Department News GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS
Successes, Frustration Highlight 2022 Legislative Session By David Kent, Senior Vice President
The 2022 legislative session is one for the history books. With nearly 2,300 bills filed, only 41 — less than 2% — made it to the governor’s desk. Infighting among Senate Republicans over the congressional district maps paralyzed that chamber for most of the session. Te day before the adjournment deadline, the Senate approved new maps and then went home. Te House continued working, approving 20 of the 41 bills on the session’s last day.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom. Some good bills for the banking industry crossed the finish line, including reforms to the Family Farms Act program and rural broadband expansion.
Te Family Farms Act is a tax credit program for lenders who offer livestock loans to eligible farmers. Te bill increases the eligibility cap from $250,000 gross sales to $500,000 and increases the totals that may be borrowed, depending on the type of livestock.
Broadband expansion will get a boost from the state budget as $250 million was allocated to improve internet access to areas across the state. Lawmakers also passed legislation to increase high-speed internet in underserved areas and expand the Broadband Internet Grant Program.
Other bills that passed include eminent domain reform, extensions of agriculture tax credits, the SALT Parity Act and a bill relating to trust interpretation and trust decanting. A bill addressing bankruptcy protection for 529 education savings accounts also passed aſter MBA offered amendments to ensure there were proper limits and protections from abuse or fraud.
Gov. Mike Parson has until July 14 to sign, veto or allow legislation to become law. Bills that do not have an emergency clause are effective Aug. 28. MBA will provide These Laws Effect You, an in-depth look at legislation pertaining to the banking community, later this summer.
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One of MBA’s priorities this session was a bill to create a felony penalty for ATM “smash-and-grab” and card-skimming crimes. Although the bill passed the House both as a stand-alone bill and as an amendment on several other bills, it fell victim to Senate filibusters and gridlock.
Most frustrating, MBA was forced to turn from support to opposition as one bill that included the ATM penalty provision started taking on bad amendments. Because of our opposition, all amendments, including the ATM penalty provision, were stripped from the bill. Only the underlying bill survived. Te language also was in a bill that came up for debate on the Senate floor just before the congressional maps. We knew there was not much time leſt in the Senate and that this might be our last chance. Unfortunately, because of miscommunication between the bill handler and Senate leadership, it was sent to conference for further negotiation instead of being given a final vote. Shortly aſter, the Senate adjourned for the year, and we were out of options.
Several bills MBA opposed did not move forward, even though they were added (or attempted to be added) to bills late in session. Tey included increased exposure to frivolous lawsuits through business premises liability, prohibiting access to personally identifiable information that would limit the accuracy of background and credit checks, and numerous bills attempting to punish businesses, including banks, for having certain policies relating to ESG, firearms, COVID vaccines, etc. Tese provisions were all sponsored by GOP lawmakers, which made them difficult to defeat.
A very special thank you to the 104 Target Bankers who traveled to Jefferson City to meet with their legislators this year. Your efforts to educate lawmakers on issues were a huge help in our advocacy work. Please keep up the great work over the interim by meeting with your area lawmakers. We look forward to seeing you again next session!
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