JEFFERSON CITY • By vetoing six bills today, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has matched his record in 2009 of rejecting 23 bills from one legislative session.
However, his tally this year could still go higher.
Bills awaiting action include some he has questioned, such as measures declaring federal gun laws unenforceable and limiting punitive damages against the Doe Run Co. for lead contamination.
Even so, he has a way to go to eclipse the state’s record for the most vetoes from one legislative session. In 1961, Gov. John Dalton set the high water mark by rejecting 35 bills, according to Marc Powers, a staffer for House Democrats.
Nixon, a Democrat, has until July 14 to finish acting on bills passed this year by the Republican-controlled Legislature.
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Among the bills he nixed today was a measure that would have prevented people who committed sex offenses as juveniles from being placed on the state’s online sexual offender registry.
Nixon said it would have removed 560 names from the list. He called it "overbroad" because juveniles would have been shielded regardless of the offense, which could include forcible rape, forcible sodomy and child molestation.
The governor blamed shoddy draftsmanship for other vetoes.
For example, he scrapped a bill that attempted to restrict lawsuits filed by uninsured motorists who are involved in accidents. Nixon said the measure was “riddled with ambiguity.”
Nixon’s most high-profile veto this year dealt with the Legislature’s flagship bill: an income tax cut. It would have phased in a deduction for business income while gradually cutting the income tax rate for individuals and corporations.
The governor, who is working to sustain the veto, called the bill "an ill-conceived, fiscally irresponsible experiment" that would jeopardize funding for education and other services.
The Legislature, which has veto-proof Republican majorities in both chambers, will convene in September to consider overriding the vetoes. An override requires a two-thirds vote by both the House and the Senate.
In addition to rejecting 23 bills so far this year, Nixon vetoed $1.14 million in spending contained in parts of three budget bills.
By contrast, Nixon vetoed five bills in 2010, 14 in 2011 and 14 in 2012.
Virginia Young is the Jefferson City bureau chief of the Post-Dispatch. Follow her on twitter at @virginiayoung.
