyloidosis until they are in the morgue.”

Ealy and Washington have proposed identical bills to make May 8 Amyloidosis Awareness Day to share information about the disease and encourage people to get tested for the gene that can cause it.

Upholding Amendment 3 and Proposition A

In November, Missouri voters passed Amendment 3 — which codified the right to an abortion in the state constitution — and Proposition A, which raised the state minimum wage and required employers to provide paid sick leave to their workers.

Multiple bills have been filed this session to restrict or block the implementation of these policies, but Lewis and others said it is “a priority to protect what the voters voted on.”

Nurrenbern called bills aiming to restrict the right to an abortion “the dark cloud looming over session.”

“We continue to stand guard, and we are prepared and ready to make sure that we are protecting the will of the voters and protecting the constitutional right to reproductive freedom,” she said.

Meanwhile, for Mansur, a major priority is protecting Proposition A, which has been the subject of a major lawsuit and the target of a number of bills this session.

“I volunteered and canvassed for Prop A well before I even made the decision to run for office,” Mansur said. “(It) wasn’t passed just by Democrats — it was passed by people on both sides of the aisle.”

Economic priorities

As the cost of living remains top of mind for many, local legislators said economic policies were among their priorities for the rest of the session.

Sen. Mike Cierpiot, a Republican from Lee’s Summit, said he hopes to pass a bill updating income and other requirements for the Missouri Senior Citizens Property Tax Relief Credit.

The policy, commonly known as “circuit breaker,” offers a tax credit to qualifying older or disabled Missourians to help offset the cost of property taxes. Income requirements have not been updated since 2008, meaning that due to inflation, many residents who might otherwise qualify are considered too high-income to participate.

Another priority for Lewis is a bill that would reduce the sales tax on feminine hygiene products and diapers and extend a tax credit on donations to diaper banks.

Sharp, who is carrying the tax credit bill in the House, said legislative gridlock last session prevented lawmakers from extending the life of the tax credit. He’s more optimistic it will pass this session.

“This year, we are looking to extend the sunset that expired last year so that our diaper bank system across the state of Missouri can continue to receive tax credits,” he said. “Without that, they aren’t able to provide as many diapers to communities in need as they would otherwise.”

Governor’s priorities

For Kehoe — who at the start of his term identified public safety, economic development, support for farmers and expanded educational opportunities as the four “pillars” of his administration — there remains an array of priorities to accomplish before his legislative colleagues leave Jefferson City in May.

At a press conference March 13, Kehoe told reporters that “going into the second half, there are lots of meaningful things still left to do.”

He said Republican legislators are “very much working towards putting more money back in your pocket, working through meaningful utility legislation, multiple issues on school choice and reform that are still out there that I remain hopeful we’ll come together on.”