HCS SB 845 -- POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS

SPONSOR:  Rupp (Schneider)

COMMITTEE ACTION:  Voted "do pass" by the Committee on Local
Government by a vote of 10 to 2.

This substitute changes the laws regarding political
subdivisions.  In its main provisions, the substitute:

(1)  Allows a county to become a second classification county
upon reaching the required assessed valuation and approval from
the governing body, rather than having to maintain the higher
assessed valuation for five years as required under current law
(Section 48.030, RSMo);

(2)  Prohibits water and sewer line easements from being
considered as transfers of title of real property to counties;
therefore, these easements will not need to be proved or
acknowledged to be valid if authorized for recording by the
county commission (Section 49.292);

(3)  Creates a fund to supplement the salaries of county deputy
sheriffs, consisting of a $10 increase in the fee charged by
sheriffs for the service-of-process in civil cases.  In counties
with a deputy sheriff starting salary of at least $28,000,
one-half of the $10 increase will be paid into the sheriffs'
existing discretionary fund and will not count toward the $50,000
limit of that fund (Sections 57.278, 57.280, 488.435, and
650.350);

(4)  Authorizes the counties of Clay and Jefferson to adopt
regulations for electrical wiring and installation and the
licensing of individuals to make those counties consistent with
the authority granted to all other first and second
classification counties (Section 64.170);

(5)  Authorizes Cass County to impose, upon voter approval, a
sales tax of up to 0.5% to fund the operation of public safety
departments, including police and fire departments, and the
communications of the public safety departments (Section 67.175);

(6)  Adds the counties of Andrew and Buchanan to the list of
counties authorized to enact nuisance abatement ordinances
regarding the condition of real property (Section 67.402);

(7)  Authorizes the City of Charleston to impose, upon voter
approval, a transient guest tax of 2% to 5% per room per night
for the promotion of tourism (Section 67.1360);

(8)  Prohibits a city, town, or village from annexing state-owned
land that is primarily used for recreation, resource
conservation, or natural or cultural resource preservation if the
sole purpose of annexing the state-owned land is to allow the
city to annex land that is not otherwise contiguous to the city,
town, or village (Section 71.012);

(9)  Removes the references to the "two houses of legislation"
and replaces the term "resolution" with "ordinance" in the
provisions regarding street grading in cities with 300,000 or
more inhabitants (Section 88.917);

(10)  Allows a municipality to annex land within the airport zone
of the City of Springfield if it enters into an agreement to
adopt, enforce, and administer Springfield's airport zoning
ordinance (Sections 89.080, 89.090, and 305.410);

(11)  Changes the jurisdiction for the penalty ranges for zoning
violations for municipalities in Jackson County to any city with
more than 300,000 inhabitants and removes the separate penalty
for a willful violation (Section 89.120);

(12)  Authorizes the City of Grandview to impose, upon voter
approval, a transient guest tax of up to 5% on all occupied hotel
and motel rooms for the promotion of tourism (Section 94.271);

(13)  Authorizes the City of Sugar Creek to impose, upon voter
approval, a transient guest tax of up to 5% per occupied room per
night for the promotion of tourism.  Motels owned by
not-for-profit corporations are exempt from the provision
(Section 94.834);

(14)  Authorizes the City of Harrisonville to impose, upon voter
approval, a sales tax of up to 0.5% for the operation of public
safety departments including compensation, pension programs,
health care, employment of additional police officers, and
additional equipment and facilities (Section 94.900);

(15)  Authorizes the City of Raytown to impose, upon voter
approval, a sales tax of up to 0.5% for improving public safety
including, but not limited to, expenditures on equipment, city
employee salaries and benefits, and facilities for police, fire,
and emergency medical providers (Section 94.902);

(16)  Authorizes the City of Waynesville to impose, upon voter
approval, a transient guest tax of up to 3% per occupied room per
night for the construction, maintenance, and repair of a
multipurpose conference and convention center (Section 94.1011);

(17)  Prohibits an employee or official of any political
subdivision from seeking a political appointment in exchange for
anything of value to any political subdivision (Section 105.452);

(18)  Caps the fee paid to the State Auditor for registering
bonds at $1,500 (Section 108.250);

(19)  Lowers the assessment percentage for personal property
taxation purposes on vehicles necessary for transporting
physically disabled individuals from 33.3% to 12% (Section
137.115);

(20)  Extends for one additional year the current term for the
director of subdistrict 6 of an ambulance district located in St.
Charles County.  Thereafter, the term will be three years
(Section 190.054);

(21)  Establishes a procedure by which an ambulance district
board member may be recalled from office by the registered voters
of the member's election district (Section 190.056);

(22)  Specifies that when a licensed ambulance is used as an
ambulance and staffed with volunteers, the other crew member
required in addition to the emergency medical technician (EMT)
may be a licensed EMT, registered nurse, physician, or certified
first responder and removes the reference to specific counties
that are required to have at least one licensed EMT, registered
nurse, or physician with a patient in the patient compartment of
an ambulance during transport.  Currently, only certain counties
must meet this requirement during transport (Section 190.094);

(23)  Prohibits a political subdivision from imposing a fine or
penalty on the owner of a pay telephone or on the owner of any
property upon which a pay telephone is located for emergency
service calls (Section 190.308);

(24)  Authorizes the Department of Health and Senior Services to
deny, suspend, place on probation, or revoke the license of a
child care facility that does not obtain and maintain a license
to operate under a local license or permit if required by local
law (Section 210.221);

(25)  Increases the special road rock fund tax rate from 25 cents
to up to one dollar per acre for property classified as
agricultural and horticultural that certain counties are
authorized to impose upon voter approval (Section 231.444);

(26)  Changes the methods by which certain incorporated road
districts in counties of the fourth classification can be
established, expanded, or dissolved (Sections 233.010, 233.155,
233.177, 233.297, and 233.317);

(27)  Allows a special road district located in the counties of
Jasper and Newton that has three commissioners from Jasper and
one from Newton to add another commissioner from Newton County
(Section 233.155);

(28)  Changes the laws regarding the re-adjustment of the
assessment of benefits in certain drainage and levee districts
(Sections 242.230, 242.500, 245.020, 245.105, 245.197, and
246.305);

(29)  Revises the amount a city, town, or village must send to
the Department of Revenue from its total annual revenue from
fines for traffic violations.  Currently, if an entity receives
more than 45% of its revenue from fines, it must send all revenue
over the 45% to the department.  The substitute reduces the
amount to all revenue over 35% of the annual general operating
revenue including court costs for the traffic violations (Section
302.341);

(30)  Specifies that a liquor license may not be denied,
suspended, or revoked based solely on the fact that an employee
has a single felony conviction unrelated to the manufacture or
sale of alcohol or two or more felony convictions unrelated to
the manufacture or sale of alcohol so long as the employee does
not directly participate in retail sales.  The Division of
Alcohol and Tobacco Control within the Department of Public
Safety may regulate categories of offenders and offenses and the
types of employment and activities within licensed establishments
in which different categories of offenders may engage (Section
311.060);

(31)  Allows a Kansas City festival district promotional
association to obtain a license to sell intoxicating liquor and
nonintoxicating beer for consumption at the businesses and common
areas within the festival district (Section 311.489);

(32)  Changes the laws regarding the assessment and collection of
volunteer fire protection association fees (Section 320.302);

(33)  Authorizes fire protection district boards to delegate
certain powers and responsibilities to the fire chief and to
rescind that delegation upon a majority vote of the board
(Section 321.200);

(34)  Repeals the provision which requires the board of directors
of an industrial development corporation in Lewis County to meet
different requirements than the boards in other counties (Section
349.045);

(35)  Requires the City of St. Louis to provide suitable
furnishings and to purchase all necessary supplies for, and to
pay all necessary expenses of, the public administrator (Section
473.745);

(36)  Removes the requirement that Jackson County must reimburse
the state for moneys received for the salary and benefits payable
to the drug court commissioner in the 16th Judicial Circuit
(Section 478.466);

(37)  Authorizes municipalities in St. Charles County to adopt
ordinances for maintaining the peace and good government and
welfare of the city and its trade and commerce and to enforce the
ordinances, except for those governing traffic violations on
roadways in St. Charles County, with a fine of up to $1,000,
three months' imprisonment, or both.  Currently, only
municipalities in St. Louis County may adopt and enforce these
ordinances, including those for traffic violations (Section
546.902); and

(38)  Requires at least 48 hours' notice of inspections under the
Missouri Clean Water Law regarding land disturbance activities
associated with water pollution, erosion control, or any
discharge to waters of the state to be given in writing to the
property owner or contractor in control of the land disturbance
activities.  Five hours' verbal notice may be given in emergency
situations.  Failure to give notice does not prevent an inspector
from entering a site, but prevents the information obtained by
the inspection from being used in any manner or introduced in any
legal or administrative proceeding (Section 644.020).

The substitute contains an emergency clause for the provisions
regarding the bond registration fees paid to the State Auditor.

FISCAL NOTE:  Estimated Cost on General Revenue Fund of $731,111
to Unknown in FY 2009, $758,068 to Unknown in FY 2010, and
$765,838 to Unknown in FY 2011.  Estimated Cost on Other State
Funds of Unknown in FY 2009, FY 2010, and FY 2011.

PROPONENTS:  Supporters say that the bill will prevent a city
from annexing certain parcels of state land in order to be able
to annex noncontiguous parcels it otherwise could not annex.

Testifying for the bill was Representative Pratt on behalf of
Senator Rupp.

OPPONENTS:  There was no opposition voiced to the committee.

Missouri House of Representatives
94th General Assembly, 2nd Regular Session
Last Updated October 15, 2008 at 3:12 pm