Senate Votes to Protect Religious Liberty
It was another eventful week in the Missouri Senate, as my colleagues and I experienced our second and third all-nighters of the 2016 session. A little after 4 p.m. on Monday evening, the Senate took up Senate Joint Resolution 39, a proposed constitutional amendment that prohibits the state from penalizing clergy, religious organizations and certain individuals for their religious beliefs concerning same-sex marriage.
Specifically, SJR 39 prohibits the state from penalizing a religious organization or individual who acts in accordance with a sincere religious belief concerning same-sex marriage. Protected acts include refusing to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony or allow a same-sex wedding ceremony to be performed on the religious organization’s property, and declining to provide goods of expressional or artistic creation for a same-sex wedding ceremony. Nothing in the resolution prevents the state from providing lawful marriage licenses or other marital benefits. Nor does it allow a hospital to refuse to treat a marriage as valid for the purposes of a spouse’s right to visitation or to make health care decisions.
Plain and simple, this legislation was filed to protect the religious freedom of Missouri citizens, which increasingly is being undermined by the liberal left. After a 37-hour filibuster — the longest continuous stretch of debate in recent state history — the resolution was finally brought to a vote. If passed by the General Assembly, Missouri citizens will have the opportunity to vote on the issue in an upcoming election.
In other legislative news, the Senate has passed a bill that creates an income tax deduction for farmers and ranchers who have experienced property damage as a result of a natural disaster or emergency. Between poor farming conditions and the recent devastating flooding, 2015 was a rough year for Missouri’s agricultural producers, many of whom are still trying to recover and will be doing so for the foreseeable future.
Under current state law, farmers and ranchers must report any payments received from disaster and emergency relief programs as income; Senate Bill 641 allows them to deduct this income from their total taxes. The deduction will be available for all tax years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2014. If signed into law, SB 641 will help our farmers and ranchers more easily rebuild their lives and businesses after unexpected natural disasters and emergencies.
We also recently considered Senate Bill 800. The bill aims to better position our communities to compete with other states for the opportunity to attract major conventions, and the substantial revenue they generate, to the Show-Me State. Under the “Meet in Missouri Act,” eligible local convention commissions will be able to submit major convention plans to the Department of Economic Development.
To be considered eligible, the proposed convention event must occur within five years from the application; the commission must be competing for the event against non-Missouri cities; and the economic benefit to the state must exceed the grant amount. The bill contains mechanisms that require a certain portion of the grant to be refunded if either the final amount of convention costs is less than the grant amount or if the attendance is substantially lower than what was projected.
If you have any questions or comments about this or any other matter regarding your state government, please feel free to contact me at (573) 751-1503; you are also welcome to e-mail me at jay.wasson@senate.mo.gov.