Latest news with #HouseBill19
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘A gut punch for sure'; Impacts from failed HB 19 felt on local level
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — 'We were expecting that $1.5 million to be approved a couple of weeks ago, and then we learned that it wasn't and it was a gut punch for sure,' Brandy Harris, the CEO of The Boys and Girls Club of Springfield, said. For Harris, to say she's frustrated with state lawmakers would be an understatement. That's because just a portion of their next project, the Risdal Family Teen Center, around 1.5 million of the $12 million needed to fund it, was part of House Bill 19. House Bill 19 was also going to give millions for other projects in the state, but didn't even make it to Governor Kehoe's desk after Republican lawmakers refused to vote on it. 'A lot of our kids already feel like they're not worth this building or they don't deserve the things that we're providing them. They've actually said that to me and focus groups, and now the state has essentially sent a message that like, actually you're not,' Harris said. 'Intentional or not, that's the message that's being received, and that's incredibly frustrating because they are.' Harris calls the teen center, located at 804 West Catalpa, a one-stop shop for teens. 'One of the really good things that Missouri has done over the last several years is put a heavy emphasis on early childhood education, and what that's unintentionally done is neglected middle school and high school students. A lot of people think like if you're in middle school or high school, you can just like walk home, go home, hang out with friends, and more, but that's what we're realizing, especially post-COVID, is that kids are engaging in really risky behaviors and they deserve a space to go that safe where they can learn, grow, and that's what this building does,' Harris said. 'It's 32,000 square feet. It is walkable from Parkview High School and Jarrett Middle School. The location is really important to us. It's in a neighborhood that really could use our services, and we have the neighborhood support, which has been incredible. So this building is incredibly important not only to that neighborhood and to local middle school and high schools, but also to the mission of Boys and Girls Clubs of Springfield. It's going to be like this one stop shop for teens. So like if you need to get a haircut, there's a barber shop inside. If you need mental health services, we have a partner that's going to be providing them a health clinic, an e-sports lounge, a gym, a games room, a cafeteria and a teaching kitchen where we're teaching life skills.' She's hopeful that a special session starting this week could shed more light on the issue and bring it back to lawmakers. 'I think what this decision has done has made a lot of us question Jefferson City in general, what their priorities and commitments are,' Harris said. 'Our legislators have a really unique opportunity today there's a special session, and this HB 19 is going to be talked about, and I like to have generous assumptions because that's the kind of leader I want to be. So I just want to assume that maybe some of the people who did not talk about HB 19 were either misinformed or just didn't understand the impact it would have on their own districts and their own communities.' Courtney Simpkins works with teens directly, and hopes people are help to help with donations for the funding. 'I think it's really vital because it helps teens get off the streets. So it is a safe place that they can come every single day for them after school in the summertime at night, time to come and do a lot of different activities, have that supervision, have those role models in their lives to help guide them. We have lots of opportunities and programs for them to be able to further their education,' Simpkins said. 'The teens … they've shown a lot of excitement. In the past, we've heard, well, I don't want to come to the club because it's with little kids, but now that they have their own space, they're super excited to be able to have their own areas that they can hang out.' Including Neveah H., who says she can't wait for the center to open. 'It's really big, and I've seen that there's going to be cooking and stuff, so I'm excited about that too,' Neveah said. 'I think it's going to be really cool because there is going to be people my age.' 'One thing that I'm very confident about is that we will reach our $12 million goal. There's no other option, and I'm confident in this community. I'm not as confident in Jefferson City right now, but the building will be done on August 19,' Harris stressed. Harris says she's had bipartisan support for the funding from Springfield state house and senate reps, including Rep. Melanie Stinnett, Rep. Betsy Fogle, and State Senator Lincoln Hough. Ozarks First reached out to lawmakers on both sides of the issue, but only Rep. Fogle responded to the request for comment. 'House Bill 19 was the capital investment bill that had been worked on in both the House and the Senate, totaling about $513 million worth of capital investments across the state. On the day that we served and passed the budget out of the House, House Bill 19 was omitted from debate. It was not up to a vote from the Republican leadership in the House. The budget chair did not communicate that with me, did not communicate that with Senator Hough as appropriations chair in the Senate. I was quite blindsided that all of our hard work that we had done and, you know, in a bipartisan way, there were a lot of projects. There were a lot of projects in House Bill 19 that Democrats had put in. There were a lot of projects that Republicans had put in and for it not to be brought up for a vote is something that I have never seen in my time in the General Assembly,' Fogle said. 'I think it is the only other ever happened, and one other time in our state's history.' She says the Boys and Girls Club of Springfield wasn't the only group in the Ozarks with funding in that bill. 'What that means for us here in Springfield, of course, there were projects in House Bill 19 that would impact our institutions of higher education, impact our nonprofits, and notably $1.5 billion going to our Boys and Girls Club, $2.4 million intended to go to Mission University on the north side on Kearney Street, money for Discovery Center, a lot of projects not only here locally, but across the state that had been well vetted and compromised on, and it was very frustrating for me and for a lot of people that the budget chair in House leadership decided to completely gut and kill those investments,' Fogle said. Fogle says the path is narrow, but the hope is that lawmakers can introduce House Bill 19 during the special session this week. 'I think that that path is narrow, but I can tell you myself in my position, I'll do everything I can to make sure that the promises we made, we hold true. I think if you had the opportunity to speak with Appropriations Chair Hough in the Senate, I think he would echo those sentiments. I know no one is more frustrated that House Bill 19 died other than myself,' Fogle said. Harris says she's not too confident in the entire Missouri legislature. 'If for some reason the answer is no, I will be incredibly frustrated. I will question a lot of things. I will be very sad, but then the next day I'll get up and figure out how we need to raise $1.5 million because the building is still happening. It needs to and we're just going to have to press on,' said Harris. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mo. lawmakers end session early over abortion, labor bills
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The legislative session came to an abrupt end Thursday after both chambers adjourned earlier than scheduled. The Senate took the lead, adjourning shortly after using a procedural move called the 'Previous Question' to advance two controversial ballot proposals that deal with abortion and workers' rights. 'It was just a complete disrespect to the institution,' said State Sen. Steven Roberts, D-St. Louis City. '(Democrats in the Senate) wanted to remove the ballot candy, this anti-trans language that they were putting in there that was really designed to mislead voters.' Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now In an interview Thursday, Roberts told Nexstar Missouri that the 'PQ' maneuver the Republicans used will have consequences come January. 'Oh, they're going to have a very difficult time passing anything next session,' said Roberts. 'And we are going to be making that as painful as possible for them because of the respect that we have for this institution.' Roberts continued to unload on how things ended this week and the price the GOP is going to pay for it. 'Every state legislature is structured differently and in the way ours is structured…it is designed to find compromise,' he said. 'And when you abuse a measure like (the PQ), there are consequences.' 'So they will not be getting their priorities accomplished as they did this year.' Over in the House, lawmakers passed a handful of bills Thursday that will be sent to the governor. Extreme hail, winds, more possible Thursday and Friday However, they too adjourned before the calendar end of session Friday evening. House Budget Chairman Dirk Deaton, a Republican from McDonald County, defended his actions regarding House Bill 19, a capital spending project that passed out of the Senate but was never taken up on the House floor for a vote before last Friday's budgetary deadline. 'I felt like for the good of the state and for the fiscal health of the state, protecting our triple-A credit rating and the sustainability of our state budget, we just couldn't pick up that half-billion-dollar spending bill and pass it … sight unseen the last few hours of the session,' Deaton told Nexstar in an interview outside of his Capitol office. Deaton brushed aside talk of conflict between the legislative bodies because of House Bill 19. 'I think the House and the Senate and the governor's office, we've gotten along tremendously well,' said Deaton. 'As good as I've seen in my time in the General Assembly.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Botched spending measure misses budget deadline
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Lawmakers are trying to figure out how to move forward after a botched spending measure failed to make it to the budgetary deadline last week. One of the issues was a dramatic increase in the amount allocated by the House and then the amount approved by the Senate. The original plan for House Bill 19 allocated more than $200 million for capital projects, including rural road construction. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now With only hours to spare, the Senate voted to increase that amount to more than $300 million. The version was then sent to the House, where leaders thought they didn't have enough time to get it passed. Speaker of the House Jon Patterson said HB 19 wouldn't derail the Legislature's business in the last week of its session. 'I think our relationships with the Senate and Senate leadership are still good,' Patterson said Friday. 'I think we'll continue to work with them. This is all part of the process.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Will a Texas bill shield trucking companies from crash lawsuits? It depends on who you ask
A Buda educator who was injured last year when a concrete pump truck crashed into a school bus is among more than two dozen survivors and family members who are opposing a bill that could change how and when commercial vehicle companies are liable for such collisions. 'I closed my eyes, and I held my daughter really tight,' Victoria Limon, a special education aide and mother at Tom Green Elementary, told members of the Senate Transportation Committee on Wednesday as she recalled the school bus crash in which she was injured and which also killed a 5-year-old child and a 33-year-old doctoral student. 'If the trucking company had only done its due diligence and known to do a background check and known that its driver was on drugs that day,' Limon added. Critics of Senate Bill 39, including the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the consumer watchdog group Texas Watch, argue that the legislation would allow trucking companies to avoid liability by hiding behind their drivers. But proponents, including the trucking industry and the influential group Texans for Lawsuit Reform, say the bill protects trucking companies from frivolous and costly lawsuits that have risen dramatically in recent years. The bill repeals an amendment to a 2021 law that was intended to be a compromise among trial lawyers, victims and the trucking industry on civil lawsuits. House Bill 19 allowed trucking companies to request civil lawsuits filed against them to be split into two parts. In the first, a jury rules on the negligence of the driver and the company, and decides on compensatory damages, which are meant to cover the plaintiff's medical and psychological costs. In the second part, the jury rules on punitive damages, which are meant to punish a company if it is found to have recklessly or intentionally cut corners. The compromise amendment allowed plaintiffs' lawyers to present evidence to juries about a driver's condition — like being drunk or ineligible to drive — as proof of a company's negligence. But the trucking industry has argued that if companies are paying compensatory damages based on their drivers' missteps, their own safety records should not be introduced until the second part of the trial. 'We have companies that are pulled into these lawsuits where they were not at fault, but it doesn't matter,' Texas Trucking Association President John Esparza told the American-Statesman. The bill's author, Sen. Brian Birdwell, a Granbury Republican, did not respond to a request for comment. Former state Rep. Eddie Lucio III, the sponsor of the bill amendment that SB 39 would repeal, has said he supports the new legislation. Now a paid lobbyist for Texans for Lawsuit Reform, Lucio said in his Wednesday testimony that he believes his past legislation had an adverse effect on small-business owners, largely by contributing to crippling insurance rates. Insurance rates have increased by 73% for commercial vehicles since 2017, a rate very similar to the increase for all vehicles during that same span, according to a Texas Department of Insurance 2024 report. The trial lawyers association has rejected the claim that civil suits are the cause for the state's insurance rate inflation, attributing the blame to climate change, rising vehicle costs and malpractice within the insurance industry itself. 'We are on decade three or four of tort reform in Texas,' Texas Trial Lawyers Association president Jack Walker said. 'Never ever do we see insurance rates go down.' Instead, Walker argues that the bill would let trucking companies escape financial liability for any misdeeds by removing possibly damning evidence until the second phase of the trial, thus centering the question of responsibility on drivers. 'It would let the bad trucking companies escape liability almost completely,' Walker said. After the school bus crash, Limon and other parents filed multiple civil lawsuits against the company that owned the concrete pump truck that an investigation found caused the accident, accusing it of negligence. The truck driver, 42-year-old Jerry Hernandez, is facing a negligent homicide charge. At the time of the crash, Hernandez had a suspended driver's license due to a failed drug test. He told investigators that he had smoked marijuana and done 'a small amount' of cocaine the night before the crash. All cases remain pending. Scott Hendler, the attorney representing Limon, said SB 39 would hinder a crash victim's ability to hold trucking companies fully accountable in court by allowing the omission of crucial evidence that demonstrates how the company operates. 'There are more bad actors than just the drivers,' he said. 'All the bad actors that contribute should be on the verdict form and assigned some amount of responsibility.' If the bill doesn't limit a victim from going after a negligent company, 'then that language should be in the bill,' Hendler said. Mark Macias, the attorney for Hernandez's employer, did not respond to a request for comment. Justin Fohn, the attorney for Hernandez, declined to comment. The debate over the bill also comes a month after a semi-truck crashed into merging traffic on Interstate 35 in North Austin, killing five people and sparking several lawsuits against the driver and the trucking company he worked for. A preliminary report released Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the crash occurred because the driver failed to slow down. "All aspects of the crash remain under investigation while the NTSB determines the probable cause, with the intent of issuing safety recommendations to prevent similar events,' the report said. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Senate Bill 39 could change how truck crash lawsuits work
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Yahoo
Deadly I-35 pileup comes amid push to make it harder to sue trucking companies
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The arrest of a semi-truck driver in connection to Thursday night's deadly pileup comes a day after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick laid out his priority list at the Capitol. Among them, two bills he describes as 'protecting Texas trucking' and 'curbing nuclear verdicts.' The driver, Solomun Weldekeal Araya, 37, was charged with five counts of intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle and two counts of intoxication assault with vehicle involving serious bodily injury in connection with the crash, according to the Austin Police Department. 'Look, there's no greater tragedy than this,' said Austin attorney Adam Loewy reacting to the 17-vehicle crash on I-35 that killed a child, an infant and three adults and injured 11. 'You had a baby die because of this,' said Loewy. 'You had adults die because of this.' 'It was hard to see this': Bystanders help after fatal 17-vehicle crash Loewy, who is currently representing victims hurt in a different 18-wheeler crash in this same area a month ago, worries about families seeking accountability and justice. Under Senate Bill 30 — what Patrick touted as 'curbing nuclear verdicts' — judges could have discretion to lower jury verdicts that are over $1 million in wrongful death cases and $250,000 in personal injury lawsuits. 'Texans for Lawsuit Reform, TLR, which has been a big player in Texas for about 30 years … once again filed a bill to try to make it more difficult than ever to hold 18-wheeler companies accountable,' Loewy said. 'I am hopeful that the legislature again rejects their efforts,' he added. In a statement, TLR called the crash a 'horrible tragedy' but defended its push for more protections for the trucking industry. 'Bills filed in the Texas Legislature this session that TLR supports will not prevent anyone involved in this tragic collision from pursuing a lawsuit, recovering all that is entitled to them from the driver and the company that hired the driver, and even recovering damages to punish both the driver and company if appropriate,' said TLR President Lee Parsley. 'The bills, however, will prevent plaintiff lawyers from pursuing lawsuits that lack merit,' Parsley added, 'which will help alleviate congestion in our courts so that legitimate lawsuits can move forward quickly and in a fair environment.' Deadly truck crash foreshadows fight between business, safety at Capitol In 2021, lawmakers passed House Bill 19. It splits civil lawsuits against commercial vehicles into two trials, limiting what and when juries can hear certain information about a company. Last October, KXAN spoke with the president of the Texas Trucking Association, which is part of the Lone Star Economic Alliance — a group backing efforts to expand lawsuit reform this legislative session. 'Your critics will say HB 19 and these other measures are meant to just protect and shield businesses over the expense of victims; what would you say to them?,' KXAN investigative reporter Matt Grant asked at the time. 'Sure, I'd say that the frivolous lawsuit environment is an absolute business for these attorneys that prey on business creators, job creators in this state,' said TTA President John Esparza. Asked if felt the majority of lawsuits are frivolous, Esparza responded: 'A good number of them are.' 'They might have had a chance.' Widower pushing for truck safety devices Houston Attorney Eric Allen disagrees. His firm is representing the family of Tracy Rambosek, who was killed in Bell County last year by a truck driver allegedly texting at the time. 'The moral implications of limiting damages in the name of saving insurance dollars is repulsive and disgusting,' Allen said. 'You can't put a value on a human life, yet you're going to limit that value in the name of insurance premiums? You tried it with medical malpractice and insurance rates and medical bills are only higher.' 'The real reason that you do this is political,' he added. 'Always has been, always will be.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
