Moniteau County Farm Bureau members gathered Tuesday, Oct. 21, for the annual dinner meeting held at the California United Church of Christ fellowship hall.
During the meeting, President Dennis Feezor presented a "Friend of Farming Award" plaque to Rep. Caleb Jones and Rep. David Wood. Jones' district includes the north part of Moniteau County and Wood's district includes the south part. Also present was Austin Kramer from Rep. Vicky Hartzler's office.
Wood, guest speaker at the event, presented information about the four proposed Constitutional Amendments on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Proposed Amendment No. 3 is on the ballot due to Initiative Petition. According to Wood, this proposal was originally promoted as a vote to end teacher tenure, but in reality, it proposes taking away local control of hiring and retaining teachers. The school districts would be required to use "new and additional evaluation instruments" to test the students as the primary means of determining student performance. The ballot explanation states that "Significant potential costs may be incurred" by the state and districts. Wood also said the amendment is no longer being pushed by the group which had it placed on the ballot.
Amendment No. 2 was proposed by the 97th General Assembly. If approved by the voters, this will amend the Missouri Constitution to allow "relevant evidence" of prior criminal acts "of a sexual nature" to be admissible in prosecutions for crimes of a sexual nature involving a victim under eighteen years of age. Such evidence is only admissible after conviction, during sentencing. The fiscal impact should be limited, unless there is the need to defend increased prosecutions. In that case, it may be at least $1.4 million annually to various government entities.
Amendment No. 6 was also proposed by the General Assembly. If approved by the voters, this amendment would permit early voting, in person or by mail, for six business days before the election. The voting period would not include weekends or time outside of normal business hours for polling places. Wood commented that this amendment has been proposed to allow early voting, but not for the nearly three weeks which has been proposed by others. He said he is not a fan of early voting, in part because many things happen in the weeks before an election which could affect the way an individual's vote might be cast. The six day voting period would extend the time, but not require extra costs for having polling places open on weekends or outside of regular hours. Restricting voting to regular business hours would prevent the disruption of regular activities at the locations used as polling places. While costs would be higher, they would not be as high as having polling places open nights and weekends for three weeks before the election day.
Amendment 10 was also proposed by the Missouri General Assembly. "The governor has changed the rules of the game," Wood said. "The Missouri House of Representatives is supposed to come up with the budget, then it goes to the Senate. Any differences are worked out." Then the budget goes to the governor. "Normally, the governor does not veto all that much," he said. "The last few years, there have been a lot of vetoes."
"The government has to be able to adjust the budget to keep the budget balanced," Wood said. But he commented that Governor Nixon has withheld funds in certain areas, saying the monies would be restored if the legislature would vote a certain way on pending legislation.
A fund withhold during the legislative session would allow legislators to change it on a two-thirds vote. Wood said this amendment proposal was placed on the ballot so that the governor would no longer be able to make budget recommendations to the legislature based on proposed legislation. As stated in the ballot language itself, this amendment if it is passed, would "provide a legislative check on the governor's decisions to restrict funding for education and state services". It would also deny the governor the ability to reduce appropriations for paying off public debt.
In other business, Feezor, who is a Farm PAC Trustee, said he was invited to the recount of the votes on the Right to Farm Amendment as an "interested observer." He said it was an interesting experience.
The 2013 Minutes and the Treasurer's report for the fiscal year ending July 30, were approved. In addition to Feezor, board members are Chuck Massengill, Lisa Porter, Gary Reichel, Sandi Knipp, Kenny Jones, Andy Clay, Lashley Rohrbach and Barry Eschenbrenner.