Lawmakers Still Have A Stack Of Bills To Consider By Historical Trends, Only Half Of 854 Bills Left Will Become Law

When the Legislature bumped up against its Wednesday deadline for each house to act on its bills, a total of 854 bills were still alive and set for further consideration.

During 10 days of lengthy floor sessions, the House approved and sent to the Senate 450 bills and the Senate sent 404 bills to the House.

Those bills range from major proposals such as massive tax cuts and an overhaul of the state’s civil service system, to relatively minor proposals such as banning children 16 years of age and younger from getting tattooed without parental permission.

The 854 bills are what’s left of the 1,067 bills introduced in the Senate and 1,090 introduced in the House.

The number will be whittled down further by Senate and House Committees. In fact, if historical trends continue, only about 420 of the remaining bills will be enacted into law.

Bills that died in the Wednesday cutoff included:

A proposal to increase the minimum wage from $4.90 to $5.25 an hour.

A bill to place a moratorium on state acquisition of wildlife habitat, conservation and outdoor recreation lands.

A proposed constitutional amendment to allow school levies to be approved by a simple majority vote rather than the 60 percent supermajority now required.

A bill to transfer emergency management functions from the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development to the Military Department.

A measure to uphold the right of parents to oversee what their children learn and how they are taught. Also dead is a proposed constitutional amendment to specifically protect the right of parents to bring up and educate their children.

A proposal that would have guaranteed parents the right to spank their children.

A bill that would have reduced child-support payments.

A proposal to bar teacher’s strikes.

A bill to require topless dancers and other adult entertainers to obtain state licenses. The bill also would have restricted adult entertainment businesses within 1,000 feet of schools, churches and residential neighborhoods.

While those and hundreds of other bills are dead, they could reappear before the Legislature finishes its work for the year.

Now for the winners.

The biggest victors were House-majority Republicans who gained House passage of all elements of their “Contract With Washington.”

In that package were nearly $1 billion in tax cuts, an initiative to increase sentences for armed criminals, a bill to redirect education funding to local classrooms and reduce spending on school administration, virtual repeal of the state’s Health Services Act of 1993, a reform of the way state agencies adopt rules and regulations, and cutbacks in welfare.