Lawmakers Talk Session Plans

Two days after Election Day, state lawmakers met at the capitol Thursday to organize for the upcoming session in January.Senate Republicans have a 24-to-10 advantage over Democrats, ensuring they have a veto-proof majority.Senators told ABC 17 News that they will have to work with the House and get more help from the governor this session in order to pass laws. They say it has been hard for them and Gov. Jay Nixon to meet before a bill gets to his desk.New Senate pro tempore Tom Dempsey says the senators know what areas they want to focus on, but they are not exactly sure how they want to get there. Senators say Republicans will meet again next week to get everyone on the same page.”We should aspire to be a leader in employment, growth of personal income, and in gross domestic product,” said Sen. Tom Dempsey of St. Charles. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”In order to get there, they need the ability to pass bills and to do that, they will need to have more communication with the governor. Senators believe that has been a struggle the past four years.Gov. Nixon, however, says he does talk with them, but that he has a lot of other things he has to focus on.”Being a chief executive of this state has many things that are responsibilities of that are broader or different than that,” said Nixon.Republican Senators say it might be tough, but they believe they can get some support from the governor to pass their ideas. They state their goal for the session is to get people back to work and they hope to have those plans after next week’s meeting.