The measure runs counter to efforts in roughly half of the states, where either lawmakers or colleges have guaranteed in-state tuition or financial aid to certain immigrant students.
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The House vote was 114 to 46 for the veto override.
In a recent report for CEI, Kovacs explained how people’s incomes and the state’s economy would have benefited greatly from becoming a Right to Work state.
The Democrat said again this week that he still believes Missouri senators missed their chance to overturn his veto of the bill by not doing so during the session that ended in May, when House members voted to override him.
Kehoe championed the bill throughout the regular session and continued his defense of the legislation during the veto session, saying that the bill protected business owners from paying exorbitant expenditures. Union supporters cheered in the Capitol halls when the vote failed. He then sent the list to Nixon.
Opponents argue the measure would lower wages and lead to a more unsafe work environment for some.
Instead of respecting workers or protecting their rights, “right to work” laws depress wages and benefits, undercut unions, and concentrate power in the hands of corporations and their allies.
Under the measure, employees who are not members of the union could not be forced to pay fees for such union services.
While unions have rallied in opposition of the measure, other groups have fought for it. Back in July, the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity launched a media campaign to promote the policy ahead of the override vote.
State Rep. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, was among the advocates who said they had no choice because the scholarship’s money was tight. They said having different minimum wages would create an “economic disaster”.
However, another law may trouble Republicans and offer some bit of respite for municipalities hoping to have control over whether or not to raise the minimum wage within their city limits.
Also, an opinion issued Monday by the state attorney general’s office says that the “magic number” for overriding a veto remains at 109 for the Missouri House and 23 for the Senate, despite vacancies in both chambers.
If the veto of HB 722 is overridden, it would likely set up a court battle over recently approved minimum wage hikes in St. Louis and Kansas City. “I hope when voters realize the state took away their ability to improve their cities and the lives of the people who live in them, they will use their frustration to take on the legislators who abandoned them”.
But Missouri lawmakers Wednesday overrode Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a bill that prohibits local minimum wage ordinance.
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Democratic Rep. Genise Montecillo, of suburban St. Louis, countered: “I do not understand this anti-worker climate”.
