State legislators have passed a bill that potentially could limit the political influence of unions by prohibiting portions of employees’ paychecks from being donated to political candidates and campaigns without members’ written consent.
Yesterday, by a vote of 85-69, the Missouri House of Representatives gave final approval to Senate Bill 29, which requires an employee to give approval in writing to an employer or labor organization before a political contribution could be taken out of the employee’s paycheck. The legislation - which has garnered the support of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry and nicknamed by the organization as "payment protection legislation" - is sponsored by Sen. Dan Brown, R-Rolla, according to a May 13 news release.
“Using employees’ money for politicians or issues that they do not support goes against the very tenets this country was built upon,” said Dan Mehan, president and CEO of the Missouri chamber, in the release. “Employees have a right to say what is taken out of their paychecks for political campaigns; just like each year employees have the option to choose how much is withdrawn to go to organizations like United Way or how much money is taken out of their paychecks for their cafeteria or 401(k) plans.”
The bill now heads to Gov. Jay Nixon's desk for his signature to make it law.
“This really should be called the ‘free-choice bill,'” Mehan said in the release. “The legislation doesn’t keep an employee from making a contribution, but it gives that employee the choice.”
While the chamber supports the measure, a union that represents state employees is opposed to the initiative.
Communications Workers of America Local 6355 issued a news release yesterday chastising legislators who supported the bill, stating it serves as an obstacle to political expression. The bill requires public-employee labor unions to secure annual written consent of employees to use fees and dues for political purposes. If it becomes law, employees will have to authorize the amount to be used for political contributions, and labor unions must keep records of all authorizations for political contributions and submit them to the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission.
“This law is about protecting right-wing extremists and their corporate buddies, not about protecting anyone’s paycheck. That’s why we call it ‘paycheck deception,’" said Bradley Harmon, president of the CWA 6355, in the release.
The initiative joins another employer priority of the state chamber, corporate tax reform, which was given final approval by lawmakers on May 9. House Bill 253, sponsored by Rep. T.J. Berry, R-Kearney, would cut the corporate tax rate in half in Missouri and reduce individual income taxes by $384 million, to be phased in during a 10-year period. The chamber has put its support behind the bill as a way to better compete with neighboring Kansas, which last year dropped its top tax rate to 4.9 percent from 6.45 percent, according to
Springfield Business Journal archives. HB 253 also awaits the governor's signature.
