Burlison bills clear hurdles

Two of the most hotly debated business bills passed in the Missouri Capitol this legislative session have a Queen City connection: Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield.

In the waning days of the session, state senators passed the Burlison-sponsored right-to-work bill, House Bill 116, by a 21-13 vote, sending the measure to Gov. Jay Nixon on May 12. In March, the Senate approved a bill to install caps on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases, similar to Burlison’s House Bill 118 that passed a week earlier.

Senate Bill 239 called for a $400,000 cap on personal injury cases and $700,000 cap in noneconomic damages for catastrophic personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits. HB 118 would have reinstated caps established in 2005 of $350,000 on noneconomic damages, which the Missouri Supreme Court threw out in 2012.

The Senate bill, co-sponsored by Burlison, would go on to receive the governor’s signature May 7. The Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys has long opposed caps, but Burlison said the writing was on the wall.

“It was a compromise,” he said. “I think the trial attorneys saw that the numbers we had were building, and we were likely going to have a bill that we could override the governor on. Rather than be overridden, I think the governor got a bill he could sign.”

Malpractice caps
Springfield’s two largest health care systems provided statements to Springfield Business Journal supporting the caps related to pain and suffering.

“The passage of Senate Bill 239 is good for all health care providers, including Mercy,” said Mike Peters, Mercy’s vice president of government relations in Missouri, by email. “That caused significant premium hikes for medical liability insurance, making it very expensive for some medical specialties, which in turn made it more difficult to recruit those physicians to Missouri.”

CoxHealth issued a statement saying it fully supports the caps, citing a benefit in physician recruitment.

“Whether a state has adopted tort reform can be a significant factor for a physician in deciding where to practice medicine. We’ve had great luck recruiting physicians, but recognize that rural areas struggle,” Cox said in an email statement from spokeswoman Michelle Leroux.

Steve Garner, partner with Springfield law firm Strong-Garner-Bauer PC and Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys past president, said he and MATA did not support establishing the caps.

“We were told that caps were going through because Republicans have a supermajority in the (House of Representatives) and Senate, so we were allowed to have some input on it, but we opposed any caps,” Garner said. “We believe in all portions of the constitution including the 7th Amendment – the right to trial by jury in all civil actions. We’ve got juries that are good enough and smart enough to send people to prison and impose the death penalty, but for some reason, when it comes to money to be paid by medical businesses, the legislature feels them incompetent to do so, I guess.”

Burlison said the bill gained momentum and bipartisan support with the introduction of the $700,000 cap for catastrophic injuries, covering the loss of multiple limbs or blindness due to faulty care. He recognized it’s possible the state courts would throw out caps again.

“The courts go back and forth, and it all has to do with the makeup of the Supreme Court,” he said.

Right-to-work
While Burlison’s right-to-work bill took four years to gain legislators’ approval, the Springfield representative said his work’s not done.

“It took many years of convincing and educating people,” Burlison said. “To say it is historic is cliche, but it hasn’t been done before.”

The bill is sitting on the governor’s desk, and Nixon has said he’ll stamp his veto on it. With the House approving the bill with a 92-66 vote, it’s short of the two-thirds majority needed for legislators to override a veto.

Burlison’s bill is designed to prohibit unions from requiring workers to join or pay membership dues. Of the 25 states with right-to-work laws, six of them border Missouri, according to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation Inc. Illinois and Kentucky have not passed such laws.

Jack Stack, CEO of Springfield-based SRC Holdings Corp. and its 35 subsidiary companies, supports right-to-work legislation for its potential to encourage outside investment and help create jobs in Missouri.

“It would eliminate a reason for someone not looking at us on a spreadsheet in terms of positives and negatives when they make site selections,” said Stack, whose companies have been built on the premise of creating quality jobs.

“If business doesn’t come into the state, it affects job security.”

Stack wishes more state and federal lawmakers would make decisions based on the impact to job creation.

“Most of our social ills could be resolved by people working,” he said.

Some of the most vocal right-to-work opponents are union groups that say the laws lead to reduced wages and undermine the middle class.

Opponents organized as The Committee to Protect MO Families say on its website the average worker in states with right-to-work laws makes 3.2 percent less per year, according to Economic Policy Institute data.

Burlison said a fairer measure is regional wage growth.

According to Governing.com, an analysis of mean weekly wages for all industries recorded in the Labor Department’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages for 2007-12, Missouri’s wages were roughly flat, declining 0.1 percent during that time. Adjusted for inflation, neighboring right-to-work states realized gains, ranging from 0.3 percent in Kansas to 5.6 percent in Oklahoma.

John Gentry, president of Springfield-based electrical-connector manufacturer Positronic Industries Inc., said right-to-work could help create a more business-friendly environment in the state.

“It could help through suppliers I use that might come to the state,” he said, noting Positronic’s client list includes Chicago-based aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co. and companies that produce components for Boeing.

“Over the years, there has been aircraft manufacturing in the state. I would like to think that industry could thrive here.”