PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS (Senate - June 29, 1994)
[Page: S7958]
POM-575. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature of the State of Missouri; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
`Whereas, the states of the United States are separate sovereignties united in a federal system; and
`Whereas, unfunded mandates imposed by the federal government upon the states and their subdivisions require state and local governments to spend money, which, in effect, taxes states and localities; and
`Whereas, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the cumulative cost of new mandates imposed on state and local governments between 1983 and 1990 is between $8.9 billion and $12.7 billion; and
`Whereas, President Clinton has recognized the magnitude of this growing problem for the states through the issuance of Executive Order 12875 Enhancing the Intergovernmental Partnership, which states that `the cumulative effect of unfunded Federal mandates has increasingly strained the budgets of state, local, and tribal governments'; and
`Whereas, Executive Order 12875 calls on federal agencies to reduce federal mandates to the extent possible under federal law; and
`Whereas, Executive Order 12875 was much appreciated by state and local governments but does not address the primary cause of unfunded federal mandates contained in existing and new federal laws; and
`Whereas, unfunded federal mandates eliminate or reduce the ability of state and local governments to improve vital public safety services such as police and fire protection, jail and prison space, and efficient and swift criminal justice through properly funded courts and public defender systems; and
`Whereas, unfunded federal mandates eliminate or reduce the ability of state and local governments to improve funding and quality of education provided to our children, a primary state responsibility; and
`Whereas, in Missouri alone, unfunded federal mandates for just the medicaid program have consumed nearly $600 million in state funds since Fiscal Year 1991; and
`Whereas, unfunded federal mandates cost the state of Missouri between $75 million and $100 million in new state funds each year, an amount equal to half of the general revenue growth available to the state; and
`Whereas, unfunded mandates undercut the accountability that is fundamental in our democratic system by allowing federal decision makers to establish programs and set policies: Now, therefore, be it
`Resolved by the Missouri Senate of the Eighty-seventh General Assembly, the House of Representatives concurring therein, That the Missouri General Assembly hereby proposes to the Congress of the United States that procedures be instituted in the Congress to add a new Article to the Constitution of the United States, and further requests the Congress to prepare and submit to the several states before January 1, 1996, an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to prohibit the federal government from requiring states to pay the cost of new or increased programs or activities, which are commonly referred to as `unfunded federal mandates'; and be it further
`Resolved, That if, by January 1, 1996, the Congress has not proposed and submitted to the several states such an amendment, this body respectfully makes application to the Congress of the United States for a convention to be called under Article V of the Constitution of the United States for the specific and exclusive purpose of proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to prohibit unfunded federal mandates; and be it further
`Resolved That effective January 1, 1996, this application constitutes a continuing application in accordance with Article V of the Constitution of the United States until the legislatures of at least two-thirds of the several states have made similar applications pursuant to Article V, but if the Congress proposes an amendment to the Constitution identical in subject matter, then this application for petition for the Constitutional convention shall no longer be of any force or effect; and be it further
`Resolved, That this application shall be deemed null and void, rescinded and of no effect in the event that such convention not be limited to the specific and exclusive purpose of providing for an amendment to the Constitution to prohibit unfunded federal mandates; and be it further
`Resolved, That this body also proposes that the legislatures of each of the several states comprising the United States, which have not yet made similar applications, apply to the Congress requesting enactment of an appropriate amendment to the federal Constitution, and make application to the Congress to call a Constitutional convention for the purpose of proposing such an amendment to the federal Constitution; and be it further
`Resolved, That upon signing by the Governor of this concurrent resolution, copies of this resolution be sent by the Secretary of the Senate to each member of the Missouri Congressional delegation, to the Secretary of State and Presiding Officers of both houses of the legislatures of each of the other states in the union, the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, the Secretary of the United States Senate, and the President of the United States.'