By Marshall Griffin, St. Louis Public Radio
Jefferson City, Mo. – The Missouri House this week passed legislation that would remove expired and obsolete laws from the state's books.
Examples include outdated methods for collecting census data to laws licensing pool tables and allowing pharmacists to prescribe liquor to patients. The bill was sponsored by State Representative Cole McNary (R, Chesterfield).
"The number of volumes (of statutes) has grown from three to five to eight as the budget has grown," McNary said.
McNary estimates that removing expired and outdated laws could save the state about a hundred thousand dollars in printing costs.
"It's a little bit like cleaning out your refrigerator and you find something that has an expiration date, you just throw it out...a lot of these laws have been vetted with the various departments, and they've done really an excellent job of finding out what laws need to be kept and which can go," McNary said.
The bill now goes to the Missouri Senate. McNary is also sponsoring a similar bill that would combine provisions of laws enacted in more than one bill, so that there is only one version of a statute on the books.