Legislative Policy & Priorities
A. Environment and Quality of Life

The establishment of State legislative priorities and positions of support for matters before the 2010 General Assembly has been approved by members of the City Council of Springfield, Missouri

The City of Springfield has engaged in a process by which it has identified major priorities on matters before the General Assembly and has identified additional priorities and matters for support or opposition.

The following legislative priorities are established for the 2010 Session of the Missouri General Assembly: Environment and Quality of Life; Economic Development; Finance and Taxation; Municipal Administration and Intergovernmental Relations.

A.1 Environment

Clean air and water are essential to protecting the public health. Protection of air and water resources and providing incentives to encourage renewable resources are two of the most important functions of government. The City urges the General Assembly and the federal government to provide adequate funding and legislation to protect air and water resources from pollution including funding for storm and sanitary sewers as well as linear parks and open space. Training, recycling and cleanup programs should be adequately funded. The fee-for- permit system sustains the overwhelming majority of the programs in the Department of Natural Resources. Without these fees or alternative revenue-neutral funding mechanisms, the agency will be unable to protect air quality, water quality, property values and human life in Missouri. Federal and state policies should, however, be cost-effective, directed to all sources of pollution and not be simply unfunded mandates from the state or Federal government. The City supports state and federal programs which provide for proper management of all hazardous materials, including asbestos. The State should form partnerships and encourage regional solutions with local government whenever possible in order to increase efficiency and reduce costs. Efficient use of energy and resources should be encouraged by the State, establishing minimum energy efficiency levels for new buildings and heating, air conditioning and home appliances. A portion of the State’s Solid Waste fee should be set aside for use by local government to encourage recycling programs in order to reduce the amount of solid waste going into landfills. The State should amend Section 260.247 RSMo. to eliminate barriers to local franchising. State funding of Household Chemical Waste programs on a regional basis is an important tool to encourage the use of region facilities. In addition, the City supports the development of Missouri-based alternative energy resources and the jobs created by these industries.

The City supports funding for programs and practices at state and federal level that educate the public regarding energy conservation and that promote the responsible and efficient use of energy and protection of air and water resources. Further, given the historical position that waste disposal is typically and traditionally a local government function, the City supports legislation dealing with funding of waste disposal programs through flow control ordinances and opposes any effort at limiting a Municipality’s ability to utilize flow control programs. Finally, the City supports the enforcement of existing laws that require major water users to report the exact amounts of water these users extract from our region’s aquifers.

A.2 Education

The City of Springfield strongly believes that a strong education system and proven workforce development programs are critical components of economic development and to combat poverty and improve quality of life. Tomorrow’s workforce requires high-level reading skills structured problem-solving skills, effective oral and written communication skills, and the ability to work in diverse groups. The readiness of Missouri’s workforce will determine Missouri’s economic security, prosperity, and quality of life. Missouri’s greatest imperative is to ensure that all learners are prepared for the 21st Century in a time when Missouri businesses are facing a critical need for qualified workers for both entry-level and skilled positions. Accordingly, the City of Springfield supports the following:

1. Workforce Development – The City of Springfield believes the state should continue to encourage partnerships between Missouri’s business and industry and education institutions and supports continued training incentives to businesses. The City supports direct and dedicated state funding to workforce development from the General Fund. This funding should be made directly available to Local Workforce Investment areas to assist with reemployment and retraining of dislocated workers to meet the ever-changing workforce needs of Missouri companies in the 21st Century, including the funding for labor shed studies. A Labor shed is defined as the area or region from which an employment center draws its commuting workers. Labor shed studies provide community economic developers and employers with a tool to understand the local labor market and make informed expansion and site selection decisions. To this end, the City supports the following recommendations for state workforce development programs: (1) measure success, ensure accountability; (2) invest in local and regional strategies and industry-based public-private partnerships; (3) build career pathways to good jobs for all Missourians; and (4) provide Missourians with lifelong access to skills training and educational opportunities.
2. Higher Education and Education Funding – The City supports sufficient state funding for community colleges and universities to keep the costs of higher education in Missouri affordable. The City also supports the creation of a forgivable loan program for Missouri students who remain in the state following graduation, a tax credit for employers that pay down employee student loans, and a tax credit for employers that pay for employee moving expenses in an effort to recruit and retain our future workforce.

   Community colleges have proven to be a very cost effective and quality source of education and training for vocational and college transfer-bound students. Their graduates remain in Missouri, providing a great return on a small investment. However, community colleges need additional capacity in order to recruit and train if they are to meet Missouri’s workforce challenge. Community colleges are in a strong position to be able to recruit more students; though, have waiting lists that often preclude enrollment. A sustainable source for additional funding for facilities needs to be found, as well as funding based upon enrollment.

   The City supports more flexibility and local control over public school funding for Springfield schools and a more equitable funding formula for public school systems.

   There should be continued emphasis on the education skills necessary to provide a competitive work force in Missouri. These skills include, but are not limited to, provision of basic literacy skills for all Missourians; an emphasis on professional and technical training not requiring a four-year college degree; increased state funding and support for elementary, secondary and higher education, especially in technical areas; and retraining existing workers whose skills have become obsolete.

   The City supports legislation for a special tax credit for employers who support or pay for their employees to continue their education or obtain a GED.

   There should be state funding and private assistance for the provision of basic services necessary, such as day care latchkey programs, to ensure that all Missourians wishing to work have the opportunity.

3. Community Education – The City supports the concept of using public buildings, facilities and equipment as an important means for municipalities and schools to maximize the use of their combined resources towards the resolution of community concerns. The City strongly supports the use of state funds for community education programs; i.e. prevention of juvenile delinquency and child abuse, reduction of unemployment, lack of elderly services, teenage pregnancy and the lack of adequate or available recreation facilities. The City supports coordination and cooperation of related local governing agencies in planning, development and implementation of community education programs and urges the sponsorship of legislation to require the State to provide grant funds for local community/school cooperative program demonstration projects, with special emphasis on joint utilization of physical facilities.

A.3 Administration

1. Nimble and Efficient Law Enforcement. Law enforcement is constantly evolving, thereby requiring state and local government to adapt to changing conditions. The State should respond to these changes through legislation. For example, police departments need to be able to quickly obtain search warrants by electronic means, and the burdens of false alarms caused by the use of security systems should be addressed through legislation giving counties who run E-911 systems authority to correct abuses.
2. Jails. The city needs to have the state fully fund our county jail expenses for prisoners being held on state charges. Legislation is needed to ensure that the actual cost of housing inmates is appropriated to avoid creating underfunded detention facilities.
3. Confidential Police Personnel Records. Recent court opinions have interpreted Chapter 610, the Missouri Open Records Law, to hold that police internal affairs records are incident and investigative reports, thus open to the public under certain circumstances. Internal affairs investigations are not criminal in nature, and are for the purpose of addressing officer conduct and identifying potential law enforcement areas for improvement. Under prior law, internal affairs investigations were considered closed and confidential personnel records, subject to disclosure when judicially determined to be directly relevant to the accused's defense in a particular case. Under these recent court opinions, officers are now subject to being confronted on the witness stand with confidential and personal details from employment investigations completely unrelated to the case about which they have been called to testify. This potential for required disclosure also substantially interferes with the law enforcement agency's ability to conduct and use the internal affairs investigation in a constructive manner. The General Assembly should limit the dissemination of information about police officers due to the unique problems they and their families face.
4. Right to Appeal from Adverse Evidentiary Rulings. Currently case law limits the right of the city to appeal adverse evidentiary rulings in Municipal Court. Examples are motions to suppress evidence or motions to dismiss based upon legal grounds such as the constitutionality of a city ordinance. Because of this limitation cities have no recourse to get a final determination on the ruling from a higher court. State prosecutors do not have the same limitation. Fixing this problem will require legislation to amend the Missouri Constitution but will give municipal prosecutors the same ability to fight crimes as state prosecutors. Further, this will not have any impact on criminal defendants’ double jeopardy rights.
5. Criminal Property Forfeiture Laws. The current criminal property forfeiture laws need to be revised in order to allow for recovery of costs, and reduction in compliance burdens. Further, local governments should be allowed to share in the proceeds as an economic incentive to encourage forfeiture of property seized from criminals to the state.
6. Efficient Traffic Enforcement. The state should modernize its traffic control laws by providing for automated Photo Red Light camera enforcement of stop light violations and allow municipalities to enforce these infractions as a non-point penalty. This will help municipalities promote safety on their streets while holding those who violate red light rules accountable. Additionally, the Department of Revenue should have current contact information for every Missouri resident. The legislature should revisit this issue and once again require that Missouri residents update their contact information with the Department of Revenue whenever they change their address.

A.4 Preemption

The General Assembly and Congress should refrain from actions which limit local authority to deal with problems at the local level, such as local franchising authority, taxation of businesses, teenage drinking, teenage smoking, and use of tobacco, licensing of massage and body piercing, all of which have in recent years been preempted in whole or in part. Preemption of local laws, including local business taxes, limits the ability of local government to deal quickly with problems which are of concern to local citizens. It is almost impossible to predict the evolving nature of issues. State-mandated solutions which provide “one size for all” or remove local governments ability to deal with conditions of its own property or funding its own services unnecessarily limit the flexibility of local government. An option to preemption is for the State of Missouri to forge alliances with local government in the enforcement of laws, resulting in better enforcement and savings to the State. In short, the City believes that the State and Federal governments should rigorously avoid preemption of local laws that limit the ability of local governments to deal quickly with problems that are of concern to local citizens.

A.5 Public Health - Funding and Administration

Adequate state funding of local public health agencies is critical to maintaining and improving the quality of life to Missouri citizens. The public health threat of emerging diseases, bioterrorism and the global implications of disease spread requires a rapid and effective local response to protect the public's health. The State should increase funding for local efforts to address these growing threats.

The State of Missouri should follow the National Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Best Practices for Tobacco Control in the expenditure of whatever funds are available for promoting public health as related to the health consequences caused by the use of tobacco products.

In addition, the burden imposed upon the regions aging Veterans population, as well as the burdens imposed on Veterans returning from tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq compels Council to support the location of a regional health facility and/or mental health facility for Veterans in the Springfield area. This would allow a significant portion of the Southwest Missouri Veterans to obtain health care without traveling great distances to facilities currently located in Saint Louis, Columbia or Kansas City.

Finally in light of the hardship imposed on the Southwest Missouri region due to the January 2007 ice storm, and the severe burdens placed on our elderly population residing in long-term skilled nursing facilities, the State should review its legislation regarding requirements placed upon long-term skilled nursing facilities to add a requirement that nursing facilities have back-up electrical generation equipment sufficient to maintain all necessary life safety activities for the facility’s residents.

A.6 Housing

One of the mainstays of the American way of life and its economy has been home ownership. In addition, decent, safe and sanitary housing for all Americans is an important public policy objective which directly affects the urban environment and our quality of life. Not only is it important to provide opportunities to rent or own affordable housing, but the maintenance of housing stock which is decent, safe and sanitary is also important. The City supports federal and state legislation which encourages home ownership, affordable housing whether it is for rental or home ownership, and the maintenance of housing stock so it is decent, safe and sanitary.

Affordable housing is an important quality of life issue for any community. In addition, affordable housing is also important to the economic development of the community. The recent rise in housing cost coupled with reductions in federal housing funds has strained existing resources in Springfield/Greene County. The Vision 20/20 plan recommends creation of a local housing trust fund to provide additional resources for affordable housing. The City supports legislation to allow an increase in real estate recording fees to fund a Springfield/Greene County housing trust fund.