In response to a controversial federal rule that would require all employers to provide free birth control to employees, a state Senate committee on insurance has approved a bill that would prevent Missouri employers from having to provide any contraceptive, abortion or sterilization services if they deem the practices morally objectionable.

The Republican-dominated committee’s vote comes even after President Barack Obama last Friday approved a compromise that would pass the cost of contraceptive cost to insurance companies if a religious employer – such as a Catholic school or hospital – does not want to pay for it.

“Despite what has been said, this is not about healthcare, this about religious freedom,” said Sen. John Lamping, R-Ladue, who is sponsoring the bill.

Under the federal Affordable Care Act, no-cost contraception is mandated as a basic tenant of preventative healthcare. But Lamping and others say that it forces religious organizations – most notably the anti-birth control Roman Catholic Church – to violate its beliefs.

A number of witnesses came forward to testify in favor of Lamping’s bill, although most spoke on behalf of Catholic and Baptists churches as well as anti-abortion groups.

“If we’ve learned anything in recent weeks, it’s that we should not trust our religious liberties to federal regulators,” said Bishop John Gydos of the Jefferson City Catholic Diocese, claiming to speak on behalf of Catholics throughout the state.

But opponents of the legislation say those upset about the new rule are not representative of the general public.

Testifying before the Senate committee, Michelle Trupiano of Missouri Planned Parenthood, cited a recent study that showed 98 percent of all sexually active Catholic women in the U.S. have used birth control at some point.

“Just because some Catholic bishops have had an outcry does not represent the general public,” Trupiano said.

She accused opponents of the new contraception rule of trying to muddy the debate with misinformation, noting that nothing in the rule forces anyone to actively dispense or take birth control. The federal rule also has no relation to abortion services, yet Trupiano said that language related to abortion was thrown into Lamping’s bill to, again, confuse the issue.

But Lamping’s was not the only bill aimed at giving religious groups a loophole around objectionable medical practices. Insurance committee chair Scott Rupp, R-Wentzville, offered up an enhanced version of a law already on the books that lets Missouri doctors opt out of performing services they deem immoral.

Rupp said his bill – filed before the contraception issue came up – was similar to Lamping’s in that it would protect the right of individuals to their beliefs. He said the contraception rule from Washington was just the latest in a “full-frontal assault on religious liberty, the likes of which we have not seen in my lifetime.”

But others don’t see it that way. Senate Democratic leader Victor Callahan, D-Independence, said the bill was too broad in giving doctors the ability to supplement their own moral judgments for a patient’s wishes. And even though the bill is modeled on language from Americans United for Life, Callahan said the bill could easily have unintended consequences for end-of-life and euthanasia issues because of its vagueness.

Trupiano also raised concerns about the lack of an emergency clause in Rupp’s bill that would force a doctor to provide a medically necessary abortion in an event where no other qualified doctors are available and the mother’s life is at risk. Rupp’s bill was not voted on Tuesday.

Although state law currently gives Missourian’s the option to register their home phones on the state’s no-call registry to avoid unwanted solicitations, cell phones have no such protection.

“I think the telemarketing industry has gotten a whole a lot more aggressive at trying to reach out to cell phones,” said Rep. Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, the bill’s sponsor. “This will allow the Attorney General to have a list he can actually enforce.”

Richardson’s bill adding cell phones to the list was heard by a state House committee on Tuesday.

Missouri’s no-call list is administered by the state attorney general’s office. Assistant Attorney General Joan Gummels told committee members that cell phones are only covered by the federal no-call list, which is much less inclusive than the state alternative.

Gummels also said the state waste $25,000 annually removing cell phone numbers that are mistakenly added to the no-call list by consumers. More than 2.2 million cell phone users in Missouri have tried to sign up for either the federal or state no-call list since 2000.

The committee is expected to vote on this bill next week.

The University of Missouri in Columbia. Photo courtesy of Adam Procter.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Members of the University of Missouri student government spent Tuesday roaming State Capitol hallways distributing more than 6,000 protest letters from students on the Columbia campus.

The letters implored Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and members of the General Assembly not to cut as much as 12.5 percent from the state higher education budget.

Student organizer Steven Dickherber said he and his peers fear that further state budget reductions will trigger a drastic decline in the quality of education at the university. The state already reduced higher ed funding by 5 percent last year.

“My biggest fear is that something like our veterinary school, or our medical school, or law school – programs that we aren’t required to have – are going to lose funding,” said Dickherber.

He said members of the Missouri Students’ Association coordinated the letter writing campaign, assembling the more than 6,000 letters in less than a week. He said similar efforts are also underway on the MU’s Rolla and Kansas City campuses.

“Our goal is to have the legislature draft a budget with a smaller cut to higher education,” said Dickherber. “We’re not naive enough to believe that the cut is going to be completely eliminated.”

Nixon faced heavy criticism last month when he first proposed cutting $106 million from higher education funding to help balance the state budget. He has since proposed reducing those cuts, using $40 million in funds recently acquired by the state as part of a national settlement with the country’s five largest mortgage providers.

Koster questions a panel of water quality experts. Deputy Attorney General Joe Danurand and Jessica Blome, and assistant attorney general in the agriculture and environement division look on.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri’s Attorney General has weighed in on the healthcare reform cases headed to the Supreme Court.

Chris Koster announced Tuesday that he has filed amicus briefs with the high court supporting a multi-state effort to have the individual mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act declared unconstitutional. But unlike many other attorneys general driving the case, Koster does not feel the entire bill should be overturned as a result.

Koster’s stance mirrors the ruling made by the 11th circuit court of appeals last year.

“This has been a challenging decision, but ultimately one that must be decided on the law alone,” Koster said. “I do not believe the Commerce Clause can be used by Congress to force consumers into a market unwillingly.”

The Affordable Care Act cases are currently pending in the Supreme Court.

Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, appears before the Missouri Senate health committee to discuss his bill aimed at tackling child care's "low-wage trap." Photo by Youyou Zhou (Missouri News Horizon).

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri’s low-income families currently face a catch-22 when it comes to child care benefits, according to one state Senator who wants to change the rules.

On Tuesday, lawmakers considered a bill that would change current child care subsidy income guidelines that cause a sudden drop-off in benefits when a family’s income rises above a certain level. Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, has proposed a gradual trade-off allowing families to retain benefits as their income slowly rises.

While presenting his bill to the Senate health committee, Schaaf argued that the current system does more harm than good to families trying to work their way out of poverty. Schaafs bill would create a transitional pilot program as a solution to what he called “the low-wage trap.”

Instead of a sudden loss of all subsidies, this program would allow the recipient to continue receiving benefits if they choose to pay a premium on the income they receive above the maximum allowable level for full child care benefits.

Schaaf claimed his bill would not only benefit families with low-income financially, but save taxpayers’ money by providing an incentive for families to make a living on their own.

“I am pretty sure that this would work. People have no reason not to participate in the program.” Schaff said.

The pilot program would be open to all families currently under child care assistance who receive benefits.

“There’s nothing more important than taking care of our veterans and our veterans’ homes,” Tilley told reporters on Monday.

But the Speaker said he would not support an increase in casino entrance fees, and idea that’s been bandied about and is the subject of a bill under consideration in the House’s Veterans Committee.

“That’s a tax…we’re not going to increase taxes to fund (veterans programs),” Tilley said.

Other ideas include a special lottery, and the capping of casino admission proceeds at current levels, with any increase in admissions going to veterans programs.

“We’d like to develop a funding source that’s consistent, and a way to build up new revenue to try and build new veterans homes to reduce some of the waiting list of the existing homes,” the speaker said.

There are about 1,700 veterans in Missouri waiting to get into the state’s seven veterans homes. There are more veterans on the waiting lists than in the homes themselves.

Funding for veterans programs comes through admission fees to the state’s casinos. Those admissions are shared with early childhood programs. In recent years, veterans’ costs have risen while gaming proceeds have not kept pace. The veterans’ commission trust fund is now insolvent. It’s estimated the commission needs an increase of $13 to $14 million in state funds to continue services at their current level.

“I wanted the governor’s input into which ideas he thought made sense and which did not,” said Tilley. “I’m hopeful that we can have a plan to come forward with, hopefully this week.”

Missouri State Capitol Building. Photo by Tim Sampson (Missouri News Horizon)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Missouri House committee looking into the collapse of a state-facilitated business deal in Moberly, Mo. is looking at legislation designed to ensure more through vetting of companies moving into the state.

The House Special Standing Committee on Government Oversight and Accountability is drafting a report on its findings in an investigation into the collapse of the Mamtek deal with the city of Moberly.

The company – passing itself off as a Chinese-based manufacturer of artificial sweetener – defaulted on bond payments for the funding of a $60 million factory, leaving Moberly on the hook to pay back the loan. The proposed factory was to have employed more than 600 local residents, but those jobs never came to fruition. To help the company locate within the city, Moberly financed about $40 million in bonds to build and equip the factory where Mamtek was to set up shop.

The company’s principal investor began having money trouble shortly after construction commenced in summer of 2010. By the fall of 2011, Bruce Cole had defaulted on promised bond payments, and filed for bankruptcy.

The committee, in a draft report made public at a hearing Monday at the State Capitol sighted lax background checks on the company by the state Department of Economic Development and by bonding companies. The reports say the entities missed “obvious red flags” in the businesses background, including financial instability.

At the hearing, committee chair, Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, said members would draft legislation to ensure that the department and bonding companies do a better job of looking into companies wanting to establish themselves in Missouri. Barnes said communities, such as Moberly, rely on the advice of these “third party” advisors to help craft deals to bring in businesses.

“Looking at a city like Moberly, with 14,000 people, how are they possibly going to do the due diligence on a project like this?” said Barnes. “They’ve got to rely on D.E.D. and they’ve got to rely on professionals that they pay to do this.”

The legislation will put more of a burden on bond companies to investigate start-up businesses like Mamtek before entering into contracts with cities. The other piece of legislation will require more and better communication between the department and cities working on business set-up projects.

Barnes admits that the committee must be careful not to cross the line between due diligence and business impediment.

“Companies ought to be willing to go through some processes to make sure that they’re legitimate,” said Barnes. “We can’t expect government or bond professionals to do the job on the cheap, because when we do that is when we find ourselves in situations where you have a legislative committee wondering what the heck happened in Moberly Missouri.”

Missouri Senate Chamber. Photo by Harrison Sweazea, Senate photographer.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A controversial package of reforms to Missouri’s workers’ compensation program is scheduled for debate on the floor of the state Senate this week.

Senate Bill 572, a priority of Republican leaders and Missouri’s business lobby, would limit the liability of co-workers in workplace injury cases and set new terms for toxic exposure cases.

Senate Majority Floor Leader Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, said his bill would help Missouri’s employment climate by giving consistency to the rules governing workplace injury cases. Under SB 572, co-workers cannot be sued for on the job injuries unless it can be proven that their actions were purposefully done to bring harm onto another worker.

“This legislation is about providing a standard of fairness,” Dempsey said. “There’s a huge liability to coworkers right now, who don’t have insurance.”

The bill would also address how workers’ compensation deals with long-term occupational diseases. Most would be covered by workers’ comp, but the bill carves out an exception for occupational diseases that stem from exposure to toxic chemicals. Such cases would be litigated in the regular court system, since such cases usually require more investigation to prove they are the result of a work environment.

Similar legislation failed in the final hours of last year’s legislative session, mostly amid concerns over another portion of the bill related to the state’s second-injury fund. The second-injury fund is what pays workers’ compensation benefits to employees with pre-existing disabilities that are exacerbated by workplace injuries. The fund was established in Missouri and many other states around the time of World War II to encourage employers to hire injured veterans.

After lawmakers placed caps on second-injury fund contributions sever years ago, the fund has slipped into a financial crisis and faces insolvency. Some propose eliminating the fund all together in lieu of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other laws promoting the hiring of people with disabilities, while others say contributions from business should be increased to help fully fund it.

But this time around Dempsey has stripped the second-injury fund provisions from the bill, meaning it will not be part of this week’s debate. It will most likely be brought up as a separate bill later in the session. Senate GOP leaders hope this will allow other worker’s compensation changes to pass more easily through the legislature this year.

2011 Congressional redistricting map. Courtesy Missouri House of Representatives.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – With Missouri’s redistricting maps still up in the air, ripples are already being felt in this year’s election cycle.

On Monday, a state Senate committee on elections heard a bill that would delay the candidate-filing period by a month this year. It’s a move that would hopefully give the courts and a Senate apportionment panel enough time to settle Missouri’s new Congressional and state legislative maps.

Under current state law, candidates intending to run in the Aug. 7 primaries must file candidate petitions between Feb. 28 and March 27. Senate Bill 773 would adjust the filing period to take place between March 27 and April 24.

Although the committee declined to vote on the bill Monday after a brief hearing, committee chair Sen. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, said they might vote on it later this week.

The bill was written in response to a series of political stalemates and legal challenges that have mired the state’s redistricting process. Allegations of gerrymandering in the state’s new Congressional and state House maps are due back in court this week, while a new apportionment panel appointed by the governor is set to meet in Jefferson City this weekend to begin redrafting a Missouri’s 34 Senate districts.

Every ten years, Missouri is required to redraw its legislative districts to reflect population shifts and changes in U.S. Census.

Photo courtesy of Rich Reno.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Thursday was “Ground Hog’s Day” a week late in the Missouri House.

“Ground Hog’s Day,” as in the movie starring Bill Murray. As in we had been here before.

The legislation was familiar, so was the rhetoric, so were the outcomes, and so will be the end games.

The bills on work place discrimination and photo voter I.D. have come before the House before…work place discrimination was argued at least in its current form last session, photo voter I.D. goes back to at least 2005.

Both issues inflamed the Democratic minority in the House, particularly members of the Legislative Black Caucus for whom these bills cut to the heart of fundamental platform issues. They say the anti-discrimination legislation undoes years of civil rights advances. They argue that photo voter identification disenfranchises minorities, the poor and the elderly…even Holocaust survivors.

Supporters of the legislation say the work place anti-discrimination bill is necessary to bring balance to the relationship between employer and employee and make Missouri a more business-friendly state. Photo voter identification is necessary to safe guard the integrity of Missouri elections.

The anti-discrimination bill passed with several Republican defections, mostly members from collar areas of large cities and those with key African American constituencies. The voter I.D. bill was a straight party line vote. A total of 101 Republicans in the chamber at the time of the vote, 101 voted yes. All 54 Democrats voted no.

The bills now move on to the State Senate. Legislation on both these issues will go on to the governor’s desk…and he will in all likelihood veto them…and they will not be overridden.

So, what was accomplished in the Missouri House during the last week?

“We’re handling familiar issues during the early weeks of the session,” said House Majority Leader Tim Jones, R-Eureka.

The anti-discrimination legislation is a nod to the state’s business community. Several of the state’s largest business organizations gathered together at a joint press conference before the start of the legislative session to announce that this was one of their key legislative priorities.

The legislature passed almost the identical bill last session, sending it to the governor early in April. Nixon was so anxious to veto the bill, he did so on April 28, with a couple weeks left during the session for supporters to organize an override effort. The votes weren’t there, and the bill died.

“I will not stand here this morning and raise my blood pressure on this bill,” said Rep. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, Thursday morning. “It makes me extremely happy today…because I know that this bill was vetoed once, and I know that this bill will be vetoed twice.”

As united as the Black Caucus is on the anti-discrimination legislation, the House Republican caucus, to a person, is on the photo voter I.D. bill. The provision has passed the legislature on numerous occasions. It became law for a short time in 2006 upon the signature of Gov. Matt Blunt. It was struck down a short time later by the Missouri Supreme Court.

This year’s debate was a showcase for the presumptive Republican nominee for Secretary of State, Rep. Shane Schoeller, R-Willard, the sponsor of the bill. Among those opposing the bill was Democratic Secretary of State candidate Rep. Jason Kander.

The two clashed early in the debate, called upon by Schoeller to explain his opposition to the legislation. Kander maintains photo identification cards will do nothing to stop voter fraud without reforms to the voter registration process.

“When voting rights are attacked, and this is what this bill does, it’s done to facilitate attacks on other rights,” said Rep. Stacey Newman, D-St. Louis. “This bill blocks the access of voters who are in the minority, the poor, the elderly, the young.”

“I can’t believe we wouldn’t pass this legislation. I would be ashamed to be down here if we don’t pass this legislation today,” said Rep. Noel Torpey, R-Independence. “In order to pick up my kids from school, I have to have a photo I.D. We should have a photo I.D. to vote.”

Republicans prevailed, and the bill moves on to the state Senate, and unless the badly outnumbered Democrats there filibuster, the bill will arrive back on the governor’s desk. When asked if he planned to veto the photo voter I.D. bill, as well as the workplace discrimination bill, Nixon made his feelings plain.

“My opinion on those measures hasn’t shifted,” said Nixon.

So, if the House is dealing with the “familiar” at the moment, what will the unfamiliar be, and what will be the outcome?

Jones says he can see the House dealing with certain economic development issues and tax credit proposals “as they come”, rather than as large legislative packages with many measures combined.

Both Jones and Speaker Steve Tilley say they would like to take on education issues, but the likelihood of issues such as a foundation formula rewrite and new teacher tenure and compensation rules will be much harder to work through.

“The educational reform issues are going to be extremely challenging for the speaker and I to move this year,” said Jones. “It’s an issue of trying to convince people of something that we learned a long time ago, that you can’t just debate how much money we give the schools each year and call it a day.”

Tilley says the legislature is going to have to come up with a solution to the crisis in funding for veterans homes and programs.

“There are a number of different ideas out there about changing the division of the money that currently exists (from entry fees to the state’s casinos),” said Tilley. “That issue is going to be new to the General Assembly.”

And new generally isn’t good for prospects of progress in the state legislature. At any rate, bills on those issues have work still to be done. It will be weeks before they are seen on the House floor.

As for next week in the House, first up on the calendar for debate…a bill to require drivers license tests to be given in English only.

Is that “I Got You Babe” I hear playing on the clock radio?

One of the thousands of homes destroyed by the May 22 tornado in Joplin. Photo courtesy of Kevin J. Hunt.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – For more than 30 years, Habitat for Humanity has been working to provide shelter for those less fortunate. But in the wake of the worst tornado in recent history, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is challenging the group to step-up its operations in Joplin.

The governor was in Kansas City on Friday to challenge Missouri’s athletic organizations and citizens to build 35 homes in Joplin this year.

“In the wake of the devastating tornado, folks from across Missouri and around the world stepped forward to help the Joplin community recover and rebuild and Missouri’s major athletic organizations were a vital part of those recovery efforts,” Nixon said.

The governor was joined by representatives from Joplin area Habitat for Humanity as he challenged the Kansas City Chiefs, the Royals, Kansas Speedway teams, the University of Missouri Athletic Department, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Rams and the Blues to work on a single mission of rebuilding homes.

These seven sponsors will each be responsible for homes in seven different neighborhoods in Joplin. Missourians can visit MO.gov to sign up to volunteer with the team of their choice in Joplin or to contribute in support of the Challenge.

House Budget Committee Chair Ryan Silvey.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — With little debate, the Missouri House has sent to the Senate legislation giving tax breaks to companies that set up data centers and server farms in Missouri.

The legislation had been a part of the failed Aerotropolis bill last year. The high tech storage and support businesses are cropping up at various locations in Missouri, with at least one data center under construction in the Columbia area, and server farm type operations looking at locations in and around Kansas City.

The bill gives sales and use tax exemptions for key infrastructure requirements like energy, water and Internet services. The bill also gives tax breaks for building materials used to construct new facilities or retrofit existing structures.

“This legislation will help bring high tech jobs to the state,” said House bill sponsor, Rep. Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City. Silvey said storage caves around the Kansas City area make natural locations for data storage centers and server farms due to their constant temperatures and large open spaces.

“If you look at where these businesses are locating, it’s pretty much every state around us, and those state all offer incentives like these,” said Silvey.

The House gave Silvey’s bill final passage by a 149-4 margin. The bill now moves on the to the state Senate.

On Thursday, the House also gave final passage to another of Silvey’s bills. The legislation provides that temporary vehicle tags would no longer be pieces of heavy paper taped to the inside of front or back windshields.

The new temporary tags will more closely resemble license plates, in that they will be attached to the back of the vehicles and will be weather resistant. Their numbers and information about the driver of the vehicle will be entered into the statewide law enforcement information system.

“This has been requested by public safety,” said Silvey during Thursday’s floor debate. “Now, when somebody gets pulled over with a temporary tag, law enforcement knows what they are coming up on to the extent that they can.”

Silvey’s bill passed the House by a 154-1 margin.

Supporters of the so-called “Fair Tax” initiative argue a radical change is necessary to the state’s tax code in order to grow Missouri’s economy. They argue the income tax – the state’s largest single revenue source – can be replaced with a 7 percent state sales tax. But opponents of the plan call it little more than magical thinking by pro-business groups.

“Missouri’s GDP growth is 48th in the nation and we think that’s just unacceptable,” said Anne Marie Moy, a spokesperson for Let Voters Decide, an activist group seeking to put the issue on the ballot.

Speaking at a debate in the state capitol this week sponsored by the Associated Press and the Missouri Press Association, Moy compared Missouri to some of its neighboring states to make the case for abolishing the income tax.

Let Voters Decided has received about $2.5 million from Missouri businessmen and conservative political activist Rex Sinquefield to help advance the issue.

Under their proposal, the income tax would be abolished and the state sales tax would be raised from 4.25 percent to a 7 percent maximum rate. The plan would also cap local sales tax rates at 3 percent.

Moy argued in favor of her organization’s plan, showing that states such as Tennessee, Washington and Texas that don’t have personal income taxes have had stronger GDP growth in the last 50 years, ranking 20th, 15th, and sixth in the nation respectively. She also pointed toward neighboring Illinois as an example of the negative effect of income tax, saying the state has experienced significant job loss since significantly raising its tax rate at the start of 2011.

“Every three minutes, Illinois loses a job since implementing this tax increase,” she said.

But opponents of the legislation accuse Moy and others of twisting the facts from other states to help support their cause. Jim Moody, a lawyer for the opposition group Missourians for Fair Taxation, argued that the plan as currently proposed in Missouri would not compensate for the loss of income from abolishing the income tax.

“Missouri government tax revenue is like a three-legged stool and they’re trying to pull one of the legs out from under it,” Moody said.

He noted that Tennessee, often cited as the golden boy example of what could happen if Missouri were to eliminate its income tax, has a number of other revenue streams that Missouri does not. Tennessee has an income tax on interest and dividends, a privilege tax, gross receipts tax, franchise tax, excise tax and business tax that all add $2.4 million annually to the state budget.

Moody also pointed out that even though Tennessee’s GDP growth may be stronger, Missourians still enjoy a higher average per capita income $36.979 compared to Tennessee’s $35,307.

He also said that many local governments in Missouri that currently have a sales tax rate above 3 percent would suffer, towns like Warrenton, Clayton and Kansas City among others.

“The basic premise of all this is that you can eliminate the individual income tax, replace it with an increased rate of less than 3 percent, slightly broadening the base and replace all existing revenue,” Moody said. “And that’s not true.”

Attorney General Chris Koster Thursday announced that Missouri’s share in a nationwide settlement against the mortgage giants at $196 million. Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Ally Financial represent about 65 percent of the mortgage holders in the state of Missouri according to Koster.

The companies came to the agreement to address allegations of foreclosure abuses, unfair mortgage servicing practices and fraud. Missouri’s share is a portion of a more than $25 billion settlement agreed to by the companies and attorneys general from across the country.

In a series of news conferences around the state, Koster outlined how the settlement will be divided up in Missouri. A large majority of the $196 million will be shared by consumers, with a little more than $40 million available for the state’s use. Koster has turned the latter amount over to the state legislature for use in the state budget process. Nixon yesterday expressed a desire to use the money to offset some of the cuts he has proposed to higher education.

The rest of the money will be divided up among three groups of consumers.

Borrowers whose homes are worth less than they owe and are behind on their payments but who could afford to make them at a reduced rate will receive and estimated $86.5 million in principal reductions and other borrower assistance programs.

Borrowers whose homes are less than they owe and who are current on their payments will be able to refinance, saving Missouri homeowners an estimated $38 million.

And borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure from Jan. 1, 2008 through Dec. 31, 2011, and suffered servicing abuse will receive roughly $31 million in direct payments. That comes to about a $2,000 cash payment to each borrower.

The windfall for the state is the largest since the settlement against tobacco companies in 1998 where the companies agreed to pay the states a total of $206 billion over 25 years.

Koster said the biggest challenge for his office will be to spread the word about the settlement, and let customers of the mortgage companies know how the settlement affects them. Teams of attorneys will be dispatched from the attorney general’s office to every one of the state’s counties to meet with mortgage holders. Koster said his office has also set up a toll free number for mortgage holders to call. The number is 855-870-7676. Information will also be posted on the attorney general’s website at ago.mo.gov

In addition to a monetary settlement, the top five lenders agree to a series of new standards that include:

• Making certain disclosures to consumers in advance of foreclosure.
• Helping consumers avoid foreclosure through outreach and communication regarding loan modification status.
• Designating a single point of contact to assist borrowers trying to refinance and avoid foreclosure.
• Ending dual track foreclosures, where consumers are foreclosed on as they were trying to modify their loan.

Koster also held out the possibility that his office may file separate criminal charges against the five lending companies and others in doing business in the state if abuse and fraud are found.

“This settlement restores transparency and accountability by imposing comprehensive news standards on mortgage loan servicing and foreclosures,” said Koster.

But the attorney general told the media in Jefferson City that this week’s settlement is not the end of his office’s investigation.

“This initial settlement clears the way for us to go after numbers six through 16,” said Koster, although he declined to speculate how much more settlement money might be on the horizon.