AMENDMENT 4 GETS NOD

JEFFERSON CITY -- A state constitutional amendment giving Missourians more influence over large tax increases was passed with broad voter approval Tuesday.

"The people have a voice in major future tax decisions. I think that's what they want and that's what we've given them," declared Gov. Mel Carnahan, Amendment 4's highest-profile backer.

With 49 percent of the vote counted, Amendment 4 had racked up 248,991 "yes" votes to 109,887 against, a margin of 69 percent to 31 percent. That represented results from 2,516 of 5,084 precincts.

Those numbers included complete returns from populous Jackson County, which includes Kansas City, where the winning margin was greater than 3-1. Amendment 4 also carried large St. Louis County by 2-1.

The only two counties where Amendment 4 failed were Shannon and Howell counties in southern Missouri, and the margins were close. The measure was rolling up healthy "yes" votes in other outstate counties.

Along with Carnahan, other major supporters of Amendment 4 were two influential conservative groups, the Missouri Farm Bureau and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce.

The measure would limit tax and fee increases to $50 million or 1 percent of total state revenues, unless the increase is submitted to a public vote.

The winning percentage was "an indication that we were tracking with the people," said Jo Frappier, president of the Chamber of Commerce.

Amendment 4 drew vehement opposition from U.S. Rep. Mel Hancock, R-Mo., whose own tax limitation proposal, Hancock II, was soundly rejected by state voters in November 1994.

Hancock said Carnahan could not be trusted on tax issues because he signed a $310 million tax increase for schools into law without seeking a popular vote. Hancock is promoting his third tax limitation amendment, which he hopes will be on this November's ballot.

Carnahan said he began pushing Amendment 4 the day after the Hancock II defeat because voters clearly wanted more say on tax increases, but not with the accompanying cuts in state services that Hancock II would have imposed.

Carnahan also accused Republicans like Hancock of trying to deny him any credit for giving voters more influence over tax increases. Carnahan is seeking a second term this year.

The state GOP sponsored a TV ad campaign criticizing the governor as "Tax Man Carnahan." Carnahan angrily denounced the campaign as an underhanded GOP bid to defeat Amendment 4, although the measure was never mentioned in the ads.

Backers of Amendment 4 launched their own heavy TV and radio ad campaign featuring Carnahan and prominently mentioning the support of Farm Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce.

"The message of Amendment 4 is the citizens care about what the tax revenues are," Frappier said. "The people have reacted to the issue and not all the advertisements."

In the first echo of the Amendment 4 election, Carnahan told the Senate Ways and Means Committee that he would veto pending tax increase legislation if it did not include a requirement for a popular vote.

The committee Tuesday night approved a bill that rewrites the state's local tax on out-of-state purchases, which was struck down last week by the Missouri Supreme Court.

The committee agreed that the bill by Sen. Wayne Goode, D-Normandy, would be reworked before being brought up for Senate debate. It inserted the popular vote requirement, which was also backed by Carnahan's likely GOP opponent, State Auditor Margaret Kelly.

Carnahan estimated that the tax would generate some $60 million a year statewide -- about $10 million above the Amendment 4 cap.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Wayne Goode, D-Normandy, said a decision will have to be made by lawmakers whether the local use tax votes should be statewide, or held by the communities that impose it locally.

Turnout was reported light to moderate in the election on Amendment 4, the only statewide issue heading a ballot otherwise thick with municipal and school elections.

Secretary of State Bekki Cook bemoaned the low turnout, which she projected at no more than 25 percent of Missouri's almost 3.2 million registered voters.

"Unfortunately, it seems that has been the way democracy works in recent years. We are trying to reverse that trend by just speaking in terms of a patriotic duty, but it doesn't seem to be selling very well," Cook said before the polls closed.