March 11th in Jefferson City

I got to spend part of the day in Jefferson City today and was able to catch up with a couple of people and sit in the House Gallery for a bit. I also sat in on a Committee hearing where they were talking adoption which is something my family, one of my son's, has been able to do and has blessed us with 5 amazing grandchildren through adoption.

This evening I attended a discussion on Liberty and some possible options, then I attended the Republican Women's Club where they were hearing from some of the candidates for School Board. There were 3 from Joplin that spoke and 1 from Webb City. Thanks to the Republican Women's club for putting this on.

One of the things I said I'd check on in Jefferson City was legislation surrounding utilities. I hadn't realized this had already made it through the Senate, but it did with SB4. Two things in particular I see in the bill that could impact your pocket book. 1: Solar Panels are to be considered personal property and assessed as such. Until such time as we can get rid of personal property taxes altogether you'll being paying more taxes. 2: If electric companies build new natural gas powered power plants, they can charge you for that construction as it's being built. In the past they had to wait until the plant was built. Unless I missed it this wouldn't apply to coal or nuclear. Bottom line, expect your bill to go up unless we can find other alternatives.

This passed in the Senate 22-11 with our Senator Carter being a no vote (thank you Senator Carter). Of the 22 yes votes 17 were Republicans and 5 were from Democrat Senators. Of the no votes, 7 were from Republicans and 4 were from Democrat Senators. One Senator was absent.

On the house side it has come out of the Utilities committee as do-pass and I've seen talk suggesting that they may try to pass it in the House this week.

Right now I don't see this failing in the House, unfortunately. Had I been there, I would have been a no. I understand that it costs a lot of money to get a new plant up, but I also know that utility companies have decommissioned plants in the state of Missouri, before the end of their useful life, which has helped exacerbate the shortage of generation capacity we have today. Some, at least was pressure from the feds, but that doesn't explain it all. I'd personally like to research what the state of Texas has done with utilities. Several years ago they broke things up such that power generators cannot sell directly to the consumer. I think this has been a positive for the consumer but I need more information. It should at least be looked at though.

More to come. If you have questions on legislation before the General Assembly, let me know. I'll be glad to look things up or make contact with folks in Jefferson City.