Mid-Missouri lawmakers pre-filed three of the 284 bills and 15 proposed constitutional amendments submitted during the first two days of December.
During December pre-filing, bills are given a number to be used throughout the coming session, but they are not officially filed until the first day of the legislative session, when they are formally read into the official record.
Historically, pre-filing a bill doesn't give it any greater chance for success, since it still must be assigned to a committee by the House speaker or Senate president pro tem and still win support from the committees and from other lawmakers.
Rep. David Wood, R-Versailles, pre-filed a proposal to change the law regarding elementary and secondary education.
Rep. Justin Alferman, R-Hermann, pre-filed two bills - one limiting lobbyists' expenditures and one renaming a bridge on Missouri 100 in Franklin County.
Other Mid-Missouri lawmakers - including Rep. Travis Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit, and Sen. Jeanie Riddle, R-Mokane - told the News Tribune they expect to file proposals before the General Assembly begins its work Jan. 4.
As Senate floor leader, Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, typically hasn't filed many bills either before or during the session - and hasn't announced any plans for this year.
"As the Majority Floor leader, I am interested in facilitating the debate and passage of legislation that helps businesses expand, create jobs and improve Missouri's economy - regardless of whether those bills are pre-filed, or filed after session begins," he said Friday. "Jobs and economic development are the main priorities for the upcoming legislative session.
"We need businesses currently in Missouri to expand and grow, and we need to make Missouri an attractive location for new businesses."
Kehoe acknowledged lawmakers can't create the jobs but have great influence through regulatory, tax and work-force policies.
And, he said, his conversations with Gov.-elect Eric Greitens indicate the new administration will have the same priorities.
Fitzwater said the "biggest issue facing the General Assembly, first and foremost, will be passing right to work," which would prohibit any requirement an employee pay dues or fees to a union as a part of getting or keeping a job.
"Making Missouri an attractive place to start a business, relocate a business, expand, work, raise a family, etc. is very important," Fitzwater said, "and passing a right-to-work law is going to be a great step in the right direction toward achieving those goals."
Unions and others argue the proposal hurts employees more than it helps and often results in lower wages overall.
Voters in 1978 rejected a similar proposal, but supporters say times have changed in the last 38 years.
Fitzwater said the idea "is not going to be a fix-all, but a good step in the direction we need to go as a state."
After right to work, Fitzwater said, the state's second issue will be a looming budget shortfall. State revenues are not growing as strongly as lawmakers and Gov. Jay Nixon predicted a year ago, when writing the state's budget.
"Figuring out the best course of action and where/how to come up with that money is going to be a priority," he said. "We are going to have to take a real critical look at where we are spending money and where we will need to look to make up for the shortfall."
Fitzwater expects workforce development, tort reform, education reform and transportation to be other legislative priorities.