This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 21, 2011 - Technically, the Missouri General Assembly remains in special session. But practically, it's all over.
The Missouri House decided Thursday to keep the dim hopes alive of reaching compromise on economic development legislation by voting to go to conference with the Senate.
But since the Senate voted Monday to decline any negotiations, no talks are expected.
That is why Gov. Jay Nixon said Thursday that it was time to pull the plug.
"It's time for them to stop expending the taxpayers' dollars,'' Nixon said at a news conference in St. Louis that was intended to focus on his upcoming trip to China -- but touched on the special session as well.
"We went in with good intentions,” Nixon said, referring to the summer declarations by House and Senate leaders that a deal had been struck on an economic development package.
"That consensus eroded,” the governor continued. "We'll move on."
House Majority Leader Tim Jones, R-Eureka, said that the House wouldn't officially adjourn in the hopes that a conference committee might come about. But if the Senate takes no further action, he said that the special session will simply expire when it hits the Nov. 5 deadline.
In a statement released Friday morning, the Senate's president pro tem, state Sen. Rob Mayer, R-Dexter, said that he intended to adjourn the Senate next week. He added that the chambers are at "an impasse, and the differences are irreconcilable in the short time remaining in special session."
"While I am disappointed that economic development/tax credit reform legislation did not become law this special session, perhaps the two and a half months between now and the 2012 session will permit: priorities to be re-evaluated, earnest and fruitful discussions to be had and solid public policy to prevail …; with meaningful legislation in 2012 as the result," Mayer said.
House and Senate conflict
Tensions between the House and the Senate have been common in recent years, even with the huge Republican majorities in both chambers. But the Senate-House relationship has been particularly acrimonious during the special session.
On Thursday, for instance, leaders of the House publicly ripped the Senate for that chamber's vote Monday not to go to conference -- and instead demand that the House drop its differing version of the economic development package.
House Speaker Steve Tilley, R-Perryville, once again criticized the Senate for not following through on what he had thought was a summer deal on the particulars in the package.
"I'm the guy who was in the negotiations that basically was lied to," said Tilley in an exchange with state Rep. Margo McNeil, D-Florissant. "So trust me, I share your frustration."
The criticism wasn't just from Republicans. State Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, contended that the Senate couldn't constrain what he termed a "vocal minority" of senators who have controlled their chamber's position on tax credits.
"To allow a few narcissists in the Senate to negate the work of 163 members of the House of the Representatives is irrational and inappropriate," Kelly said. "To do so would be to fail in our duties to zealously protect this body and this prerogative."
What irked House leaders was the decision of Senate leaders -- notably Senate President Pro Tem Mayer -- not to use a particular legislative procedure, known as "moving the previous question," to end filibusters.
Jones, for example, noted previous Senate leaders have used the maneuver to force action on controversial issues, if they knew they had the overall Senate votes to do it.
Some senators have said privately, for example, that they believed the Senate would have been able to pass an economic package similar to the summer compromise, if Senate leaders had been willing to take on the handful of vocal dissidents, led by state Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau.
The problem? The dissidents were fellow Republicans.
In the past, Senate leaders usually used the "previous question'' maneuver to get around opponents in the opposite party -- most recently, Democrats.
"The Senate does have the ability to move the agenda forward if they want to," Jones said. "They do have those tools."
But he added, "It isn't often done and I understand why. They are a very different chamber."
Jones observed that even the U.S. Senate, which has been beset with similar internal fights, often has used parliamentary maneuvers to get around dissidents and force a vote.
Jones, who has been elected by fellow House Republicans to be their next speaker in 2013, said he hopes to see more cooperation between the two chambers in the future.
"I have had a number of senators, many of whom I worked with in the House, reach out to me already and say 'when you are speaker in two years in 2013, we would like to actually have an agenda in the Senate that can mirror an agenda in the House that we can all work on together."
Dissent within the ranks
Mayer, however, said in an interview that the differences were not political or personal. Rather, he contended they reflected legitimate disagreements over policy and how the state government should run.
Mayer said several senators -- including Crowell, Brad Lager, R-Savannah, and Chuck Purgason, R-Caulfield -- felt the state was spending too much money on tax credits. He noted that the Senate has been deliberating the issue for years.
(What Mayer didn't mention is that Nixon publicly has called for curbing state tax credits as well.)
"We see where our budget is going," Mayer said, echoing similar complaints by the governor. "And we realize that we as legislators are going to have to rein in these tax credit programs or we're not going to be able to maintain the funding on education -- for K-12 or higher ed -- much less give an increase."
He reaffirmed that the Senate was adamant about the need for "sunsets'' on state tax credit programs, in particular the two largest ones which offer incentives for historic preservation and low-income housing.
Mayer said that sunsets force legislators to "spend the time and effort to determine 'hey, do we believe that this is good? Should we continue it? Should we scale it back or put in place a different type of program for tax credits? Or do we do away with it altogether?' "
A sunset "forces some action or conduct on the part of the legislature in a certain point in history," Mayer added.
Over in the House, Tilley and other House leaders have opposed sunsets -- largely out of concern that a few senators might kill off a worthy tax incentive program and prevent it from being reauthorized.
Tilley emphasized Thursday, as he has throughout the session, that he had reluctantly agreed to sunsets in the original economic development deal. But he backed off after the Senate unilaterally added other provisions that had not been part of the original agreement and that were strongly opposed by House leaders.
Tilley bristled when asked whether influence from supporters of the historic preservation tax credit and low-income housing tax credit steered the House's course.
"It's absolutely ridiculous," Tilley said. "I cut a deal that had a seven-year sunset that they hated. OK? But if we could have gotten the whole deal done, I would have been acceptable to it. So you can't look at times when I fight with them and then don't mention it. And then at times when I happen to agree with them, you want to have some link."
(Click here to view the video of Tilley's entire remarks, made Thursday.)
On Thursday, House Budget Committee chairman Ryan Silvey, R-Clay County, proposed a constitutional amendment to require regular votes in both chambers on whether to reauthorize tax credit programs. He said his aim would be to require review of the programs but prevent a Senate filibuster by a few.
The House gave a preliminary vote in favor of the idea, but it's unclear if a final vote will be taken before the special session expires.
A disappointing end
Meanwhile, Dan Mehan, chief executive of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, lamented the special session's collapse.
"The business community is very disappointed," Mehan said, contending that various worthy economic initiatives "were held hostage to a disagreement on tax credit reform."
"It was very frustrating to see seven weeks (of legislative work) boil down to one issue -- 'sunsets,' " Mehan said.
He observed that "there were concerns over the way each body does actually operate.''
But Mayer added that business leaders were most upset about the bottom line: "We were 'that close' to a deal, and they are walking away from it."
