State Rep. Chuck Gatschenberger, R-13th District, of Lake Saint Louis, says that maybe things have gone a bit beyond what he had in mind when he cosponsored a couple of bills regarding Proposition B.
Do ya think?
One simply puts a bracket in front of the first word of the legal changes made by Prop B to more humanely treat dogs and another bracket after the final word.
Meaning, the entire Prop B measure would be repealed.
Maybe a bit too far?
Voters approved Prop B, dubbed the puppy mill proposition, in November. It requires dog breeders in the state to treat dogs more humanely.
Please don't call to tell me it also affects chicken production and limits what you can feed your cat. The official ballot language states, "Relating to Dog Breeders" and the measure deals with dogs, and only dogs.
The other measure Gatschenberger has cosponsored, House Bill 131, was approved Tuesday by the House Agriculture Committee. How would this measure — now considered a House and Senate compromise bill — affect Prop B?
"It pretty much guts it," says Bob Baker, executive director of the Missouri Alliance for Animal Legislation. Baker, who lives in South County, attended the committee's hearing Tuesday in Jefferson City.
The bill, as it stands after's Tuesday's action, would remove many Prop B provisions, including the ones that called for the prohibition of wire flooring for dog cages and the stacking of cages. The stacking ban is intended to keep waste from one dog dropping onto another.
Gatschenberger told me Friday he cosponsored the bills involving Prop B simply because he wanted the two sides — pro-Prop B and anti-Prop B — to discuss the matter in an intelligent, reasonable manner.
That dialogue, he says, might include: "Hey, let's talk this out. Show me where it says anything about pigs."
Gatschenberger says, "I wanted to get the experts on both sides of the issue and get them to sit down and talk. I am not in favor of changing much of anything."
Prop B passed statewide with 51.6 percent of the vote. Urban areas favored it and rural areas didn't.
If you don't really want to change it, I asked Gatschenberger, why cosponsor a bill that would either (A) repeal it or (B) gut it?
Gatschenberger hasn't read the bills. He signed on to encourage greater dialogue. And all he's gotten for his statesmanship is an earful from constituents who support Prop B, he says.
You might recall that Gatschenberger is not the only state lawmaker from St. Charles County who has cosponsored a bill to roll back Prop B.
Sally Faith, R-15th District, cosponsored the same bills. But Faith, who is running for St. Charles mayor, has withdrawn that support, regrets it and also admitted she didn't really read the bills.
"I'm not perfect, but I'm human," Faith told the Journal's Russell Korando.
Why this need for a re-do of Prop B? Were we all that confused? Were we similarly confused on the people we voted into office? Can we get a re-do of that, too?
Prop B passed in St. Charles County with 61 percent of the vote.
In Gatschenberger's district it passed with 53.3 percent. That figure does not include the sliver of his district that includes the portion of Foristell that is in Warren County.
I have to wonder: How often do lawmakers in Jefferson City cosponsor bills they don't read?
How often does a lawmaker slap a colleague on the back in the House cloak room and ask for a little help, a little cosponsorship love?
How often is the reply, "Sure George, but only if you cosponsor my bill in return?"
Only to find out later you're calling for Missouri to re-form the Confederacy?
It would be like me putting my byline on something I've neither written nor read.
Or stepping outside of Schnucks and signing a petition without reading the part about making German the official language of St. Charles County.
Obviously, now that I think about it, it must happen more than I ever imagined.
Patti York fact checking
Contrary to what you might have read in a campaign flier sent in January by St. Charles Mayor Patti York, Money magazine did not name St. Charles one of the Top Ten cities in which to live in 2009.
York told me this week that — oops! — she meant to say top 100.
For the record: In 2008, not 2009, Money magazine named St. Charles the 82nd best place to live in the nation. St. Peters was 60th and O'Fallon 68th.
Steve Pokin is a columnist for the Suburban Journals. He can be reached at spokin@yourjournal.com or by phone at 636-946-6111, ext. 239. His column is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PokinAround.
