Child care, tort reform top legislative issues

Coming out of what Jefferson City officials say was a productive legislative session last year, Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry representatives are hopeful about the prospects for several of their high-priority goals this year.

The Missouri General Assembly began this year’s legislative session on Jan. 7.

Child care, tort reform and workforce development are primary issues that chamber officials say they regularly hear about from their members.

Missouri chamber President and CEO Kara Corches said she’s hoping that a tax credit package, which would increase the capacity of child care providers and help businesses offer child care benefits to support the retention and recruitment of employees, will cross the finish line last year. She said House Bill 2409, sponsored by Rep. Brenda Shields, R-St. Joseph, seeks to address the state’s child care crisis. Despite widespread bipartisan support last year, the tax credit legislation was passed in the House but blocked in the Senate by a small group of legislators, Corches said.

Still, she said the chamber is undeterred in its support for solutions in child care – an issue she said is an economic issue that is not just for working parents.

“This affects our entire economy,” she said. “We know that child care is critical infrastructure, and what we are hearing from site selectors right now is when they are looking to evaluate communities for a potential business relocation or expansion, one of the first things they are looking at is child care. Individuals can’t come to work if there is not a safe, affordable, high-quality place for their kids to go when they are at their job.”

Tori Mercado, public affairs manager with the Springfield chamber, said the child care tax credit package “continues to be a priority for our businesses and our members.”

Given the recent history of the child care tax credit legislation, Corches said she has “tempered optimism” for its prospects this session.

“However, it’s something that we are not going to stop fighting for at the Missouri chamber,” she said.

Tort reform
Another shared priority for the state and local chambers is tort reform. They support reducing Missouri’s statute of limitations in certain civil cases and ending the current joint and several liability system by holding a defendant liable only for the percent of harm they have caused. Corches said legislation includes House Bill 2182, sponsored by Rep. Ian Mackey, D-St. Louis, which seeks to reduce statute of limitations for personal injury cases from five years to two years.

Citing data from the American Tort Reform Association, the state chamber said Missouri residents pay a “tort tax” of $1,217 each year per resident and the state loses more than 65,000 jobs annually due to excessive litigation.

“We know we need to improve our state’s legal climate because that affects our competitiveness,” Corches said. “Businesses don’t like risk and if we are a state that allows frivolous lawsuits that can kill jobs, that’s always going to be a concern of business leaders.”

Corches said House Bill 1842, sponsored by Rep. Sherri Gallick, R-Belton, and Senate Bill 901, sponsored by Sen. Brad Hudson, R-Cape Fair, seek to curb what she characterized as abusive Americans with Disabilities Act website accessibility lawsuits. According to HB 1842’s bill summary, if a lawsuit claiming the website is in violation of the ADA, the attorney general or an adversely affected state resident may file a separate civil action against the party, attorney or law firm alleging the violation has occurred. The civil action must ask the court to determine if the alleged website access violation is abusive litigation.

“We have heard from a countless number of businesses,” Corches said. “Your smallest mom-and-pop shops that are getting these lawsuits filed from lawyers not even in Missouri with website accessibility claims, and they are putting a lot of pressure on them to settle.”

More than 4,000 digital accessibility lawsuits were filed in state and federal courts in 2024, according to an annual report from website development company Accessibility.Works.

“We absolutely support ADA and what it stands for, but these are predatory lawsuits,” Corches said.

Mercado said the Springfield chamber also is supportive of legislation standing up to potentially abusive ADA website accessibility lawsuits that inundate state businesses.

“It’s really an effort for chambers across the state to make sure that small businesses especially are not falling vulnerable to these types of lawsuits that unfortunately have the ability to really affect their ability to stay open,” she said.

Watching workforce
Local chamber officials say one of the disappointments in last year’s session was legislation failing to gain enough traction to increase income eligibility for the Fast Track Workforce Incentive Grant, a financial aid program for adults aimed at addressing employment needs. Mercado said the chamber is again advocating for the issue, which Sen. Mike Henderson, R-Desloge, is sponsoring with Senate Bill 1451. The legislation seeks to increase the maximum eligible gross income to $100,000 from $80,000 for taxpayers who are married filing jointly and to $50,000 from $40,000 for all other taxpayers, adjusted annually for inflation, which would also be an addition to the program.

Corches said Fast Track, along with other initiatives such as Missouri One Start, the state Department of Economic Development’s training program for new and expanding businesses, are part of a comprehensive workforce development approach the state needs to continue as it competes nationally for business investments. Kehoe noted a $17.7 million investment for Missouri One Start in his proposed fiscal 2027 budget as one of his workforce development priorities.

The state chamber also advocates for House Bill 2214, sponsored by Rep. Louis Riggs, R-Hannibal, that would foster a competitive environment for manufacturers, Corches said. The bill seeks to modify tax incentives to boost industrial manufacturing projects and create a capital investment fund to support major equipment and facility upgrades.

“In the era of automation, we need to be incentivizing businesses, especially manufacturers, to be investing in automation,” she said, noting Missouri is in a global competition for jobs. “That’s how we’re going to stay competitive in terms of our output with our neighboring states.”

While some are trepidatious about automation, Corches said it is not going to replace humans.

“However, it will allow our manufacturers to produce more and find efficiencies,” she said.

Capitol mood
Last year’s legislative session had a turbulent final week in May, including inaction on one of last year’s budget spending bills, along with Senate Republicans’ repeal of the sick leave provision for Proposition A and placing abortion restriction back on the ballot, said Rep. Betsy Fogle, D-Springfield. However, she said the mood is generally peaceful in the early portion of this session.

“Out of the first week and a half, all things were relatively quiet in the state Capitol,” she said. “We will see how long those dynamics hold.”

Serving as the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, Fogle said Gov. Kehoe’s proposed budget, revealed during his State of the State address on Jan. 13, maintains stable funding levels for K-12 and higher education in fiscal year 2027. It includes ongoing funding of nearly $4.3 billion for the K-12 state funding formula, which provides a basic level of state aid to districts, plus $361 million for student busing, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

“I know for me, I’ll always spend my time and my platform in Jefferson City advocating for our public schools, for our institutions for higher education, and for child care access so that families can be at work if that’s what they choose to do,” she said of her legislative priorities this session.

Rep. Alex Riley, R-Springfield, who is the House majority floor leader, said tort reform and tax reform are both priority issues for him. Gov. Kehoe called on members of the legislature to pass a joint resolution this session to allow voters to decide if the state should start a phased elimination of its income tax.

“There’s going to be a lot of conversations on income tax reform, property tax reform,” Riley said, adding he supports the proposal. “There’s a lot of energy behind getting some of those things done this year.”

Fogle agrees a lot of time will be spent on the income tax issue as well as the state budget.

“I am not in support of the governor’s proposal because it shifts the burden of who’s paying for our roads, who’s paying for our bridges, who’s paying for our schools to the backs of working families across our state,” she said. “I think it’s somewhat disingenuous to say that it’s a tax reduction.”

As for the state and Springfield chambers, officials said they are taking a wait-and-see approach.

“We’re going to await additional details to determine what is the impact on Missouri businesses,” Corches said. “It looks like the legislature is still working out those details, so we are monitoring that.”