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Special session ends on 'disappointing' note
The Missouri General Assembly's special legislative session officially came to an end this week with no jobs bill enacted.
The Senate ended its work on Tuesday and the House called it quits at 11 a.m., Thursday.
The jobs bill was one of the primary reasons Missouri Governor Jay Nixon called the special session that began Sept. 6, and State Senator David Pearce told the Nevada Rotary Club members at a luncheon Thursday that it's "very disappointing" that the legislature could not reach an agreement on the bill. Pearce said he would have voted for the jobs bill.
An attempt to change Missouri's presidential primary date from February to March also was defeated in the special session, but lawmakers did revisit a portion of a bill meant to protect children from teachers who might become sexual predators that became known as the Facebook law, ending up revising the portion of the bill that strictly limited teachers' ability to communicate with students through social media and other electronic media. Under the revised law, local school districts must now enact policies on how teachers may use this technology, by March 1, 2012.
Another success was the passage of the Missouri Science and Innovation Reinvestment Act, creating incentives for science and technology funds, but a recent report from the Associated Press noted that there's uncertainty due to a clause in MOSIRA connecting it with the failed jobs bill. Nixon signed MOSIRA last week.