BUSINESS CONCERNS EXPRESSED

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Cape Girardeau businessmen Tuesday were urged to aggressively combat legislation that would hurt Missouri's business climate.

Harold E. Turner, chairman of the board of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, and Jo Frappier, the organization's president, addressed more than 80 business leaders at a breakfast meeting at Cape Girardeau's Drury Lodge.

Turner and Frappier discussed the Missouri chamber and its efforts to strengthen the partnership between business and local chambers of commerce.

Tuesday's meeting is part of a series of meetings the state chamber has planned across the state to bolster ties between the organization and the state's business representatives.

Local chambers from Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Perryville and Sikeston attended the meeting, in addition to education and business representatives.

Frappier told the group that the state chamber has worked very hard to combat a rising tide of legislation that likely would hurt the state's business and economic-development climate.

"This is a very serious business and the effort that we make is very important to you," he said. "Our primary objective is to work with the legislative and executive branches to assure a positive business climate for economic development in the state."

Frappier said the chamber regularly "grades" legislators for their voting records on legislation that affects business. He said the number of state senators and representatives who consistently vote "pro business" has declined during the past 15 years.

Turner stressed the need for business leaders across the state to actively oppose legislation that would negatively impact business.

He said a "radical" bill recently was defeated by a relatively narrow margin that would have made Missouri the only state in the nation to have state-run, socialized medical care. House Bill 28, sponsored by Rep. Gail Chatfield (D-St. Louis), would have imposed a 7.5 percent payroll tax to fund "socialized" medicine in Missouri. The measure was defeated by a vote of 84-61.

Frappier said that most business leaders doubted the payroll tax would be sufficient to fund the program.

"You can't do it with 7 percent," he said. "It would need more like 15 percent.

"With this bill, you can't buy health insurance. You cannot self-insure. There would be one health-care provider, and that's the state.

"What it would mean is the absolute destruction of health care quality."

Frappier said a Missouri Health Care Forum, in which the chamber is involved, has been formed and will meet throughout the summer to reach a consensus on possible legislation designed to curb soaring health-care costs.

The state chamber president also discussed the current political climate in Missouri and the issues that business leaders have identified as the most crucial.

"This last election showed that the voter attitudes were downright surly anti-incumbent, anti-tax," Frappier said.

He said surveys of business leaders at the various meetings the chamber is conducting across the state reveal common business concerns.

The top business concern identified by 81 percent of those who completed survey forms at Tuesday's meeting was rising health-care costs. The percentage was identical to the statewide response to the same issue, Frappier said.

Other crucial concerns identified by local businessmen included business and corporate taxes (53 percent) and hiring educated and productive workers (51 percent). Again, the local responses mirrored statewide survey results.

Frappier said multiple tax-increase proposals to fund education needs now are under consideration in the Missouri General Assembly. Senate President Pro Tem James Mathewson, D-Sedalia, has proposed a $456 million tax increase and House Speaker Bob Griffin, D-Cameron, has proposed a nearly $700 million tax increase.

He said a final package is expected to be about $500 million, which is nearly twice the highest tax increase in Missouri history.

Frappier said the state chamber, along with several business groups, supported a tax increase of $250 million to $300 million for the state's education needs. But he said the chamber and other business groups are opposed to the proposals now being debated in the General Assembly because they put an unfair tax burden on businesses and corporations.

"We would hope they would hold it to $300 million and do something for education and education only," Frappier said. "I'm not very optimistic that's what's going to happen here."

He said the chamber had advocated a tax proposal that would focus primarily on primary and secondary school needs, while Mathewson's bill emphasizes funding for higher education.

Frappier and Turner said the results of the business surveys will allow the state chamber to focus its lobbying efforts.

Members of the state chamber include a broad cross-section of business, including nearly every major trade organization and local chamber of commerce, which makes it an effective lobbying force on business issues, Turner said.