By Bill Raack, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The president of the Missouri Senate says it's unlikely that a special session will be called to deal with the impact of the state's new minimum wage law on police and firefighter overtime pay.
Local municipalities have complained that the law, which went into effect this year, has a glitch that could cost their police and fire departments millions of dollars in overtime. But lawmakers failed to address the issue this spring and Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons says the legislature will not be called back to fix the problem,
"I haven't gotten the sense that the governor, I don't know that he views it as critical, a critical issue that would require a special session. Now I would say there's no way the legislature will call itself back into special session on that issue and I don't see any evidence that the governor will either."
But Democratic representative Margaret Donnelly of St. Louis says lawmakers should do something for municipalities,
"They're worried about cost but they're also concerned that in order to meet the budgetary constraints that are now put on them by having to pay overtime they're going to have to restructure the way people are staffed and that could be a real public safety issue."
The law omitted language from previous laws that exempted fire and police agencies from having to pay overtime to employees who work more than 40 hours a week.
Several fire protection districts have already filed lawsuits against the minimum wage law.
Gibbons and Donnelly were guests on KWMU's "St. Louis on the Air" on Thursday. To hear that show, click here.