JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Senate truly agreed to and finally passed a House bill that would provide additional funding for utility training programs through the purchase of specialized license plates Wednesday afternoon.
Championed by Republican Rep. Greg Sharpe, HB 831 allows Missourians to purchase specialty license plates with an Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives or Missouri Association of Municipal Utilities emblem for $25 per year in addition to the state’s one-time $15 fee for personalized plates. That money would be used to create or facilitate training lineman or utility worker training programs.
Sharpe said he “appreciated the Senate passing this” and specifically thanked Sen. Justin Brown “for helping it along.” Brown has sponsored a similar bill in the Senate.
“It’s not costing the state anything, and I thought it’s a good way to help them solve a problem, and it’s not going to cost taxpayers any money,” Brown previously told The Missouri Times.
As the legislative session draws to a close, tensions between the two chambers briefly escalated. Members of the Conservative Caucus in the Senate launched filibusters two days in a row, decrying two particular House committees for blocking Senate legislation while simultaneously stalling on a bill from the lower chamber regarding a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP).
A Senate version passed out of the House Rules – Legislative Oversight Committee earlier Wednesday — a fact that was not lost on the conservative senators.
Kaitlyn Schallhorn was the editor in chief of The Missouri Times from 2020-2022. She joined the newspaper in early 2019 after working as a reporter for Fox News in New York City.
Throughout her career, Kaitlyn has covered political campaigns across the U.S., including the 2016 presidential election, and humanitarian aid efforts in Africa and the Middle East.
She is a native of Missouri who studied journalism at Winthrop University in South Carolina. She is also an alumna of the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.
Contact Kaitlyn at kaitlyn@themissouritimes.com.
