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Best of the Legislature 2018: Sen. Ed Emery

Whether it is through tort reform, regulatory reform, or education improvements, Sen. Ed Emery is focused on making a positive impact on the state of Missouri. The southwest Missouri native is determined to use his Christian faith as a guide to do what is right. 

The General Assembly passed several significant measures in the 2018 session including tax cuts, virtual education expansion, and an overhaul to the utility regulatory system. 

The process for getting the utility bill across the finish line was not an easy one. Lawmakers have been looking to modernize Missouri’s grid and regulatory field for roughly a decade. And the 2018 General Session was the year the bill finally got through.

“I think it was a good demonstration of how the legislative process is supposed to work,” said Emery. “There was some serious opposition and in working with that opposition I think we ended up with a bill I think is going to last and have a real serious impact on the customers of our privately owned utilities.”

A lot of work, negotiations, and compromise went into the bill that finally passed. Each year lawmakers approached the utility modernization differently and the 2018 version was one of the more simplified version. 

The performance-based rate-making version that was previously introduced by then-Sen. Ryan Silver may have been the best approach, according to Emery. But when that bill did not get the legislature’s stamp of approval, they went back to the drawing board and came up with a much more simplified legislative approach. 

Following an extended filibuster in the Senate, the bill was further amended and tweaked to address the concerns of fellow lawmakers. But the 99th General Assembly finally did accomplish what others failed to do, pass a comprehensive utility overhaul measure. 

“We tried for years to try to modernize our regulatory there and allow a little bit more of a modernization of the grid. We were able to accomplish that, which I felt was significant,” said Emery. “Now, we will be seeing a more reliable grid, we will be seeing information to customers that is far more timely and accurate than the information they are getting now, there will be less wasted time in the operating expense. There is a lot of things that modernizing that grid is going to do.”

But out of everything, Emery is most proud of the General Assembly’s ability to pass quality legislation despite all of the distractions, and potential distractions, going on. 

“We did some good tax reform, we made some significant changes to virtual education, we were able to get a little tort reform done,” said Emery. “There were a number of things in there that I think will have a positive impact on the state. And it was a year when potentially the legislature could have been pretty inactive because of all the distractions.”

A businessman by trade, Emery has focused on educating Missouri’s youth and creating a favorable environment for businesses. 

He sees tax credits as a form of bribe. Emery’s goal is that other states have to offer “bribes” to get businesses to leave Missouri and not the other way around. Part of that is tort reform, regulatory reform, and ensuring that companies have an educated workforce. 

“One of my very top priorities is how effectively we are educating our young, whether parents have choices in how their children are educated,” said Emery. “If you can train a child to be an adult then they are ready for the workforce.”

Throughout every issue he focuses on, every topic he takes up, and everything he does, Emery said he uses his faith in God to guide him and scripture to point him in the right direction.

This piece is featured as part of the Missouri Times’ Best of the Legislature 2018 appearing in the January 2019 Missouri Times Magazine.