During the HBA Political and Legislative Advocacy committee meeting on December 17, we were joined by State Senator Jay Wasson and State Representative Lincoln Hough to discuss the upcoming Legislative Session beginning January 6, 2016.
Priorities that each legislative body will be working on include: transportation infrastructure fixes, ethics reform, the state budget, and a host of other issues. They were not too optimistic about a lot being done since 2016 is an election year.
One issue that is extremely important to the residential homebuilding industry in Missouri is the repeal of mandatory fire sprinklers. The mandatory option (where builders have to ask their clients if they want a fire sprinkler system in their home) sunsets in a few years, which would then make it mandatory for all homes to have them installed. Wasson and Hough are encouraged that the sunset can be removed this session.
