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September 17, 2009 Volume 5, Number 36 | ||
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In This
Issue ·
Rep. Davis
Receives an Award ·
A Little Bit
of Humor… E-Mail
cynthia.davis@house.mo.gov Find me
on
Committees Special
Committee on Children and Families Chair Chair Special Committee on State
Parks and Waterways Official Homepage for Official Government Homepage for your
Look up Missouri House Bills – View Entire Text, Summary, and Last Action Look up Consumer Complaints & Fraudulent Activity, No-Call List Federal
Links Congressman Blaine
Luetkemeyer |
Rep.
Cynthia L. Davis Receives an Award from the Conservative Club of Missouri
Representative
Davis received an award from the Conservative Club of
Yesterday the
once quiet halls of the Capitol were alive with hurried footsteps,
welcoming voices and phones ringing. It was our annual veto
session. For all the commotion and chatter, none of the vetoed bills
were overridden this year. Actually, 2003 was the last time a bill
was overridden. There was one
veto-override attempt that failed –House Bill 544. However, it was still
worth the effort to bring it up for discussion. This is an example
of a bill that would have had enough votes to pass (86-Yes to 71-No), but since the threshold for an
override is 2/3rds, we couldn’t get enough support. This bill dealt
with fiscal accountability. I’m sorry the governor vetoed this
because it would have allowed for more transparency with how taxpayer
money is spent. One example of the need for fiscal transparency is
this: The governor has the ability to withhold funds from any program. Because we did
not have this bill in effect, some were concerned that the governor was
withholding funds from the Alternatives to Abortion program. House Bill
544 would have allowed our constituents to see exactly what is happening
to their money. Click here to see what else this bill would have
accomplished: House Bill
544 You may hear that
the reason this was vetoed was because it allowed the legislators to have
a key to the Capitol dome. This is a smoke screen. All the
legislators can go up to the dome any time they desire. I remember
when I first got elected and one of my favorite constituents told me he
would appreciate me giving him a tour to the part of the Capitol “you can
only see if you are with your state representative.” I told him I
would be glad to do that for anyone in my district. He hasn’t made
the trip to I had two great
examples of voting against bills that had plenty of votes for an override
when originally
passed. My research led me to believe these were bad
bills. Fortunately, the governor agreed with me although both of
these bills received strong bipartisan
support. House
Bill 620
— was known as
“The Bingo Bill” and was an expansion of the gambling industry. For
those who don’t understand the harmful effects this has on poor people,
let me explain. This is not about having fun, it is about
reshuffling wealth. This was fairly popular when it originally
passed the House 107-48 and the Senate 26-3. Thank you,
governor, for seeing the fallacy in this
thinking. House
Bill 148 —
is another example
of a bill that appeared to be on a freight train to passage. It
would have changed the way citizens are taxed, and I was one of only 25
who voted against it. The Senate voted for this unanimously. I
am convinced it would be adverse to our taxpayers. I believe most of
the legislators didn’t understand what this bill would do when they voted
for it. Our job requires us to read and understand the bills
before voting on them, but by late session many legislators are
overwhelmed with the volume. Unless the legislator is on a committee
where the bill was originally heard, the floor debate is the first time
they have considered the contents of a
bill.
Your
thoughts are important to me, so please let me know what you think.
You can send me your opinion by clicking
here: Cynthia Davis A Little
Bit of Humor . . . Our
29th wedding anniversary is Sunday, so I asked my husband if he had
anything planned. He told me to let him know what I want to do,
“Just name it. Anything, like going out to dinner or on a
cruise.” When I hesitated, he added, “Just let me know if you want
the cruise so I can get the canoe out of storage.”
This Capitol Report is a weekly column by Representative Cynthia Davis, from the 19th District, covering events in the Missouri Legislature and district-wide issues. J If you know anyone
who would like to receive my Capitol Report, please send an e-mail to
Cynthia Davis with the
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It’s okay to be in the minority, especially if you are
right.
