After recently finishing his second term in the Missouri House, Rep. Jason Grill (D-Parkville) is getting used to spending more of his time back in his district after being in Jefferson City a majority of the past five months. He won’t have much time to get comfortable because he’s already taking steps towards his re-election campaign where he’ll be running against former Park Hill School Board member Ron Schieber.
The 2010 legislative session resulted in one of the more divisive sessions in recent years as it produced a relatively low number of passed bills compared to past sessions, but one thing Grill is particularly proud of is his advocacy of autism insurance legislation over the last two years which resulted in one of the session’s more notable accomplishments. House bill 1311 and Grill’s 1341 have been delivered to Governor Jay Nixon and upon being signed into law this week will require group insurance policies to provide coverage to autistic children under the age of 18 for applied behavioral analysis services with a $40,000 annual cap.
Sponsoring the bill in 2009, Grill says politics didn’t allow the bill to be heard last year, but with full support from the Governor and members of the majority party this year, the bill gained the support to move forward. Grill partnered with Rep. Dwight Scharnhorst (R-St. Louis) who sponsored HB 1311.
“The Speaker didn’t bring it to the house floor in 2009,” Grill said. “I think we had the votes to pass it, but there wasn’t a consensus between the majority party and the insurance industry at the time. This year, Governor Nixon made it one of his priorities and we worked extensively with both party’s leadership to get this done.”
As a member of the minority party, Democrats sometimes find it hard to influence the legislative process in Jefferson City, but Grill says he approaches this as a challenge requiring him to work with Republican legislators on issues where they can find common ground.
“It helps you understand the issues more because you’re not always thinking about what the Governor wants or the Speaker, but more what the district would want. It helps you get stuff done because you’re not partisan and not always a part of the bickering. I feel like I’ve been able to work with most members of the legislature,” Grill said.
With the state’s economic situation and budget being a top priority over the last year, the legislature has had to re-examine every area of funding. One area Grill has focused on is economic development. As an attorney who works with traditional economic development approaches like real estate, commercial transactions, and public/private partnerships, Grill also believes the legislature hasn’t considered all of the options available.
“We need to be more pro-active by looking at different ways to raise revenue in our state over the long-term. States around us are using different methods of utilizing tax credits and other tools. We had several good bills this year, but they didn’t go anywhere. I think there are a lot of good things we could be doing right now and it’s a shame we haven’t. We have a lot of assets in our state and we need to utilize them,” Grill said.
Grill’s 32nd District, located in southern Platte County, has an interesting political make-up. Susan Phillips, a conservative Republican, represented the district for eight years prior to Grill. Running as a moderate, he nearly defeated Phillips in 2004 before winning in 2006 with 60% of the vote. He says he’s followed through on the moderate platform he ran on in his two terms.
“Running a campaign as a moderate and actually representing your district as one are sometimes different, but I feel I’ve lived up to it. It helps greatly because it allows me to work with conservative and moderate Republicans in addition to Democrats. You can pass legislation, even in the minority, if you’re bipartisan,” Grill said.
In regards to his campaign, Grill plans on promoting his legislative record and independent approach to issues.
“I’m sure my opponent will differ with me on certain things, but I think most people in Platte County are more moderate and independent in their politics and those are people I’ll continue to look to for support,” Grill said.
