By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
State Sen. Rusty Black has a lot on his plate this year, chairing the Missouri Senate Local Government, Elections, and Pensions Committee.
Black, a Republican from Chillicothe, says his committee has been hearing bills on election integrity, though Black says he has been in touch with county clerks throughout northwest Missouri who don’t report any problems in their counties.
“But I do understand the concerns people have in other areas where the people have access to voting or the fact are the right people voting? And those things can probably be strengthened,” Black tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “A lot of times those don’t have to be strengthened but by little bitty changes that help benefit that.”
Black says Republicans still want to increase the voter threshold needed to approve changes to the state constitution through initiative petition. The senator says that will remain a priority of the Republican Caucus until the issue is placed before voters.
Black says the state needs to do something to shore up the pensions for county sheriffs since voters rejected a proposed fix in November. Missouri voters soundly rejected Amendment 6 on the November ballot. It would have reinstated a $3 court fee to fund the Missouri Sheriff’s Retirement System, a fee charged for years, yet thrown out recently by the courts. The ballot initiative would have put the fee back in place to help fund pensions for sheriffs, circuit attorneys, and prosecuting attorneys.
Supporters say without the money the fee generated the pension will dry up in nine years. The Missouri Sheriff’s Retirement System reports it supports 200 retirees and their survivors and has 114 sheriffs contributing to the fund.
Black says the funding problem remains in wake of the issues defeat.
“When that lost that caused tremendous problems with the sheriffs’ retirement system funding,” according to Black. “I’m hoping that we find some kind of path forward to try to make sure that the retirement system for our sheriffs around the state can be stabilized from where it’s at today.”
Black expects a much more productive legislative session this year than the past two in Jefferson City.
“Already, it’s more productive than it’s been in the past. Doesn’t mean that we’re not going to have filibusters, we’re not going to have hard conversations. But, yes, the fact that we don’t have a bunch of people running for statewide office that I serve with is very, very helpful this year,” Black says with a chuckle.
Aside from the budget bills, the Missouri legislature approved only 28 bills last year, a historically low level.
Black says the pace has changed after some of his colleagues decided to run for higher office and left the Senate. Many blamed the Senate’s Freedom Caucus, comprised of very conservative Republicans, for bottling up the legislative session, leading to its lack of productivity.
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