The seven bills Parson signed into law on Thursday include measures eliminating racial covenants on acts and changing rules and regulations for health care policy.

Future deeds registered in Missouri will no longer be able to refer to restrictions related to a person’s race, color, religion or national origin.

The person the filing of the deed will be responsible for compliance with the law. Deed registrars may refuse to accept deeds that violate the law. But the acts in violation would still constitute a valid transfer of ownership.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Craig Fishel, said it is not about deleting history, but rather about cleaning up.

“When the next owner comes to buy a property, they read the bill of sale and there are no negative thoughts or anything. It just brings us to the current standards and conditions we live in today” , said Fishel, R-Springfield.

A survey conducted by St. Louis Public Radio last year in Race Pacts in St. Louis revealed about 30,000 properties that still have clauses restricting home ownership on the basis of race, ethnicity and religion. The practice was used to separate neighborhoods.

Although the Fair Housing Act of 1968 made these clauses illegal, tens of thousands of them are still linked to existing deeds.

Owners will be be able to remove a prohibited commitment by requesting a release certificate.

Record budget

Along with signing policy bills, Parson signed a state operating budget totaling about $47.5 billion, the last day he could do so as the upcoming fiscal year begins Friday.

Parson issued 32 vetoes on points, totaling nearly $644 million.

Most important is the $500 million veto for a one-time, non-refundable tax credit. Parson had previously expressed skepticism about the credit, saying he thought the bill was crafted too quickly.

While Parson has vetoed the appropriation of the tax credit, there has yet to be action on a separate bill authorizing the tax credit itself.

The U.S. bailout bill also vetoed $83 million for the construction and maintenance of a highway patrol law enforcement academy, with Parson citing a higher-than-expected cost.

Many of the vetoes in this bill, such as $10 million for a charter school maintenance grant program, were because they were not included in Parson’s original budget recommendations.

US bailout budget bill contains more than $460 million for capital improvement projects at Missouri higher education institutions, more than $411 million for drinking water infrastructure investments , stormwater and wastewater and $250 million to expand broadband availability.

In the regular budget, approximately $214 million remained to fully fund the state’s contribution to school transportation, as well as an additional $17.5 million from the Fiscal Stabilization Fund.

Funding for teacher raises, which Parson declared necessary during his state of the state address, also remained.

The governor also did not veto the bill funding the Department of Human Services, meaning the state has fully funded its Medicaid program, including its population expansion, for the next fiscal year.

Changes to visits to health facilities

A trio of health care-related bills also became law after Parson signed them into law on Thursday. One of them changes the visiting policy for people in hospitals, hospices and long-term care facilities.

The new law establishes the No Patient Left Alone Act, prohibiting healthcare facilities from preventing patients from receiving visitors.

Now they must allow in-person contact with at least two “compassionate care visitors” at the same time during visiting hours. The law also requires a visiting hours period of at least six hours, including evenings, weekends and holidays.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, facilities have limited or even banned visitors in an effort to prevent further spread of the disease.

Sen. Bill White, R-Joplin, said the pandemic has revealed new areas where new rules have become necessary, such as visiting policies.

“There is no acceptable reason for patients to die without their spouses, without their children, isolated for periods of time,” White said.

The bill has been criticized for denying health facilities the ability to create their own policies when faced with unforeseen situations.

However, by law, institutions may impose certain limitations. Examples include limiting the number of visitors at any given time based on the size of the building, where visitors can enter the building or even gain access to a patient.

The same law establishes an essential caregiver program, in which a patient in an emergency can designate someone for in-person contact.

“I think when we look back on it, we know how important love is to each other and how important it is in those times that there’s something to be said for seeing loved one and to make sure you’re by their side,” Parson said. .

Another bill signed by Parson contains health care provisions as they relate to schools.

Part of the bill allows officers under contract with the school trained by a nurse to administer a self-syringe of epinephrine to a student with a life-threatening reaction.

Another requires public and charter school school nurses to develop individualized health care plans for students with epilepsy and seizure disorders. All school staff would be required to undergo training every two years on caring for students with epilepsy and seizure disorders.

“One in 10 people in this country will have a seizure at some point in their life. We don’t know when they will happen. So it’s great that we have that professional development there where people can deal with someone who’s having a crisis,” said Sen. Doug Beck, D-Affton.

Another law includes amendments to state law Medical Student Loan Program. It adds students of psychiatry, dental surgery, dentistry and dental hygiene to the list of those eligible for the program. It also increases the loan amount students could receive each school year from $7,500 to $25,000.

The legislation also reduced the number of times the Department of Health and Senior Services must inspect licensed adult daycares. Currently, two inspections per year are required. The new law would require at least one surprise inspection during the same period.

Changes to state organ donation laws are also included in the law, prohibiting hospitals, physicians or others from considering a potential donor’s COVID-19 vaccination status or organ recipient at any time during the transplantation process.

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